Dean and Ying's Blog

Dean tricked. Watches movie with Substance.

Your DisplayName here! — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:09:57 GMT

So we rent movies at Blockbuster. Yes, the actual store. While I might not be in the majority crowd when I say this, I actually like Blockbuster! I like walking around the store, looking at the DVD covers, picking one up, having it in my hand while I walk around looking for something better. We have a subscription to the dvd-in-the-mail thing like Netflix, except it's with Blockbuster and we are also allowed to take in our mail DVDs into the store and exchange it right there for a DVD. I like that, so does Ying, because that means we can have a movie right now if we want it. Comes with the plan.

So a bit of background on how we choose DVDs. I like action flicks; Ying likes chick flicks:

Anyway, this post is about how I was tricked into watching a movie with Substance. This is how I chose the movie "The Solist" as my action flick:

So later that night after Bonnie's asleep, I go and pop in the DVD and start it up. I'm doing other things like picking up toys, checking email etc, and 20 minutes into the movie and I'm thinking to myself, "When's someone gonna get killed or beat up or something?"

I start to get suspicious and think maybe they put the wrong DVD in the box, so I look on the coffee table for the DVD cover and to my surprise, that shotgun barrel... WTF? is actually the neck of a ... WTF? That's a cello. SONOFA...!

So anyway, that's how I ended up watching a movie with Substance. The acting was great, good topic, etc. But damn! I was tricked.

Bonnie walks in Ying's shoes and hits her head

Your DisplayName here! — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:29:27 GMT

Title says it all :)

熱騰騰的粉圓小姐

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:43:19 GMT

一歲半的粉圓,長高了,沒長胖,很吵,愛唱歌,聽得懂大人的話,但就是聽不太懂我講的道理,新髮型呆的很可愛.

Trashroom Treasure - Folding Chair

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:14:18 GMT

It's been nearly a year since my last Trashroom Treasure post, so it is with great pleasure that I present to you, the DELUXE folding chair! It's metal with a beautiful vinyl seat. And the paint is not that cheap shiny paint, no sir. This here chair has a TEXTURED paint job.

There it was, folded as it was made to do, leaning against the wall of the trashroom. Was it broken? Like a trick chair? Did a cat pee on it? Was the seat cushion ripped? Rusted? Old?

NONE OF THE ABOVE!

This appears to be one of a 2-chair set that retails for $59.99 (Amazon Link). I wiped it down with a damp paper towel and it's as good as new.

I'd like to ask the previous owner why they were throwing it away. Maybe they upgraded to gold-plated folding chairs, because as far as folding chairs goes, this one here is a fancypants chair.

When I moved here from Texas in 2003, I brought along an old blue metal folding chair. After all, the moving company was moving stuff, there was nothing wrong with the chair, it was easy to move, it folded, could come in handy, etc, etc...

Well now my old blue all-metal folding chair has found a mate! Old chair and deluxe chair have moved in together in our washer/dryer closet.

Laugh all you want at my trashroom scavenging. I'm sitting pretty in this here deluxe folding chair. :P

That's all... until next time!
-Dean

Binder Clips

Your DisplayName here! — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:51:57 GMT

To my dear wife...

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:41:50 GMT

Dear Ying,

Ok, so I can't sing very well. But that didn't keep me from trying :)

So this is what happened... one day while at work, I was listening to a CD I happened to have at my desk. It was a Vivian Hsu CD I bought a long time ago. Then track 8 comes up; it's "I Miss You" and for some reason, I could actually catch 90% of the lyrics! And hearing that song for the first time again, this time, understanding what the song was about, I got all emotional about it. Here I am sitting in my cubicle hoping no one happens to stroll by to talk to me. Maybe it's because I had (my self-diagnosed) teflon flu that day or something. I dunno. But that really made me think of you and miss you. So here we are, a week and half later, I have something to show you. Hope you like it, even though my singing is ... pretty lame :)

Love you!!! -Your NT1

歲月如梭

Your DisplayName here! — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:33:24 GMT

這位小姐從這樣...

變成這樣....

真是不可思議的一年.

La Mer ... Lamer?

Your DisplayName here! — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:26:38 GMT

Last Sunday, I ran into an old friend. Hadn't seen her in a few years.

