CMU Thai Welcome Party

Today Thai students at Carnegie Mellon University has a big party. It's a welcome party for new students here either undergrad and grad students. The party is held at Newell Simon Hall in CMU.

This event happens every year when the fall semester starts. Its purpose is to welcome the newcomers to CMU.

There are many Thai foods include Grilled Beefs with Jaaw, Sticky Rice, Satae Pork, etc. (Oh! I love it).

Moreover, there are many fun games after lunch which organized by sophomore students here. I know more Thai people and I am very fun today, Thank you all! :D

Any One Can Cook

"Anyone can cook!" It's the word from the Disney Pixar's film called "Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee)." The story of a rat who wish to be a cook. With suggestions from an eminent cook and the word "anyone can cook", he becomes a great cook finally even he is a "RAT."

How about me? If the rat can cook, why not me! After I have been here for 3 weeks, I cooked myself nearly everyday. I feel very fun while cooking and invent a new menu everyday is very interesting for me.

Two dishes right here in the picture are "Kaeng Kai Ma Khue" and "Nuer Phad Ho Ra Pha" This is the first time I do "Kaeng" (one of a Thai food). Its taste is very (very very) good, or it's possibly because I did it myself. :D

Academic Books

Study is a way to success, and my class has been started for 2 weeks. Then I think it's my time to begin reading books now (although I want to do it or not :D ). Today I will talk about my books in this semester.

First thing to know is I'm taking 4 courses this semester:
1. Very Large Information Systems (VLIS) - about database systems, and massive data collection.
2. Privacy, Policy, Law and Technology (PPLT) - mainly focus on privacy found on the Internet.
3. Software Engineering for Information Systems (SE for IS) - work in a team to create a piece of software using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Use Cases (don't worry. They're terminologies in Computer Science field ;D)
4. Applied Information Assurance (AIA) - hands-on labs in building the harden computer network systems.

So, these are all of my books theis semester except one VLIS book that has not come yet (it's being delivered by Amazon). Two books on the most left are for AIA. They're lab sheet with the explanation. Two in the middle are for PPLT. The red one is about law (oh! very hard to read), and the other is about a protocol called P3P. Last, on the very right is the book for SE for IS class. It's the biggest book I have, but it's very great book after I read it for 3 chapters.

Hope I can read them all in this semester. God! Help me! :D

MetroNap:- the most creative invention

MetroNap! Yes, believe it or not. This is a new machine for helping student in CMU to take a NAP. What's the great!

Since the research found that taking a nap is good for reinforce the people's mind and memory, MetroNap was created for this purpose. Inside the MetroNap is cozy, darken nook which can keep the internal sound inside, and protect the external sound to go inside. This creates the most proper environments for a person who want to take a nap without disturbing other people around him.

I my opinion, that's very cool machine. If I have a chance, I am surely confident that I'll try once.

P.S. MetroNap is located in Hunt Library in CMU campus.
Reference: http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2007/summer/need-a-nap.shtml

What's that?

Oops! while I was cycling back to my apartment, I found a traffic sign which didn't make any sense to me. "PED XING" was what the sign said. "What's that?." I was thinking and confused at the same time.
......
I've just known from the former student here that it was a short term for "Pedestrain Crossing." Oh! How creative Pittsburghese is!

P.S. Moreover, I also found a sign says "DEER XING." :D

Just Do (=Buy) it !

One of my most favorite sports is "Soccer" (or Football, it made me confused here because in the U.S. football means American football). Many Thai student here either from CMU or University of Pittsburgh always have a soccer match on Sunday evening. From that point, I am very glad that I will have a chance to play soccer which I haven't had a chance to play for a long time (maybe the last time is when I was an undergraduate student).

I went to Waterfront which is the big shopping plaza in Pittsburgh. Walking through only one existing shelf of soccer footwear didn't make me feel much impressed. However, that's all it had. At last, I found NIKE Men's Park series shoes which came in both blue and black. My decision to choose "blue" was just from asking a little kid who buying a soccer shoes as well. My question was "Which one do you like?" and he thought for a while and pointed to the blue one. "OK, I'll pick this one." Sometimes making decision is very (or too much) easy, isn't it? :D

What's on my DESK?

OK, my room has been filled in with furnitures, so it's not 'Zen' anymore (thank you one of my friend, Champ, who gave me this cool word). Let's see what's on my desk! Actually somethings are not exactly on my desk but it's nearby.

1. Cork board - bought from one professor here, just 4$. Used to pin pictures and notes.
2. CMU Calendar - 1.5$, used to find weekends, vacation, and no-class day. ;P
3. Declaration of Independence (copied) - bought from DC. Can't remember its price.
4. Lamp - From IKEA furniture center.
5. Book Shelf - IKEA also, haven't had many books now.
6. Dolls - from Cornell, and Hershey Park.
7. JBL Creative II Speaker - Just bought from the Internet (40$).
8. Water Bottle, Glasses - for drinking at night.
9. Comfortable Chair - IKEA as well (79$).
10. HP Pavillion dv2419us Laptop - webcam doesn't work well. Suck HP! :(
11. Gift from Note - Pictures of friends and messages.
12. Western Digital External Hard Drive - it's 500 GB! Wow! (129$) From Circuit City, DE.
13. Wallet, Phone, Watch, and Camera.
14. My Bag - Oakley (fake) from Thailand (1000B).

That's all I have on my desk. I try to arrange it and make it less messy. Let's see I can do it or not. :D