Sunday, May 20, 2012

Happy birthday, Cathy!

So my cousin Cathy just turned 20 years old. The nice thing is that she invited me to her party at Memorial Park in Cupertino. This was quite exciting as I hadn't been to a birthday party in ages.

Memorial Park had changed a lot since my last visit 15 years ago. It had become much bigger, and most of the pavement has been replaced with grass. One of my childhood memories was feeding the pigeons and ducks at the pond. The pigeons have largely disappeared ever since visitors were asked not to feed the birds, although the ducks were still present. On the whole, the park looks much better now.

The party itself was lots of fun. I was the second earliest to arrive, but Cathy's other friends soon started showed up. There were about 25 people in total, many of whom brought food to share. Mom was more than happy to contribute her famous homemade bread. I had a great time chatting with my cousin's friends, some of whom were rather attractive. ^_^

There was a solar eclipse later in the afternoon; the fact that it coincided with Cathy's birthday was pretty awesome. I even brought my Celestron binoculars to project the eclipse for safe viewing. Cathy and her friends definitely thought it was cool. Of course, all good things must end: I left with Mom shortly afterwards as she was feeling tired and that I had a 6 p.m. conference call.

The call turned out to be canceled, leaving lots of free time to observe the eclipse. The party and the solar eclipse made today really exciting. I was busy talking to Cathy's hot friends and didn't take too many pictures at the gathering, but you can see my eclipse shots here.

Currently watching: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Thursday, May 17, 2012

AnDevCon III report

I went to the Android Developer Conference in San Francisco yesterday afternoon. Seeing that I'm currently taking an Android programming class, Dad figured I might be interested.

The event was tailored to professionals as opposed to learners. Aside from gaining insight on services for developers, I scored lots of cool swag, including two T-shirts and some Android cookies. There was a bunch of desserts too. I also ran into my classmate Oliver from my advanced Android class at UC Santa Cruz Extension. Talk about a small world!

On the whole, this was a worthwhile experience. I've posted a few pictures from the conference here.

Currently playing: Hidden Chronicles

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

new fiber-optic Internet

As part of an upgrade to AT&T U-verse, my family switched to a fiber-optic connection this afternoon. While the new subscription is slightly more expensive, the upgraded connection is noticeably faster and more stable. The deal also included a new Wi-Fi router with a much greater range. Sweet!

In other news...

I started an advanced Android programming course at UC Santa Cruz Extension last night. This class is more challenging than the first one but certainly nothing I can't handle!