Category: Uncategorized

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Microsoft Layoffs

Many of you’ve probably already heard that that even the almighty giant Microsoft has announced layoffs. For more details, you can see Steve Ballmer’s Entire Memo to the Microsoft Troops About Layoffs and Weak Results

In brief, 5,000 people will be laid off, with 1,400 to be laid off on the 1st wave. I was actually asleep when all this was announced and when I got into work a little past noon, that’s when I first heard of the news. I knew there was supposed to be a big announcement that day and layoffs were quite probably a topic they’d hit.

At first, everything felt a bit surreal. The thought about a giant like Microsoft laying off people just felt very foreign, strange, and unfamiliar. However, it wasn’t until I found out someone I knew was actually laid off that it really hit me, and it hit me hard. I went looking for another tester on a different team to see if he had anything he wanted to discuss during today’s meeting, but he wasn’t in his office. I dropped by his neighbor’s office and asked if he knew where person x was. He said person x has been laid off. At first I had problem grasping that fact and even questioned if he was serious. And of course he replied unfortunately he was being serious. I just stood there shocked… Thinking back, asking if he was serious was rather insensitive, since no one in the right mind would joke about something like that on such an ominous day.

Rumor was that if your manager asked you to go have a conversation with him, it was most likely in regards to this issue.

I’m not sure how long exactly were the managers told to choose people to lay off, but my lead had come talked to me a week earlier saying another team in the Federated Identity group really needed help and would be transferring me over to that team. With that in mind, I thought there was good possibility of me not being laid off, however there was still that little bug gnawing at the back of my head.

It wasn’t until our general manager emailed us and gave us the news that those who would be laid off would’ve been spoken to already, that a sigh of relief came about. Later I found out that apparently if you were going be laid off, HR would’ve scheduled a meeting with you on your calendar, but I did not know that beforehand.

Even though there’s some relief now, knowing that an additional 3,600 would be laid off over the next 18 months doesn’t really breed a nice working environment and the anxiety is still there…

The following day, we found out that someone from my team was getting laid off. That gave us a even worse feeling. Seeing anyone from my team get the pink slip really hurts, since our team is pretty tight-knit. We even go bowling and paint balling together on our own time.

Given all that, the recession is real, the economy is in the dumps, and this trend will probably continue until the market stabilizes. Lets just hope the economy recovers sooner than later…

Go Obama?

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Lipstick on Mirror (Joke)

Saw this funny joke and thought I’d share:

According to a radio report, a middle school in Oregon was faced with a unique problem. A number of girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the custodian.

She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every day. To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the custodian to clean one of the mirrors.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it into the toilet and then cleaned the mirror.

Since then there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

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No Hot Water, Brrrrrr

The first day I came back from LA, I basically had to boot up my house.

  • Change my heater settings back to normal
  • Find my Roombas since it’s pretty likely that during my 3 week break, they would’ve gotten stuck somewhere
  • Throw away food that’s expired
  • Set all my clocks again (apparently there’s been 1 or more blackouts – good thing all my computers have UPS)
  • etc.

But I forgot one crucial thing… I was tired, so I decided to take a shower and go to sleep. Turns out I had forgotten to change my water heater settings back and it was still in vacation mode. And given the fact there were still snow outside, you could imagine how bad it was to take a shower in cold/lukewarm water. Even if I went down to turn on the water heater, it would take awhile before the water would be hot enough to use. I decided to bear with it and finish my shower.

A lesson that will be remembered.

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Elevator Go Boom

Our team’s always joked about we should never be all in the same elevator or an airplane, since if there’s an unfortunate event, there goes the CardSpace test team.

However, just the other day when we were going out to lunch, the elevator started to malfunction. There were 6 out of 8 of us on it. It started falling and got stuck mid-floor. We hit the alarm button and even started to call for help, when it fell another floor. Pretty scary experience. However, we started pulling the doors apart and manage to get out on the 1st floor with about 2ft to climb.

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Lost Mail?

So I got back to Seattle last Tuesday (thanks to Derek from driving me home from the airport). I can’t believe work begins tomorrow.

As always, when I leave for Christmas, I always put a hold on my postal mail to have it deliver on the day I return (in this case, it was 12/30). I get home and got the notice my mail service will resume, but no mail… I’ve been gone for 2.5 weeks and was expecting a lot of mail, a few packages, and even several checks. First thing that popped into my head was, maybe the postman hid it, so I searched the outside of my house and didn’t find anything.

Since there’s been construction going on in our complex and that I just received a noticed on my door that the construction work on my unit was completed on 12/30, I began to feared the worse. SOMEONE HAD STOLEN MY MAIL… I left a post-it on my mailbox for my postman the next day and decided to ask the construction company if anyone saw my mail the following day. Unfortunately, the construction company said, they didn’t see anything, but I should call my post office to see what they had to say. I thought… why didn’t I think of that.

I called my post office and they told me that I actually had a tub of mail en route today (12/31) and that was when I had my first sigh of relief. They told me my route had a substitute and that could be the reason for the delay. I did get my tub of mail that afternoon and it was like Christmas all over again!

I got my Premera check for my new glasses ($180) and a rebate check.

Here’s a few of the things I received:

hair bandsspoongrilling bookcans of tomatoesmagic the gathering cards

From left to right:

  • Goody Ouchless Elastic Hair bands – a free sample. Was actually thinking of picking up some at Rite Aid. Guess I don’t need to anymore.
  • Chef Spoon – free gift from Contadina
  • Omaha Steaks: The Great American Grilling Book – Something I signed up for at FreeBizMag
  • Muir Glen 2008 Reserve Tomatoes – a free gift when you join the Connoisseurs’ Club
  • Magic: The Gathering Decks – another freebie I signed up for

Not shown here include my new Woot shirt: Willing to endure scientific research, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid DVD 1 (to complete the series), and some HDMI cables that were on sale (3 6′ for $10 shipped).

