On Wednesday Austin wanted to go to Austin. He needed to make a trip to move his stuff from his apartment to a storage facility. I’m not doing anything except bumming at home anyway. Plus, he drives a Mercedes-Benz now. He originally said leave around noon, but I couldn’t wait that long so I heated up a frozen breakfast croissant. He picked me up and we went to Fufu’s Cafe for lunch. Braised pork and stir fry lamb was so cash. We somehow got to the topic of Carl’s Jr. Austin has never been, and neither have I. I don’t think there are any in Houston. Well just our luck, there was one on the way to Austin in Bastrop. It was on US 71, too. So an hour later, I had half a Carl’s Jr. burger. Austin killed a whole burger plus a chicken sandwich. Another hour passes and we’re in Austin. I had originally planned on having tacos with Patrick in Austin, so we went to go get Izzoz Tacos down on 1st Street. I ordered only one taco because I was still full from Fufu’s. Luckily, we suspended our eating spree for a couple hours and hung out with Austin’s friends down at J26. Somehow we ended up at Plucker’s at 1 am where Austin ate a full on meal.

I was full until at least 3 am. Austin didn’t eat until the next day at 10 pm. I checked my scale and it read 175 when I got home. I usually hover around the 169-170 mark. Lots of laps at the pool to come this week…

But enough about that legit as hell eating. Here are some legit as hell tracks. I haven’t had a chance to check out B.o.B’s album since it came out in April, but thanks to Austin blasting it during the drive, I discovered this track. Such a good cruising song.

B.o.B – Don’t Let Me Fall
http://limelinx.com/files/fd665d04cef7a6d7668082a9c9713a8f

And I discovered Christina Aguilera’s Bionic album just now. Holy fk its awesome. Say what you want about mainstream electropop this album is pretty well done. One thing bothering me about this song is how the beginning you can hear a sample from Jay Chou’s “Blue Storm” (藍色風暴). Which is just a crazy tripped out song. Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Christina Aguilera – Monday Morning
http://limelinx.com/files/80b2495a519387b03c03f8ba7e8991ac

So everyone’s been talking about the hype of Windows 7 ever since the beta release dropped this past year. And then people really went crazy when Microsoft released it for real. And then university students discovered you could get Windows 7 for very cheap or even free! (Cockrell School of Engineering students, check out this link).

This is how my install went… If you just want the screenshots, scroll to the bottom :)

I decided I’d go ahead with a reformat and install Windows 7. My Sony Vaio 645P came installed with Windows XP, so I held off installing until I was totally sure I wanted Windows 7. It’s running 2 Ghz Intel processor, 2 Gb RAM, 160 Gb hard disk space. I’m really into customization of my desktop, and XP was much better for that than Vista. Upon running the install, I discovered that the installer actually saves my old “Program Files” and “Documents and Settings” folders. This is pretty nifty for saving all the music, pictures, fonts, program configurations, etc. I backed those up on an external anyway. Total install time took about 30 minutes.

First thing people will tell you about Windows 7 is that it boots up very fast. I’m used to the three minute wait on XP, but I could definitely get used to booting up in about 45 seconds. The aero theme is one of my favorites, and I always tried to emulate it with WindowBlinds on XP. The user interface is pretty much the same, just a lot prettier. But dig deeper and you’ll realize that Windows 7 has a lot of improvements in how it runs files too.

I had to pause the honeymoon for a moment because I had to install my drivers. Most people will find that Windows 7 does a very good job of discovering what drivers are needed and automatically searches the Internet for them. Sony Vaio drivers, however… You’ll need nerves, patience, tenacity, and determination. But hey, that’s the whole reason you got a Vaio, right? With my Vaio, I have a wireless switch, a Memory Stick reader, video card switch, Fn keys, and two macro buttons. Time to hit up the Vaio support site and get those drivers. Well, first things first, I had to install the latest nVidia driver for my GeForce 8400M GS. Latest one, check. Restart, Windows doesn’t detect it correctly so Aero is still disabled. Wtf? I search Google for a fix, I find out I have to install a modified nVidia driver. So, download, unzip, install, repeat. I finally find one that works. Aero graphics activated. Suite. In the process I had also downloaded and installed a utility driver update from the Vaio support page that makes all my hardware stuff work. I restart, everything is gravy. Until I check my wireless and it’s disabled. What… the fuck. No matter what I do, I can’t re-enable it. I download a ton more drivers, uninstall some random crap but I just don’t know what to do. Well, I do, there’s only one choice left. Full format of the drive. At this point I could care less about all those fonts I didn’t back up or the config files for some programs. I have all my music and pictures backed up, who gives a shit. Five o’ clock in the morning, I’m getting hella tired. Move my wires and stuff to the nightstand, put in Windows 7 disk and reformat the entire drive. Sleep.

