Stuff Tales
An important message, brought to you in a nice mix of video recordings and flash animations and interactions.
Thanks to Lidia for the link!
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March 29, 2009
March 25, 2009
Just One More
I just want to congratulate Japan and Korea on such an epic championship game. It was intense, going up to 10 innings. Both teams played an excellent game.
I am really happy to see Asia dominating this sport. Both teams only lost to each other throughout the tournament. There is one reason why they constantly outperform western countries. Their players play for their team and not for themselves. I'm not saying that other players from other countries don't care about their teams. But they are still more focused on helping by hitting the awesome homer than by playing what the team really needs, even if it's small. I think there is a lot that we can learn from this attitude.
So what did you enjoy from the World Baseball Classic (if you watched it)? Also, should I start thinking about adding a Sports category to the blog posts? (Although maybe now I will be quiet on the topic for a while.)
March 20, 2009
My Verdict on Twitter
It has been almost 11 months since I started my Twitter account. I have more than 270 tweets, but I have only posted five times in 2009. So why this decrease after a fairly decent start?
I still believe Twitter is a really cool web app, but at this stage in my career, I have decided it just isn't for me. I have instead focused on Facebook status updates. I think the main factor that motivated me was the greater number of responses I get from Facebook status updates. With tweets, I felt as if they would just go unnoticed and unread. They felt like a waste of time. My Facebook updates, on the other hand, get replies very often. And with the addition of "likes", I get even more feedback from others. Replies are also way easier to follow as Facebook provides some support for threaded conversations while Twitter does not.
Facebook status updates have, of course, some obvious drawbacks. The main one is that they are limited only to my set of friends. My Twitter messages could be read by anyone in the world. So there is a lot more opportunity for networking there. Still, that is what I have this blog for. I can communicate with the rest of the world through here. For smaller, more everyday thoughts, Facebook is just perfect.
I am not giving up on Twitter just yet, but the slow posting rate will remain until a gust of motivation comes my way. I would like to hear from others who have tried one or both systems. What are your thoughts?
March 17, 2009
Moment of Silence
A moment of silence for Puerto Rico's loss and elimination from the World Baseball Classic. Once again, they fall short of advancing to the semifinal by one run.
March 15, 2009
One of Those Rare Sports Rants
I take a break from my normal blogging topics to express how excited I am with the World Baseball Classic. I especially enjoy seeing the Puerto Rican team go undefeated until now. They have allowed only 2 runs in 4 games, the last one being an 11-1 win against the US. Being a territory of the US, there is probably no other team that we enjoy winning against the most. In 2006, Puerto Rico didn't make it to the semifinals. If they win tomorrow's game against Venezuela, they are guaranteed a semifinals spot. I hope they make it!
March 12, 2009
When There is Chemistry
I am not a big fan of chemistry. I always prefer to stick with computers. But there is no escape from chemistry for me. The reason for this is that my wife did her undergraduate degree in Chemistry. That means I'm stuck with it for life. So instead of avoiding it, why not embrace it? Or at least use it to make cheesy puns for her:
(The caption reads "There is chemistry between you and me.")
March 9, 2009
Computer Music Video
Here is a cool video I saw this week by Animusic. It is a computer animated music video and is very fun to watch. Enjoy!
March 5, 2009
Playing Around with GWT
I just finished working on my second group project for the Developing the Interactive Web course I am taking. This second project had to be done using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT).
GWT is very different from the first toolkit I used (YUI). YUI was just a collection of code written in Javascript (the programming language used in most web sites to make them interactive on the client side). It can be quite a hassle to work with Javascript, especially because of the difference in how browsers handle it (older Internet Explorers being the biggest pains). That is the reason for creating tools such as YUI to aid the programmer.
Now GWT is not a collection of Javascript. It actually tries to keep the programmer from touching the Javascript. GWT is all Java (a very rich and powerful programming language) and it handles creating the annoying Javascript for you and the communication between the server and the client, which is very useful.
GWT was fun to program in, although it had many inconveniences that I will not get into right now, including complicated setup and Java code that does not translate into Javascript.
As for the project we created, I think I will try to set it up within the next few days so you guys can try it out for yourselves!
March 1, 2009
JLPT Level 4 Results
My results for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 4, arrived in the mail this past week. I am happy to say that I passed the test with 85.5% (60% was required to pass). I did excellent in the writing-vocabulary section (98%) and not so good in the listening section (76%). This is really good motivation to start getting ready for Level 3 this December. Gambarimasu! (I'll do my best)