Here are a couple more things that I got for free, but had received right before I left:

Johnnie Walker glassMaker's Mark gift wrap

  • Johnnie Walker glass – a free gift for being part of their Striding Man Society
  • Maker’s Mark gift wrap – As part of their ambassador program, I’ve been receiving freebies since college. There’s even supposedly a barrel with my name on it.
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Weird Car Stuttering Noise

For those who’ve ridden in my Honda Civic, you may have noticed that when I’m driving on bumping roads, my car would make a weird stuttering noise, as if something was loose. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure it out what was going on. Some have suggested maybe my shocks were damaged. Since it didn’t really affect my driving, I never did take it in to have it looked at. And since the noise came from the rear, as the driver, I never did have much of a chance to analyze where it came from while I was driving.

A few weeks ago when Liam came up to visit, Andrew was sitting in the back and obviously annoyed by the noise. Seattle streets tend to be hilly and bumpy. So he took some tissue paper and stuffed it between my rear windshield and my rear center stop light (not exactly sure what that’s called):

rear windshield + tissue paper

And magically and instantaneously, the stuttering noise was gone. The noise has plagued my car for years and Andrew resolved it immediately. Many others have sat in my rear seats and never did figure out where the noise was coming from, only to mention they thought it was abnormal. I guess what was happening was the fact that that there was space between my rear center stop light and my rear windshield and during bumpy roads, it would smack against each other.

I’m probably going to look for something more durable and less covering than tissue paper (probably cardboard), but it’s weird not hearing that stuttering noise now that I’m accustomed to it.

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Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas! And for those non-Christmas believers, I wish you Happy Holidays. ;p

My vacation’s half over and it’s been loads of fun so far. Met up with many old friends.

I also went snowboarding on Tuesday with Chris and Dave. Dave taught me how to carve, something I’ve been having trouble with. I’m still in the learning/practicing phase, but at least this time my first instinct isn’t to fall down immediately.

I’ll be in Las Vegas with my family the next few days, so I probably won’t be online (much?). Wish me luck!

Hope you guys are enjoying your holidays too!

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How to Remove Venetian Blinds

halfway venetian blinds For those who’ve been to my house, you may have noticed that I have a window where the Venetian blinds only go half way down:

I thought maybe one of the previous owners decided that they wanted to always have some sunlight coming in, so they only ordered it to be half length. However, today while I was downstairs in my storage room, I noticed that one of Venetian blinds there was extremely long, much longer than the short window it was suppose to cover. I did some quick measurements and the width was exactly the same. Armed with a ladder, screwdriver, and a flash light, I decided I would see if swapping them around would work.

One of my biggest mistakes was not looking online to see how to properly take apart the apparatus. I saw 2 holders holding the blinds in place and screws on each side and thought, that must be how I take it apart. First one was simple, since there was ample room for me to slide the blinds and stick in a screwdriver. However, the 2nd set was more troublesome. I ended up bending it a bit and ultimately using a flat-nose plier and unscrewing it that way.

After I took it apart, I realized in order to put it back, there was no way I could use the plier to screw it back in. I studied the holder and it turns out the front of the holder can be snapped apart and rotated upwards on a hinge. I didn’t even need my screwdriver. Oh well, too late for that now. Something to remember for next time.

And of course by swapping the window blinds, both my windows are fully covered now!

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Vacation!

In a few hours, my vacation will start. Still have to wrap up some stuff at work before I leave.

Anyway, I’m going to be back in Monterey Park on Saturday (12/13) and I’m coming back to the Seattle area on 12/30. If you want to catch up, just drop me a line. It’s been ages since I’ve seen some of you.

Till then, ciao~

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Last Name Hon

2 weekends ago, Jason and his wife Emily came up to Seattle and the general area for residency interviews. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Jason (probably since high school), so it was cool to get to catch up with him.

Perry was giving them a tour of Seattle on Saturday morning and since I was going to meet up with them in Seattle to watch Quantum of Solace, I decided to join them early. Anyway, while Perry was giving his tour, Jason mentioned that both Emily’s and my last name were the same: Hon. It’s not everyday you meet another Hon, given the fact that most people I know that have similar last names uses the Han variation. I mean even my grandpa uses Han. The reason why Hon is a different variation of the last name is because Hon is the Cantonese pronunciation, while Han uses the traditional Mandarin pinyin system.

Even though both our last name was Hon, there are a few Chinese last names that fit that sound pattern, though 韓 is the most common one of the lot. We discussed this a bit further and it turns out her last name is also the same character as the one in Korea (韓國). I’ve actually never met another Hon that isn’t somehow connected to the family, but I guess there’s always a first.

We discussed a bit more to see which parts of China our respective families were from and didn’t really get much further than that. Her family is currently living in Alabama and I have no recollection of any relatives living there.

According to Wikipedia:

Han (韩) is currently ranked 25th in China in terms of the number of bearers at around 8 million persons

I’m surprised there’s actually that many. Haha…

Apparently my dad’s stories about how we’re descendants of the nobles from the Han Kingdom during the Warring States Period wasn’t too far fetched. However, there are 3 other origins of our last name.

Note: 韓 and 韩 are the same character, but one is traditional and the other is simplified, respectively.