Boston Trip!

I sneakily went out of Pittsburgh to Boston for 2 days. It's still in winter and it's even colder than in Pittsburgh!! (o_O). I love Boston because it's so beautiful. All the buildings, parks, and even people are so nice. I went to many favorite places such as Harvard, MIT, Frog pond, New England aquarium, Harvard museum of national history, museum of science and Sky observatory and Prudential center. Traveling was comfortable because there's subway everywhere. However, I felt a bit sad that I couldn't find the hospital that the king of Thailand was born. But that's fine. Maybe it's a reason for me to come back again! :-D

Timestamp: 17 February 2008

Heavy Snow~ Yeah..

Woooa.... there is a lot of snow now in Pittsburgh, and everything turns to white. I love the snow because it's soft and beautiful. However, walking to school while it's snowing is not a fun activity. I took this picture in front of CMU.

Another picture is a beautiful house near my apartment. It looks more beautiful with white snow around.


Timestamp: 12 February 2008

EOC at CMU

Spring is a time for finding a job because most of students are graduating after this semester. That's why CMU's holding a big job fair called Employment Opportunities Conference (EOC for short). I also joined the event because I need to find an internship for my summer. That's the requirement of my program. It was so crowded inside the gym. I talked with many companies with hope that one of them will accept me (-_-"). The companies I talked to include Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, VMWare, EA, Oracle, Amazon, Yahoo!, and much more (got a lof of gifts too! ha ha ha). Anyone wants me for the summer internship? ;-)

Timestamp: 7 February 2008

Wow! Pittsburgh zoo in winter (-_-")

I knew that Pittsburgh has a zoo for a long time, but I just had chance to go there in winter. Hmm....sounds like not a good time to go there, right? And it's true. Most of animals were not at their places. I think the zoo might kept them somewhere which is warmer than outside (it's still pretty cold at the time I went there). However, some were still left to see: lions, leopard, the polar bears, penguins. The zoo was not so big, so I could complete the whole park in 2-3 hours. It's also a lot of fun to watch the small penquins and meerkats. It should be better to come again in summer :-).

Timestamp: 19 January 2008

Machine Learning

Machine Learning, the innovative invention to teach machine to learn just like our human. It's a great course, of course. What makes it more special is I am studying with Tom Mitchell. However, it's also very difficult. I didn't have any statistics background before and all the materials are related to statistical method & data. I also had a lot of workload this semester because another course, Distributed Systems was also tough. I wish I could give more time & effort on this subject....

Timestamp: 25 January 2008

Back to School!

Pheewww... the winter break was over, and it's time to come back to study again. I arrived Pittsburgh just few days before the semester started. The weather was still (damn) cold here. There was snow everywhere... (-_-"). However, I know that spring was coming and everyone was waiting for it. I just understood now why American people love to lie on green grasses under strong sunlight. That's because they were so sick for the black & white shade of winter! Me too!

I was taking 4 courses this Spring. They included Machine Learning (wow~ tough one), Distributed Systems (wow~ another tough one for me), Web Application Development (I love this course a lot), and VLIS seminar. Hope I can survive this semester (-_-").

Timestamp: 14 January 2008.

Tour de Silicon Valley

Okie! Finally the Silicon Valley tour had already started. We went to many companies in this southern California area. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Salesforce, CNET, Sun, Cisco, and much more were here. We had about 5 days but we went to all the companies in just 3 days. The first day was about the orientation and some small companies gave us a talk. The last day was the interview day. I didn't bring my suit and everyone wore suit everyday... hmm...I was a blacksheep in this event, but that's fine. At least most of the companies here were tech companies, and all of their employees were casual! So, I was not that weird... :-)). Visiting these big companies were really great and inspring. I wanna have my own company which can make some impacts to the world as just like them too...

Timestamp: January 10, 2008

Carnegie Mellon West Campus

I had arrived Carnegie Mellon West campus just a day before the Silicon valley tour started. My friend, Umm (and his girlfriend) drove me to the campus. Thanks so much! dude. The west campus was not that big. It had only 2-3 buildings and it resided in NASA Research center. I stayed in a provided room with another roommate. One bad thing was this place was really far from anything. Ok, just waiting for the tour to start...

