ThinkPoint | Use Your Head

It’s That Time of Year Again

Eric Huang — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:05:32 +0000

Yes, it is. The time of year where comsumerism takes over your life. And no, I’m not just going to rant about how the world isn’t fair and how America is an oxymoron, etc. But, well I’m just going to reflect as it seems this time of the year is just right of it.

Well, things are going decently for me, not bad, just not great either. I haven’t figured out exactly I plan to go about the rest of the school year. So far, it’s been fine, but I would like to make it great. But I still have to figure some issues with myself, and what I really want to do.

And so, my goal by the end of this year is to figure out exaclty what I want to do with myself. As in, how do I approach things, and most importantly how do I get focused so that I can do better than I’m doing now. However, with Winter Break fast approaching (Matter of 2 days), I can finally devote some more time to think about all this stuff. And then, just maybe I’ll find something that will give me a clue on what I should do. Till then…

Success Is A Lonely Path

Eric Huang — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 15:53:56 +0000

Success truely is a lonely path. In my experience so far in high school, trying to succeed can really seperate you from everyone else. Not everyone wants to go the extra mile or even needs to especially in my school, however I often feel the need to try to attempt that one extra thing. And yet, even with my hardwork, and dedication so far my payoffs have not been great. For example, I have never gotten straight A’s ever, period. Even though, I strive to achieve them, they never come.

Then there is my parents, who constantly attempt to drive me to perfection. It usually is annoying, but this is something I would like to do. However, for some odd reason some things don’t come natural to me. Spanish, is probably by far one of my worst classes becuase I just cannot speak a foreign language besides the crappy Chinese I can speak. Then, I just can’t understand grammar either, my essay writing is horrible and not matter what I try I just get Bs and Cs on them. You see, memorizing is fine, vocab quizes are easy, and projects are no big deal. It’s just that some things I just can’t do well on no matter how much I try on.

Also, there’s the issue of math. If you read the other post about my math classes, you’d find that I’m facing a wall of fustration. I’m decent in math, but these last 2 years have literaly stripped me of any desire to learn math becuase all the hardwork I put in did not show in my grades. In the end, I decided to drop down half a math level to precal so that I could recoup, and hopefully raise my grade. But, now its a bit too easy. It seems as if there’s no middle class for people like me.

But, back to the topic on hand. It’s true that I’m sorta of a oddball in my school. Considering that there’s only really 5 or 6 real Asians in my high school, that really makes me stick out sometimes. Also, well honestly there’s not much I can relate to in my generation. I don’t listen to the same music, nor do I play many of the same sports, and also not a single person in my school has the same interest in technology as I. I’m begining to feel that high school is just another stepping stone in the path of life, and as soon as it’s over, I’d be glad. However, I plan to continue doing what I do, and hopefully concentrate more to finish off with the best possible plan so that I can propel myself into college and beyond.

It Isn’t Thanksgiving Without […]

Eric Huang — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:41:17 +0000

Yes, it’s that time of year again where the whole family comes together and eats a wonderful meal called Thanksgiving. Which ironically is based on a event which did not happen, at least not according to Pocohontas and Disney. But not to go off on a random tangent about the history of Thanksgiving.

Well, I think my family has started a new tradition on the day of Thanksgiving. This year my dad decided to cook the turkey himself (brave man, he is), and so It Isn’t Thanksgiving Without the Sink Exploding With Years of Clogged Up Food! Yeah, I can safely say my sink exploded quite severly too. Not only that, the food processor that we normally put small bits of food into also leaked and pretty much the entire cabinent beneath the sink was filling to the brim with orange colored goo filled with bits of old chicken and some mystery meat…
So we tried putting a bunch of pots and pans to contain the spill and instead we emptied the sink filled with more goo onto the floor. So here’s the entire sink covered in orange residue and chunks of old meat and the floor is covered in gunk. *Cue the Clean-up crew* Curses fly through the air and I can safely say that cooking at home is no stress reliever to my parents.

Finally, we contain the mess with a lot of dirty paper towels and several used mops. However, only after several sprays of Lysol does the area start to not reek of old chicken. Once that ordeal is over with, the day continued pretty normally. The turkey was cooked, the beef was also cooked and the food was quite nice once the mess was done with.

My mom had invited a good friend of mine over for the dinner and his whole family showed up to eat. There’s nothing like a good ole thanksgiving dinner with two families eating side by side… Anyhow, after several pieces of white and dark meat of turkey, some beef, several rounds of Armoured Core 2 (on my old old PS2), and my friend’s obsession with Final Fantasy 10, it was time to go. The party wrapped up at sometime around like 10 PM, and well all in all it was a good thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Break is Here!

