Culturally Shallow

I finally made it here to SXSW Interactive 2009! I wanted to do a quick post before running back for the SXSW Opening Remarks by Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos.com I was just in Secrets of Javascript Library talk , where John Resig is one of the panelists. John Resig, you know, the creator of jQuery. There were very good overview information there for YUI3, ARIA and meta language framework presented respectively by Nate Koechley, Becky Gibson and Andrew Dupont respectively, but I personally found John Resig’s talk most inspiring. One of the things John presented was the the solution he had to ensure that the code that they check in would be backwards compatible with all the list of browsers jQuery support. With 6 test suites for each browsers, there would be 66 tests that they had to run for each commit statement that the team makes, making it not feasible to do so all the time. Resign used what he called Distributed Manual Testing to test backward compatibility. The site would enlist volunteer testers to do testing on all browsers, and would in turn reward the top testers with t-shirts, mugs and so forth.

I find this solution extremely brilliant. I am a Yelp elite member and I would submit my reviews for Yelp, I admit, for nothing other than the “Elite” badge on my profile page and the occasional get-togethers they have for the elite squad. That and I want to give shout out’s to the mom and pop shops in my neighborhood. I am sure that the front end community would love Resig’s idea of letting them help out. It’s a mix of wikipedia/open source testing/Yelp paradigm all in one.

The site is TestSwarm.com and will be available at the end of the month.

All packed for SXSW with my Leica, my Kindle and my favorite scarf du jour!

SXSW Interactive 2009 conference starts tomorrow, and I’m ready to go. Don’t forget to check out A Conversation with Col Needham on Monday, March 16th at 3:30pm and Cloud Computing: Defending the Undefinable on Tuesday, March 17th at 10am. Meanwhile, you can catch me tomorrow at How to Rawk SXSW at 3:30pm and then later at The Tech Set Meet the Rat Pack at The Belmont Lounge. Feel free to come up and say hi. I’d love to meet you. See you there!

The parent company that I work for has a mentorship program.  I’ve worked for a few companies, but my current company is the only one that has a program like this.  When I found out about it, I signed up to be a mentee immediately.  I knew right away what kind of mentor I was looking for: a female engineer, more seasoned than I, been with the company longer than I, work out of the main campus of the company and not mind mentoring someone remotely.  This is a tall order, I realized, and I was really lucky to have found one who fits my wishlist.  More importantly, she chose to accept me as a mentee!

One of the things that she said on our last phone call struck me as a really good advice, and I really want to share with you what it is.  The economy faces an unfortunate sharp downturn right now, and a lot of companies are downsizing.  Rather than looking at this as a setback, she reminded me that engineers should look at this as an opportunity.  Right now is the perfect time to inventorize one’s technical skills and traits, and address areas that need to be strengthened.  Take the time to educate yourself.  Know what your strengths are and how to market yourself, but also take the time to educate yourself on areas you need to work on.  When the market goes up again, which it inevitably will, you will be ready to pounce on the opportunities when other are still recoiling from this economic downturn.  You will be ahead of the pack.  I think her advice is brilliant.  Just as now is the time to re-assess one’s financial portfolio, we should assess our technical portfolio as well.  There really is no better day than today.

I have done my nails as part of my political statement.


I’m uber nervous. I think that the future president will have a lot of say in the future of this country and of the free world. The president coming to office will have an unprecedented amount of power at his command. I am hoping that the country will band together and do the right thing. I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

I will be going to the Obama Election Night Celebration tomorrow. Will you be joining me there?

I’ve had my old wallet for quite a few years now. I loved it. I bought it from Urban Outfitters a long time, and it probably costs me $12. Fast forward to now, this is how it looks:

 
Yep, it needed to retire a long time ago. I remember two years ago, my then boss saw me pulling out my wallet when we went out for a group lunch one time and proclaimed, “My goodness, Winnie, you need to replace your wallet!”

When I went to Europe last year, I stopped by the Agnes B boutique to check out their collection in their homeland. I saw a gorgeous wallet that I just had to pick it up. I came home, put it away on one of my shelves and then promptly never thought twice about it
 
Fast forward to this morning: I was trying to find something suitable to wear for work, and I accidentally knocked this off my shelf. I have no idea why I put off using it! It’s not like I have a thousand wallets in rotation or something. So anyway, I properly gave it an inauguration and now it’s a new member in my purse now.

It’s Sunday night, and I am just starting to think about what I need get to replenish my fall wardrobe. This must not be the night for me because a couple of the etailers that I shop with are not up and running on this fine Sunday night.

J Crew:

Red Envelope:

Oh, and by the way.. I did find one of the things that I’m looking for: Fleece Socks in Argyle!

Halloween is about to be among us!  I’m so excited about it, I have already done up my nails.