Timestamp: January, 8 2008

Back to San Francisco again

After I departed LA and bye-bye to all the friends in the trip, I took a shuttle bus back to San Francisco again. This was because I had registered for Tour de Silicon Valley event at CMU. So, I needed to go to CMU west campus in NASA Muffet field, which was pretty close to San Francisco. I stayed with my friend, Fluke in the downtown for about a week. We went to many travel places in the downtown.

Timestamp: January 5, 2008

Aunty Mint's LA Tour

Finally, the last day of the trip has come, at least for me. We didn't go out to any special place today. Aunty Mint was our guide for driving to some interesting places in LA. We drove along shopping street which had many many hi-so brands (Don't even think about seeing the price tag -_-"). And we ended up with going to the observatory (I think this place also appears in the Transformers movie). We took some nice pictures of LA at night from the top of the hill, and went back home. I needed to prepared my stuffs because I would go back to San Francisco (again) for my CMU Silicon Valley tour on the next day.

Timestamp: January 1, 2008

Disney Land in LA ~

Well, finally my dream had come true. I believe that all the children have dreams that once in a life time they want to go to Disney Land. And here I am, in the LA Disney Land! We sent Bimn off the plane in the early morning, and we headed to the Disney Land on the last day of the year. There were a huge amount of visitors that day. All the lines to shows and rides were very long. We needed to pick up the fast pass and came back later at the time specified in the pass. We attended the Aladin show which was pretty nice. It was funny and cute. All the rides were not heart-breaking, because they focused on children, I think. The best thing in Disney was they always have something for you to do when you're waiting in the line. We stayed there until late at night because we heard that there would be a firework of a New Year celebration. However, because there was a very strong wind, the firework was cancelled. So, we stayed there until about 11 PM, and went back home. It's for sure one of my wonderful memories in the US.

Timestamp: December 31, 2008

On the way back to LA

It's time to go back to LA again after staying in San Francisco for a while. Bimn needed to catch a flight back to Thailand on December 31 at LAX, so we left the lovely San Francisco on 30th of December. This time, we didn't drive along the US1 freeway because it will take a lot of time, and we already saw the seaside views. We went on the highway which was much faster. Before we left SF, we went the a Thai temple in Fremont and had a very nice lunch there. We also bought foods for our dinner. Finally, we stopped and had our dinner at the sea. Such a nice place for dinner! (except it's cold -_-")

Timestamp: December 30, 2008

Visit Stanfod University

This day seemed to be a lazy day for us. We woke up late, so we couldn't go somewhere too far. Finally, we decided to visit Stanford University which was really close to our house. Uncle Sam's house was in Palo Alto, near University Avenue. I think it's just 2-3 miles from Stanford University. We drove the car there and walked around for a while until we got enough pictures to show other people (ha ha ha). Stanford is a very nice place to study. It has many beautiful architectures + nice weather of California. Hmm.....why they didn't accept me!!! (T.T)

Timestamp: December 29, 2008

Golden Gate + Pier 39

We reached San Francisco (safely -_-") late at night. The place we stayed is the home of Uncle Sam, Sand's father's friend.. (hmm....such a long relation). After taking a rest for one night, we began to start our trip again. The first place that everyone wants to go in San Francisco is surely the Golden Gate bridge! This big red bridge is considered as a trademark of San Francisco for a long time. However, it was very cold that day. Even I wore the thickest jacket I had (the AE jacket), I still felt cold. The sky was also cloudy, that's why we didn't have nice pictures of the bridge. We walked to half of the bridge, and realized that it was too cold to walk to the other side. Then, we came back to the car, and went on to the next destination... Alcatraz island.

The sad thing is when we arrive Pier 39. We just knew that the Alcatraz tour was not available on that day :-((. So, we just walked & shopped at Pier 39. There were many seals at this place also. They were not as cute as I thought (and also stinky -_-"). After that, we just went back home.

Timestamp: December 28, 2008

On the way to San Francisco

We have to leave Los Angeles to follow our plan to San Francisco after disturbing Pah' Mint for many days. Thank you so much for the place, guides, and foods na krub. 

On the way to San Francisco, we drive along the US1 highway, which is the road along the shoreline of the west-coast. The view is so awesome,  but driving along the shoreline also makes me feel nausea sometimes (-_-"). Besides that, we also stop at the Hearst Castle. It is a historic place which has beautiful buildings.  By the way, we don't get into the castle because the ticket is expensive. So, just stop by to take some pictures and go! :-P

Timestamp: December 27, 2008

Santa Monica

Even it's winter, it's still warm in Los Angeles. Today we go to the beach at Santa Monica. I think the beach is so-so and doesn't look good compared to beaches in Thailand. 