Eric Huang — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:57:55 +0000

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Yesterday was my last day of school for the rest of the week, and so now I have all this free time. For one, I might go up to New York or something. Otherwise I plan to get started on another project and finish up some loose ends with this blog and SBN. Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t submitted to Small Blogs Network, please do.

So, turkey is on the menu although I really would like some good ole steak. Mhmmmm, red juicy steak, cooked to perfection. Anyhow, except to see some more activity on this blog in the near future. Adíos until then.

[RANT] School Buses

Eric Huang — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:38:48 +0000

I can’t tell you how much I hate school buses… Especially my bus, since I have to ride it for around 2 hours every day… And for the last week the regular bus broke down and I’m stuck in a tiny sports bus that barely fits the route with all the little kids. And then don’t get me started on the kids, they are freaking annoying and the only way to completly ignore them is to just turn on your headphones and listen to music…

Also, I’m the oldest person on the bus, and I CAN’T WAIT to start driving next year to school! I mean, driving in my quiet car with no distrubances… Ah, that would be the good way to start off each day. However, until then I’m stuck with 3 9th graders who just about the most retarded things, a bunch of 7th and 8th graders who try to act cool around the 9th graders and then the rest of just a bunch of little kids who just make a racket.

Again, I can’t tell you how many times my trusty Sandisk Sansa has saved me from enternal damnation from those kids! I mean I can barely fit in those tiny ass seats anyhow, and the bus just is gross anyhow. Those sports buses never get cleaned most of the time and it’s just nasty.

But anyhow, sorta randomly rambling, I’d love the day where I don’t have to get up at 6:00 AM every day to catch the bus at 7:00 AM where I don’t even get a chance to eat a proper breakfast! It’s heresy! Thanks god* for Sandisk creating that mp3 player… And am I’m just saying that for the heck of it.

*I really don’t believe in higher beings or God… So god is it

To iPod or Not to iPod?

Eric Huang — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:18:55 +0000

“To iPod or Not to iPod is the question!” Well, in my full honest opinion the iPod is a great MP3 player, however before you go rushing to the Apple website to buy one, why not consider all of your options first. Here’s a quick list of several mp3 players of similar quality:

Sandisk Sansa
Creative Labs Zen Players
The iRiver

So, the next question is how do they stand up to the iPod? Well, in general they all really do quite well compared to the iPod, the only reason why you don’t see people using them is becuase Apple has just a great marketing campaign which has transformed the mp3 player to the iPod only. However, if you keep your mind open, you will find that they are all roughly the same minus price differences, and some minor features such as FM radio, and video, and pictures.

First, the Sandisk Sansa, which I personally own, is one great little player. It is comparable to the iPod Nano in size and features. However, the Sansa does have a twice as large vertical color screen, and it can also show pictures and small short video clips. Here’s what CNET has to say in short,

“The good: The compact SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody can play back music, video, and photo files and is available in capacities of up to 8GB; works well with Rhapsody; includes dual Rhapsody and PlaysForSure mode; includes an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and innovative Rhapsody Channels feature; improved interface; user removable battery; expansion card slot; good battery life.

The bad: The SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody’s tactile scrollwheel is both a blessing and a burden; must convert photo and video files using bundled Sansa software; occasional low-level system noise underneath audio; proprietary USB dock connector; no AC adapter in package; no custom EQ; you must be playing a song to add it to the Go list.

The bottom line: Thanks to an improved feature set and GUI, the Rhapsody version of the flagship Sansa player is better than the original.

Read editors’ review below

Note: This product is part of the SanDisk Sansa e200R series. See all products in the SanDisk Sansa e200R series.”

Overall, CNET gave the new version of the Sansa a 8.3/10. I personally love the FM radio, and at storage up to 8 gigs plus a external SD drive, I’ll have plenty of more room for a long time to come. The sound quality of the Sansa is probably at the same standard of the iPod and so you can’t use that excuse not to look at it. And at around the same price depending on the size of the flash HD you get, price isn’t another excuse. Finally, of course I usually buy all my electronics off Amazon, and I got my 6gig Sandisk for $170 which was $50 off the retail price at the time.

However there are some issues that I can pick at. The scroll wheel is very solid however it is made out of plastic and feels a bit chunky and at times the 4 side buttons can be a pain to click. Most of the time, this isn’t a problem. Also, once in awhile the player freezes and the GUI goes blank, it’s easy to fix just by restarting the player, but it can be annoying if it happens. Finally, while there is a video option, it really honestly doesn’t work half the time becuase of the crappy conversion program you have to run the videos through. Plus, the filesizes for those vidoes are extremely huge. Otherwise, everything else checks out quite nicely!

Coming up next time I post, will be a more in depth look at the Zen Players and the iRiver!