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The best way to find good food:
I use citysearch most of the time. I like the user comments, they are excellent resources of the right decision, just like the useful comments at Amazon for books and user comments at dpreview for cameras. But try to read the complete list of comments before making any decision. I did find that the rate for Japanese food is highly correlated to the price, which might not be true for lots of customers, including me.
Skype
Most popular VoIP software, good for PC to PC, support conference call between several PCs. I did experience frequent disconnection when using conference calls. PC to Phone is decent, with a little bit of background noise. You need to pay for Phone to PC, get a temporary phone number, but only on a quarterly(3 months) basis. It also support PocketPC, Palm, and even Linux.
Stanaphone
I have recommended it to soo many people. It is a New York area based VoIP company. Register free for a New York phone number (no "212" of course). Free to accept phone calls, and free PC to PC. My Dad, with little computer knowledge, installed the client software in China, so that he can make "domestic" phone calls to my Cell in U.S. The bad thing is that it becomes hard to connect in the weekends. The sound quality also degenerated.
Vonage
Large VoIP company, recommended by friends.
Mediaring
Easy to use, reliable. It is the only method I found working, hours after 9/11 when the I tried to call China. Sucks for the fact that you will have to recharge every 6 months, or they will void your balance.
Net2phone
This is a old school memory, they provide free phone calls to U.S. Don't know the current situations of this company.
Seawolf (Hey, Nature, I will collect ads fee from you :) )
Company backuped by Stony Brook Alumni.
IMs with chatting capability.
Yahoo messenger
MSN messenger
Google Talk
(Just got to know Google has their own IM with voice chatting capability.)And etc ...
Wise people are fond of the water, benevolent ones admire the mountains. --Confucius
This is a wonderful book of trekking. I was highly impressed by the perseverance of the author, as well as his knowledge on wild survival. It is also a book about a long period of discovery. The discovery of the mountains and mountaineer himself. To be honest, I appreciate more the words in the book, or the words being together with the pictures (I am sure the pictures are wonderful too, that's why I bought the book). This book actually reminds me of another book "SOUL MOUNTAIN", from Nobel Laureate 2000 Gao Xingjian. I am not comparing those two books, but do feel some connections, not just because the main characters were both climbing the mountains, but more.
I spent most of time of the weekend reading the story. I also bought a copy for my brother in law, who is from Shaanxi, as a gift.
Here is a link to the book. You need to know English to read what is happening, OR you can also use Google tanslation, if you desperately want to know the content, but know nothing about Chinese.
Just got back from Karaoke at Cash Box, Flushing. It is supposed to be one of the best Karaoke places in New York.
As Roger came later together with Lei, anxiously yelling "Where is the program? I am ready to rock." Carol told him in low voice: "We don't use paper program any more." After Roger heard the words, he started to move towards the screen, searching for control key board. Again, Clare reminded him, "We now use a device called remote control."
It is the second time I went for crabbing. Last time was some three years ago.
I borrowed a small bucket from Stanley, and other tools including a crab cage from Henglin. Well armed, we started to getting crab 5 mins after we began wading in the Fire Island Marina.
The crab cage turned out to be pretty much useless. Stink chicken legs, directly attached to a string, were very popular among the crabs. The small bucket was soon filled with crabs with different sizes. We let loose some small ones as supposed to be. Still we were having about 30 crabs, and it was only about one hour work of four people.
Amanda was pretty amazed by the fact that she can get REAL crabs from the sea instead of supermarket. And those crabs later did become our main course. In her mind, everything is grown in the backyard of the supermarket, and made available off-the-shelf.
I was the chef of the night, and cooked the crabs in the way my Mom did. This was the first time I tried the recipe, and I was extremely happy with the result. Others liked the taste too.
I was pretty pissed off by my Belkin Bluetooth adaptor F8T001 not compatible with Windows XP sp2. The bluetooth stack in sp2 simply doesn't work and ruined my machine. To be fair, I shouldn't only blame M$, but this event did push me one more step to a Linux OS on my lappy. So I decided to install SuSe in my Dell 5160. Installation is as easy as snapping your fingers. It even resize and keep the original windows partition for you, gracefully. The only issue is my wireless is not working yet. Gotta figure out.