So, we spend some time there by walking around, riding bikes, and playing with the seagulls (making them fly). There is also rides and shops near the beach, but we don't go there because it's getting dark already when we leave the beach.

Timestamp: December 26, 2007

Universal Studio

Oh! The Universal Studio is a very great place to visit. I already got the conclusion after spending a whole day with all of the friends. It is very fun with the rides (all the rides include stories from their movies too). There are also shows about special effects which are funny and exciting too. 

Timestamp: December 25, 2007

Hollywood & Long beach

Hollywood~ yes, we are going to Hollywood today. With hope to find the big "HOLLY WOOD" word. However, it is very far from the place we got out of the train. But that's fine, we walk through the Hollywood avenue which has all the stars' names on the footpath. The weather is very hot today, so different from Las Vegas which was very cold. 

After walking and getting tired, we decide to go to another favorite place of LA. It's called North Beach. Hmm...sounds good. We reach there a bit late in the evening, so we can just see the sunset. Because it's getting colder, we stay there for just a while and go back home.

Timestamp: Decembe 24, 2007

Go to Los Angeles

After staying in Vegas for 2 nights (and spent some money), we needed to move again. And it was a very long trip because we were going to Los Angeles. The view during the drive to LA was not impressive. We crossed Nevada into California. Most of the side views we saw were mountains. It took us about a day to reach Los Angeles and stayed at Sand's aunt's, Pah' Mint's, house.

Timestamp: December 23, 2007

Las Vegas Night

Sin city may be the best word to describe this "Las Vegas"! We arrived here at late evening because of some traffic jam (and we still don't know what's the cause!). We lived at the Stratosphere hotel which was pretty cheap for the price ($49 per night). The main point was the casino at the lobby floor. There were a lot of games (roulettes, pokers, etc..). I just tried one game of roulettes (and lost $20 T.T). 

Another attraction of Vegas was the panoramic view of all the hotel at night. It seemed like they are all competing with each other in making their hotel look the best. Many hotels had shows. Mirage had a fire water fall, Bellagio had the dancing fountain which was really nice. We also went there on the Christmas Day... so the song was the Christmas song. 

Timestamp: December 22, 2007

Hoover Dam

"Do you know Hoover Dam?", my friend asked me.

"No, never heard of it.", I replied.

"OK, have you watched 'Transformers'?"

"Oh! yeah I have."

"That's the damn dam in the movie! It's the place that Megatron is kept!"

Hoover Dam used to be the largest dam in the world. It resides exactly between Nevada and Arizona. So, I can walk across 2 time zones (Mountain & Pacific). It's huge and it was very cold when I was there.

Time-stamp: December 21, 2007

More pictures: Andy's Picasa

Wow! I already on my trip!

Yeah! I did it! I already finished my exams and presentations. On December 18, I depart Pittsburgh to Denver, where Benz (Pinn's brother) lives. We go to US Air Force Academy on the next day (Dec 19, 2007). The cadet school is very nice because it resides exactly in the middle of the Rocky mountain. The view are incredible! Moreover, the school has another attractive building which is called "Cadet Chapel." It's a modern-designed chapel. We also go inside to see the state-of-the-art architecture. And the next day we will depart from Denver to Las Vegas ~ Wow!

Faces (from left to right): ?, Andy, Pinn, Benz, Bymn, Pong+, and Nut

Time-stamp: Dec 19, 2007

P.S. We go to "The Garden of the Gods" which is a place that have a lot of beautiful mountains as well. See the pictures from here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cragkhit/Dec18192007Denver02

Final Exam Period

Finally, the final exam has come. It's so scary for me because I have a lot of work to do. I have 3 projects due (Software Engineering, Privacy, and Applied Information Assurance). I rarely sleep during this time. That's so bad .... :-(((

The final exam takes place since from Dec 5 (SE) to Dec 14 (VLIS) and I also have the PPLT final project presentation on Dec 17. I hope to finish all my work soon because I will be on my trip to west coast. -_-"

Time-stamp: Dec 10, 2007