She said I got old! So when I got home that day I looked in the mirror and realized I hadn't shaven all weekend. Yeah, that must have been it.... Wait, what are these lines under my eyes? Dirt? No, maybe it's the light ... Waitnoooo those are wrinkles! Sonofa...! So tonight I asked Ying to apply some of her fancy face product to my wrinkles. The geek in me reads this product's name as "Lamer" ... What the? Who? Me?

Sigh... :)

再不更新就要"生菇"了

Your DisplayName here! — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:05:40 GMT

什麼東西這麼好看????

啊?!被媽媽發現了.趕快傻笑裝沒事.

是粉圓,是她叫我看的.

Dean in 3D

Your DisplayName here! — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:22:55 GMT

I'm in THREE DEE!!!

Proud of Ying

Your DisplayName here! — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:06:48 GMT

Man I'm so proud of Ying.... she knows what a walkthrough is and has searched and used them on three occasions: My Sims, My Sims Kingdom and recently, Animal Crossing City Folk. Today, we bought Animal Crossing for real (we mostly rent games). And while in the car on the way home, she was reading the back of the cover like a kid. So awesome! She's fishing right now. (in the game). Nice.

The HP Cardboard Housing Project

Your DisplayName here! — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:23:24 GMT

Bonnie is either really lucky or really UNLucky to have a dad that just bought a new HP all-in-one printer.... Tonight we bring to you, the deanying parade of homes cardboard housing project spotlight!!!

Here we see the front entry way to Bonnie's new home:

Here, on the left side of the house, we discover Roman inspired archways for a classical, timeless, not-all-that-cheaply-made elegance only an infant can truly appreciate:

Our "Light and Bright" floorplan features whimsical skylighting and an entire wall of shuttered windows. Desireable end-unit with easy access to living room and mom.

Finishing off our parade of homes spotlight, we are treated to views of a custom designed wrap-around window inset into our sweeping 2 ft. vaulted ceilings. A secret back exit adds that extra safety element for quick escape in any emergency.

Beds: 0
Baths: 0
Sq Ft: 4
Lot Size: -
Stories: 1
View: Living room
Year Built: 2009
Association Dues: $0
County: Orange
MLS#:1234567
Days On Market: 0
Last Sale: $0
Asking Price: FREEEEEE!

一支小雨傘

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:34:45 GMT

這位爸爸,你的小傘是在遮你自己還是你女兒?!虧她還這麼認真自己拿傘,豈不是白拿了.....

父女

Your DisplayName here! — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:11:22 GMT

這是七個月的粉圓

這是七個月的老爺

然後,一起睡午覺可以睡成這樣......

粉圓逛超市

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:56:48 GMT

媽媽,這顆白菜會不會太大了一點.......

這張照片讓我想起幾年前有位女星拍寫真集,其中一張很有名的照片好像是她全身脫光抱著一隻小豹還是小狗之類的,重要的三點就這樣很巧妙地被遮了起來.那粉圓如果用這顆白菜來依樣畫葫蘆的話.......哇哈哈哈哈哈!!!!!!

test image attachment

Your DisplayName here! — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:08:51 GMT

Testing the email to blog post functionality. Seems like it's not picking up iphone image attachments! :(

P.S. - this is my new wallpaper. Inside joke.

block.jpg

Treats from Taiwan!

Your DisplayName here! — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:02:14 GMT

Ying's cousin and her husband brought these supercute and awesome tasty chocolate covered fruit snacks. Check out the wrapping. Kawaii!!

真有這麼難嗎?

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:02:01 GMT

最近本人忙著與粉圓小姐不停地奮戰中.....

小姐拼命想扶著東西站起來,奴才我拼命不想讓她扶到東西站起來,偏偏家裡家具很多,空間又很小,稍不留意,粉圓小姐就伺機而動,於是...老娘的日子就在搞這種"偷站與不給站"的心機中度過,真是有點鬼打牆啊...

po張飆車的照片讓大家開心點!

同場加映,粉圓古椎的樣子

Bonnie crawling to her toy!

Your DisplayName here! — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:09:04 GMT

Bonnie makes her way to her toy :)

Date Countdown

Your DisplayName here! — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:02:47 GMT

Haven't you ever wanted to know how many days there are until some date? A computer can do it easily, but it takes some effort to do it yourself. Well now you don't have to! I discovered that http://www.datecountdown.com was available. So I got it and put some datediff code on that .com .. You can even embed it into your own web pages! See?