Wake up. Okay Windows 7 is back and so is the wifi. Drivers are all gone, so let’s go again. At this point, I didn’t realize it was the utilities driver messing it all up. Vaio has a program that works with the wireless switch to enable 2 Ghz, 5 Ghz, and Bluetooth functionality. I think it got set to 5 Ghz somewhere along the way and I got owned. So I install utilities again and my wireless works fine. Oh well. Pop up. Battery is detected as not correctly inserted? Wtf. It’s in there good. One of the utilities is the battery light. Uhhh this pop up won’t go away. Choices are “Restart” or “Restart.” I try to hide it to try and find a fix but it just re-focuses itself every 15 seconds. Okay! Shut down, check battery connection, everything is fine. Boot up, battery problem again. Oh carp.

Where’s that Windows 7 disk… Full reformat, again. This time not installing utilities driver. So now my battery light doesn’t light up, bluetooth is always on and my S1 S2 buttons don’t work. Not like I used them or anything. Now, I get that video driver installed and aero enabled.

So right now I’m itching for some Team Fortress 2. Haven’t played in like… two days. I have all the files backed up on a drive, get it installed. Run. Everything boots up perfect, until I spawn and I get a ton of lag. I’ll save you the bloody details but I was just being a dumbass and not disabling Aero graphics. I get all the essentials installed: Photoshop, Winamp, Chrome, Office, Digsby, and uTorrent. At this point I’m itching for some customization. Windows 7 does has a really cool feature that allows it to change the background every now and then. For someone who changes their background way too often, this is perfect for me. I look online for some visual styles. I install a bunch.

Then I discover all those themes just look like crap and the only theme that has everything I want is the original Windows theme. It takes me a whole week of tweaking and configuring to discover that.

Now that you got past the tl;dr part, here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure!

Son Dambi

Just really useful

Aero Peek allows you to hover and thumbnail that window. It’s so simple yet so entertaining. Photoshop is minimized in the last picture, but if I hover the Photoshop button on the taskbar, it will show Photoshop’s original position and hide the other windows:

I also discovered a way to make the taskbar even smaller than when having the option “Use small icons” is checked. It looks a lot like the old taskbar from Windows XP. I was fiddling around in the appearance window, and I found that “Caption Buttons” not only controls the size of the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons on a window but the size of the taskbar also. So to make your taskbar even smaller: right click your desktop > Personalize > Window Color > Advance appearance settings… Then change the “Caption Buttons” size accordingly. 17 pixels is the smallest it will go, any smaller won’t make the taskbar smaller, just the action buttons on your windows. Only downside is that your system tray icons are really tiny.

Left: small taskbar. Right: original taskbar

While all this was happening, I found Nujabes’s new compilation album, “Mellow Beats, Friends & Lovers.” At first, I thought it sucked. And then I listened to it again. And I found this song. Reformatting and installing Windows isn’t so bad when this song is stuck in your head. Granted, there are a bunch of good songs, and there’s something for every kind of Nujabes fan. Great driving music.

No.9 – After It
http://limelinx.com/files/d87f211d54ffe62f8daf25004815d2bd

Fuck. I was going through deleting spam I got super fast and I accidentally deleted two comments on the last post. Sorry about that Jeddy and Stern. Hope you guys will still want to be my friend :(

My camera ran out of battery from just sitting there for months. The one with commentary is from Henry’s camera, the last two were from mine when I got just enough battery to shoot a couple minutes of footage. Enjoy!

I visit Houston often, more so than most of my classmates. It’s good to see people I haven’t seen in a long time. I hung out with Jessica for the first time in a really long time. Since prom, I think haha. It’s a good feeling to catch up with old friends.