These are the colors I used: Sephora by OPI in Metro Chic, Sally Girl in Amped.  Skull decal found at Rite-Aid.

In the back you can sneak a peek at my George Nelson Cigar Bubble Lamp

Last night, I went to 750 mL in South Pasadena with Phaithful and StandardPixel as one of them is leaving the country for greener pastures (I’ll let you figure out who is the one leaving).  I’ve passed by 750 mL several times in the past and it has always piqued my interest.  It is right off the Gold Line Mission station and across the street from the Thursdays Pasadena Farmer’s Market, where I prefer to get my fresh local produce.  We finally got a chance to try it out last night.

750 mL is the volume of what a standard wine bottle will hold, and is also referred to as “a Fifth” among hte booze hounds.  750 mL is roughly a fifth of a U.S. gallon.  Now, with a name like “750 mL” I’d expect them to have an extensive wine list.  Their wine list is actually a lot shorter than I’d imagined, but it looks very well edited.  I was not looking to spend a ton of money that night, and settled for a glass of house red wine, $6.

StandardPixel and Phaithful respectively ordered an Arrogant Bastard Ale and a Stella Artois, $6 each.  Apparently they both wanted the last Arrogant Bastard Ale and in a fierce thumb wrestle match, Phaithful conceded the title and the right to consume the last Arrogant Bastard on premise to StandardPixel.  I just sat back, sipped my red wine as I watched the debacle.  Wine and entertainment.  Excellent!

We started off with the House Charcuterie for 2, $14.  It came with pate, some excellent mustard, lard (which they called “lard-o”).  Everything was uber-yummy and it was a really great way for all of us to share.

For entree, I had the Confit Pork Belly with apricots and baby bok choy, $18.  Now, I’m half Shanghainese so know my pork fat, and this is good pork fat.  It was crispy on the outside but yet soft and moist on the inside. The apricots and the bok choy supplemented this rich piece of meat perfectly.

My dining companions, the thumb wrestling contestants, ordered the Steak Frites instead.  I had a taste of it and it was very good as well.  If you are in the mood for steak, you will not be disappointed.

For dessert, we shared an apricot cream with mascarpone cheese, and it was interesting.  I never had cheese as a dessert before but surprisingly, it worked.

750 mL also serves small plates if you prefer tapas style dining.  On a good night, they set out tables on the sidewalk for those who prefer to get a better view of the historic buildings in South Pasadena’s Mission District.  All in all, I had a good time and will definitely recommend 750 mL to anyone.  I visited its sibling establishment Cobras and Matadors in the Los Feliz neighborhood.  I much prefer the setting of 750 mL in ol’ South Pasadena.  It feels a lot more quaint and personal to me, and I like the food better as well.  Cobras and Matadors has a second location on Beverly Blvd, near The Grove as well.

Click on the menu below to see an enlarged version.

750 mL
966 Mission St
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 799-0711

 

I take pictures of everything everywhere I go.  I take pictures of pups on the streets when I stop at a stoplight.  I take pictures of gatherings of me and my friends and of interesting sights I notice.  I am notorious for asking all my friends to hold their forks and spoons (or chopsticks and fingers) before attacking our food so I can take pictures of what we are about to indulge in.  Evidence follow: this is when we went to The Foundry to try out  for which the chef Eric Greenspan won one of the categories in the Grilled Cheese Invitational Challenge.  No one could touch it it until Winnie had finished taking her pictures:



 
I don’t always upload all my pictures to my flickr account, although I should, because I take too damn many of them.  If you are like me and you have way more pictures to upload than you have time, this little gadget that I just heard about from David Pogue may help you: The Eye-Fi Explore SD memory card.  It works just like any SD memory card but it has special software built in on it.  Every time you enter your home wifi network, it will automatically upload the content to your home network, and then on to flickr or other photo sharing sites.  How neat is that!  In addition, it automatically geotags all your photos for you with a latitude and longitude from where you take them.   How does it do that?  Well, SkyHook has a massive database of MAC addresses of all the WiFi hotspots associated with physical addresses.  The SkyHook software on the Eye-Fi card can determine where you are standing when you take the pictures by sensing the distance from these overlapping signals.  It is not real GPS, it just mimics the functionality of it.  For the heavily populated area, this will do the trick.  The Eye-Fi Explore SD card retails for $129 and has 2GB in memory, with other models with lesser functions and thus lesser prices offered as well. 

Has anyone tried this out?  I’m very intrigued and maybe try this out very soon. 

Want a mojito but don’t necessarily want an alcoholic drink? You can get this now from Trader Joe! It’s made out of water, cane juice, lime juice, other natural flavor and citric acid. So refreshing. YUM!

Trader Joe Sparkling Mojito