Monday, October 29, 2007

An action-packed weekend

I celebrated three birthdays over the weekend and then relaxed all day today. Here are some highlights:

Han and Elaine did an amaaaazing job throwing Em a red, white, and black cocktail party at Han's pad in the city. There were cute little appetizers, a chocolate fountain with an assortment of fruits and cakes, and cosmos of course. Em - the young-un... is FINALLY 25 which means we're officially ALL old now.


Diana, me, em, and kat
Happy bday EM!

My hair is extra curly cuz I got this new curling iron that is soo intense..and JT curled my hair for me. hehehe awww =) my own personal hair styler.

Check out the rest of the pics from em's bday on my flikr site.

Around midnight, Linda, JT, and I headed over to Suede where James was celebrating his bday too. JT and I put on our dorky animal beanies, and Linda got into full sailor costume (soooo cute!)


Happy Bday James! (more pix here)

On Sat, I woke up bright and early and headed back into the city for my first time wedding dress shopping!! It was suuuper fun -- met up with Em, Han, and Margaret, and went to 4 boutiques. I won't be posting pix here, cuz my dress will definitely have to be a surprise for everyone besides my bridesmaids and mom!

After a long day of shopping, I met up with JT and we headed over to Berkeley and met up with my buddy Eddy from the dorms. We chilled out at Bear's Lair for Eddy's first ever chill birthday.. had some beers, and hung out with some old friends.



Friday, October 26, 2007

Bomb in Fremont

UPDATE: My neighbor was definitely making bombs!!
I just read this article: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7319756

I'm really glad they were caught before anything serious happened.

~~~~

UPDATE: They arrested 45 year-old Fremont resident Steven Gilbuena and 29-year-old Yvonne Zuniga in connection with recently discovered explosives...

What I read in one article on insidebayarea.com:

Picking up shards of glass from the driveway, John Gilbuena, the suspect's older brother, told the Mercury News that his brother was no mad bomber, but a 'tinkerer" - an electrician and auto mechanic - who drove around with his latest invention in his car: a boxed, wired-up device intended to turn on household devices by making a cell phone call.


It's really hard to know what REALLY went down...and whether or not the police went overboard in all of this blowing out the windows and doors of the house business... But I do think after knowing arrests were made and devices were detonated -- I feel that it's safe to go home tonight.

However, if it was blown out of proportion and the devices were truly harmless attempts at an invention -- then my heart really goes out the suspects in question who were arrested.

My brother goes jogging in the neighborhood quite often and has seen the couple who live at that house. He said they just looked like normal people hanging out in the front with their little pet dog.

So I think it'd be terribly sad if they were just a couple trying to make something of themselves. If they were truly misunderstood for simply being innovative... I think it would be a real shame.

What kind of message does this send out? I think it tells people: Don't go around trying to invent anything on your own or you might be mistaken as a bomb-maker!

It seems as though it can be risky for every day people (mechanical engineers, mechanics, or whoever) who are working on any inventions that happen to look like intricate devices... Even if they are found innocent, I'm sure people will not look at them the same way, and I'm sure it won't be easy for them to rent ever again!

It makes me wonder: Is this some kind of media propaganda that's meant to discourage people to try out their own inventions?

My hopeful thinking is that there must have been some kind of substantial evidence that these devices were indeed explosive... or maybe an annonymous tip?

~~~~



Just thought I would share this interesting story – if you haven't heard about it in the news already.

I wasn't able to go home last night because our neighborhood was evacuated. A man was caught with an explosive device in his car in San Jose – and he turned out to be our neighbor who lives two houses down from us!

http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_298183655.html

My brother is in this video being interviewed! He was at the house eating lunch at the time the neighborhood was evacuated.



They searched the house with a robot all night and had to detonate two devices – people were finally allowed back at 4:30am.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

eBay Neighborhoods Launch!

eBay Neighborhoods has launched, and I have to give kudos to the 'hoods' team for their awesome work!!


Check it out and hang out at your fav Neighborhood…

http://neighborhoods.ebay.com

Here is the buzz from the street...
Mashable
"The best thing about Neighborhoods is the centralized manner in which you can find products related to the group type."
http://mashable.com/2007/10/09/ebay-neighborhoods/

Techcrunch
"Visually, the neighborhood pages are an improvement from the bare-bones utility I normally associate with eBay....What would really be smart would be if eBay allowed anyone to easily take any module on a neighborhood page—the reviews, the visual product search, the discussions, or the eBay blog posts—and embed them on other Web pages like Facebook, MySpace, or their blogs."

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/09/ebay-launches-shopping-social-networks/