For the first time in my eighteen years alive, my parents got a turkey for Thanksgiving. Last year, my aunt, her roommate, and her roommate’s daughter flew down from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving here. They helped me with my college essays, so if you’re wondering how I got into the University of Texas, it’s probably thanks to them. We took them to a Pappa’s Bar-B-Q, which is excellent, by the way. Those of you in Texas know what I’m talking about. My dad made sushi rolls, Chinese chicken nuggets, and some soup. For Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong, I love sushi. I love tap chicken. And I definitely love beef stew. But what the fuck, Dad? Thanksgiving? I’m ready to eat a lot of food and be full and sit in front of the TV. Not be mildly appeased by some rice in a seaweed roll. And some chicken pieces. I wasn’t amused. But that’s okay, I thought. My parents aren’t from America. They’ll never understand the meaning of American food and why it’s so damn good. But this year, my parents got up early today to go to HEB and buy a pre-cooked frozen turkey. They also got potato salad, cole slaw, and mashed potatoes. I’m a fiend for potato salad. My mom thought the turkey was good, my dad said it was alright. I laughed out loud. My dad can eat American food but he’ll never enjoy it. I mean, we go out to good places like Fuddrucker’s, Cheddar’s, even Trudy’s out in Austin. It’s always “so-so” with him. It’s hilarious. So the turkey was ready around 3, and we all pigged out then. It’s 7 now, I’m about to go watch the Texas and Texas A&M game with more potato salad.

I’ve been repping UT since I got back to Houston, wearing my “Texas Means Engineering” shirt and Texas hoodie. The hoodie that I got at the co-op outlet for $18 because it’s a youth XL. Yeeeeaah son. We better come out on top for Big 12 South. If we do, we’ll beat Missouri (again), and then it’s National Championship time. Of course, it’s all political and there’s plenty of debate of whether Texas, Texas Tech, or Oklahoma should be Big 12 South champion after this weekend. Only time will tell. Hook ‘em horns.
This weekend I’ll be getting a new cell phone, hopefully a MotoZine ZN5. It’s a phone with a Kodak camera built into it. I think it’s pretty nifty. I barely ever carry my camera around. I just wanna get rid of this Samsung I’ve had for two years now.

I saw Transporter 3 with Jessica yesterday. It’s definitely worth the ticket price. If you saw Transporter 2, this will be much of the same. Sexy girl in car. Jason Statham kicking ass. And riding a bike. It’s fucking awesome, that scene. And of course the W12 Audi. It’s an action-packed movie.

Philosophy paper, physics lab, Matlab final project, and studying for calculus test this Sunday. Yay. Have a happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

It’s gotten a little chilly here in Austin. It feels great, I can finally rock sweaters and scarves.

When a person is mad at someone else, and you know they’re mad, and even if you ask if they’re mad, they still say no. It definitely kills me inside. It’s stupid for me to ask, but I’m just dying on the inside even though I know what you’re gonna say. Maybe I just care too much. Maybe I’m just being a pussy again.

Not sure what else I want to talk about. Lots of comments on that last post, many thanks to those who commented.

I can’t wait for Thanksgiving break. Those of you in Houston, let’s do something! My Thanksgiving break isn’t too long, but I definitely want some hot pot. Well, I mean, most of all I want to see my family. My parents miss me dearly and I rarely stay home on the weekends I am in town. And if you’re wondering, yes, my mom reads this blog. She can’t understand much of it, so she bothers me about my blog posts every time I go back home.

I’ve got a calculus and physics test on the same week after I return from Thanksgiving break. Which is absolutely insane because I think I need an A on this test to even pass the class. This weekend was Longhorn Saturday, and I got asked to be a part of the student panel. Prospective students come from all over and visit UT, and one of the parts is a question and answer session for current students. It was really interesting to see that there were two or three people in the audience who were thinking of doing aerospace engineering. I was the only Asian on the panel, and I happened to be in engineering. Haha stereotypical, no? The audience asked a bunch of good questions, but this one person asked “About how many hours a week do you spend studying?” It’s a good question to ask, but not a good one to answer. So if you’re a prospective student, this is a no-holds-barred, not-endorsed-by-the-university answer: Little to none. We came up with the answer, “You study for the grade you want in the class,” which is a good answer because if you want an A you can work your ass off for it. Personally, I just cram my tests, so on an average week (like this one) I do little to no studying. But on weeks where I have one test (or like next next week where I have two), I’ll probably spend 20+ hours that week studying. If you were challenged in high school, and I mean really challenged, like AP and IB level type stuff, you’ll be fine in college. During the session, the words “typical UT student” was thrown around a couple times. My friend Archana later said, “No one’s college experience is the same as someone else’s, there is no typical student.” And that’s definitely how I’d describe my experience.

I stocked up on some food, I never realized how much I love Poptarts. Especially the ones where it’s 3 boxes for $5. I also got the Complete Sherlock Holmes on hardback… it’s been keeping me company lately. I love curling up in my blanket on a cold day and reading. No, I’m not sick or drunk, I just really like Sherlock Holmes!

Enjoy the song, those of you who have seen “Take The Lead” will recognize it. Till next time.