Morning Drive Music

Your DisplayName here! — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:49:50 GMT

I was listening to this on the way to work this morning :)

I cooked! All by myself!

Your DisplayName here! — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:30:51 GMT

Ok, so I've been on my own for the past month or so. (Ying and Bonnie come back on July 1st. Yay!) Anyway, I've been able to eat pretty well. Quick is the key. But I didn't want to eat a frozen lean cuisine every night so I had no choice but to learn to make some edible stuff .... Here's what I made tonight:

Yay! Yam Leaves and dumplings. You can't get more Asian than that. Ok, so I need to work on the presentation part. But it sure tasted good!

I said quick was the key. Those were frozen dumplings from Ranch 99. While the dumplings were boiling, I cooked the veggies. They were ready at the same time. Total time in kitchen was under 20 minutes. Not bad eh?

And a few weeks ago I made steak:

I followed this tip on salting the steak, covering it all over with a thick layer of salt and letting it sit for 15 minutes. Then I washed off the salt and pan fried it. Turned out just right! I've had steak this way at least once a week for the past few weeks.

So yeah, I'm starting to get the hang of this cooking thing. Even so, I'm glad that Ying will be back in a week :)

How I Mount My iPhone, not on the windshield

Your DisplayName here! — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:22:29 GMT

Ying's outta town, so all you readers that like reading her posts are just outta luck! Too bad!

Next up in our dorky, nerdy, Dean posting series is a video on how I mount my iPhone in the car so I can listen to music/podcasts, use the GPS functionality, check email, sent txt msgs, and watch movies while driving down the freeway on the way to work.

Umm. Ok, so music and GPS stuff is true. Everything else is very, very, VERY, sparingly used if used at all. It's dangerous to use anything on the iPhone that takes more than a split second of focus. On the way to work, any time I see a car driving slower than the flow of traffic, drifting inside their lane, or braking for no apparent reason, I guarantee you, that person is either putting on make up or typing something on their phone. So don't do it! Just drive, dang it. </rant>

Oh, before I get to the post. I notice that women who don't pay attention while driving are the drifters and brakers, while men seem to be more prone to driving slower than the flow of traffic (in the fast lane usually). </scientific observation>

Aaaaaannd, now; The moment you've all been waiting for, the video of me being a nerd!!!!eleven!1

Trashroom Treasure - Old Lamp Part 2: It's fixed!

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:56:59 GMT

So in part 1, I brought home a sad little lamp from our trashroom.

This is the post where this sad little lamp is sad no more! Now it's a graceful fancypants lamp!

I went to IKEA and picked up the parts: $4.99 for a GRUNDTON (table lamp kit) and $8.99 for two SPARSAM flourescent bulbs. I'm only going to count this fix as costing $4.99+$4.50=$9.50 because I only use one of the bulbs. We have another IKEA lamp that takes this size bulb so the extra will just be a household spare.

Anyway, I happened to be meeting someone to sell some old laptop RAM for $10 today. So today's net dollar spend is zero!

On to the pictures!

Make sure the lamp isn't DOA before I get my grubby mitts on it...

It took almost 2 hours to get to this far... the grundton wire was thicker than the original and it was really tough getting it through the neck. Oh! And I took a break to get my 10 bucks....

Me and electricity understand each other perfectly. I remain scared of it, and I remain alive. If I really did mess up the wire while pushing and pulling through the lamp neck... I was wondering if those rubber tipped stanleys would really insulate me from 1.21 jiggawatts of instant teeth clenching....?

And now some glamour shots! Old Lamp, this is YOUR time to SHINE!!!!!1

"Why's that sticker there," you ask? Well, it's because.... Old Lamp is sitting on top of DialupPC's case! DialupPC is now our Windows Home Server (simply the awesomest backup/fileshare OS. Ever.)

That's all, folks!

-Dean :)

Trashroom Treasure - Old Lamp

Your DisplayName here! — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:37:53 GMT

I really need to stop bringing stuff home...

With Ying and Bonnie out of town, there's just no stopping me!

I found this today. It looked kind of sad in the trashroom. And I felt bad thinking that it might end up at the dump. The cord is frayed and it's all tarnished. The light part is easy... just go to ikea and get a little light set for a few bucks.

But the metal part of the lamp... is it brass? How do I polish this up?

Does anyone know?

Read Part 2 - Old Lamp is fixed!