San Soo Kap San

Location: 38-13 Union St., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Korean
Phone: (718) 445-1165
Prices: about $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 2
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

We had a bit of a change on my day off today. Instead of the usual dim sum, I went with my Mom to a Korean restaurant around the corner from the office. she had gone there before with a friend and thought the prices & food were good. those were just about the only things that were good though. For more details on the food, check out my comments on Picasa.


I ripped the service (the lowest rating on this blog so far) because when they brought out the appetizers, my Mom wanted to switch the kim chee for something else because she doesn't eat things that are too spicy. Last time they were here, she was able to switch. But this waiter had a stunned and offended look when she asked. He didn't let us switch it. Instead, he just took the kim chee away. I wouldn't have penalized the rating if he declined politely.

The environment was OK. It was clean and slightly above average, but the acoustics weren't that great. It was also a little on the stuffy side as far as space.

Facebook: Year One

It's been about a year since I started using Facebook actively (I had the account for much longer, but just never used it). I forced myself to get used to the interface because I was studying the environment as we researched widgets for work. In a short period of time, however, I had many of my friends connected and the status updates and notifications really kept everyone in the loop. When I first started using it, Facebook felt awkward to use. Now I'm pretty comfortable with it and made it part of my daily life.

Staying Connected
When I look at my friends list, I think about how I'm a lot more in touch with people I used to not know as well. It's all thanks to the status updates and notifications. They're so inviting and the more my friends use it, the more chance we find things in common and spark conversations. Over the past year, I found myself getting closer to friends and family on Facebook. Those who weren't fell more out of the loop. I also cut down on mass emailing and just posted items and notes instead. I noticed a better response too. I'm still working on getting a few more close friends in!

"Apps" and Widgets
The apps are mostly time-wasters, but still good for interacting with friends and strangers. When I first started using Facebook, I only installed apps based on what I saw in my friends' profiles. I played with many of them for a certain period then uninstalled them after I got bored. The successful ones that got me addicted were the ones that had some sort of reward or challenge each day. They also had to add updates/upgrades every so often to avoid monotony. The ones I stuck with were... (fluff)Friends, Pet Dragons, Greenpatch, Chicago Bulls and Yankees Faithful. (fluff)Friends and Pet Dragons have a lot of interactivity and updates. They're both very much like RPGs. (fluff)Friends also has a great user community. I use Chicago Bulls & Yankees Faithful based on sports season. And Greenpatch is just addicting because of the "earning money" aspect. I am trying to bring myself to uninstall that one though because it takes up a good 10 minutes each day!

Groups & Pages
I also found the groups and pages to be very useful compared to other social networking sites. They had no spam and every post was relevant. There's also a group or page for just about every subject you can think of. I don't visit these a whole lot though... maybe once a month or so, but it's always interesting to post a comment and get feedback from strangers with the same interests.

DVDeals 12/28 - 1/3

DVD Sunday
It's another Sunday release date for new titles. I'm not sure if it's because we're still in the holiday season or if it's a permanent change in the industry. Anyway, it's a straight-to-DVD special fx title this time... Resident Evil: Degeneration. Circuit City has the best price at $17.99. It's $19.99 everywhere else.

Best Buy Deals
- Mummy Returns for $6.99
- A Knight's Tale for $6.99
- Fearless for $6.99
- Jerry Maguire for $6.99

Circuit City Deals
- Batman: Dark Knight for $14.99
- Stargate: Continuum for $12.99
- AVP-R for $12.99

Target Deals
- Family Guy: Seasons 1-6 for $16.99 each
- Batman: Dark Knight for $14
- Narnia: Prince Caspian for $14
- Wall-E for $14

Christmas Day

The festivities and eating continued for the 2nd day in a row. Christmas Day was at Warren & Susan's apartment. They were able to reserve the basement party room (same place as their housewarming party). We were there from about 1pm-5pm.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We just had a small family gathering for Christmas Eve dinner this year. The schedule was a bit tight. Because it fell on a Wednesday this year, everyone had work. I had a last minute plumbing problem in my building. Main St., Flushing was also packed with shoppers, but we all made it!

DVDeals 12/21 - 12/27

DVD Sunday
Because of the holidays, new titles will be released today instead of Tuesday. The new release for the week is Death Race and Circuit City has it much lower than other stores @ $14.99. I never saw this movie, but might want to get it just for the cars and special effects.

Best Buy Deals
- Batman: Dark Knight for $14.99
- Star Wars: Clone Wars for $14.99
- Wall-E for $14.99
- Kung Fu Panda for $14.99
- Spiderman for $4.99
- Spiderman 2 for $4.99
- Terminator Season 1 for $12.99

Circuit City Deals
- Die Hard for $3.99
- Aliens for $3.99
- Speed for $3.99
- War for $6.99

Budget HTPC (Part 2)

Controls

Since the HTPC is a good 13-14' away from the sofa, a standard mouse and keyboard couldn't cut it. I had to look into wireless options. There are a lot out there and the mainstream brands are very expensive. I found a good keyboard on Directron that had a built-in joystick to act as a mouse ($37)... not many keyboards have this option. It was a requirement for me though because I wanted it to be something that fully controlled the computer while resting on my lap. I also shopped for a wireless mouse ($15) for occasions when I need more precision.

Shopping List

1. Keyboard - I suggest looking at the no-name brands for a keyboard that has a built-in joystick, trackpad or trackball. If you go with Microsoft or Logitech, you'll find yourself spending over $100. I ended up getting the BTC 9019URFIII and it works just as well if not better than the $150 Logitech Dinovo Edge.

2. Mouse - In an HTPC, you won't be using the mouse for the entire time, so you don't need a full-sized desktop mouse. The best option is to get a notebook laser mouse. It should be laser because you'll probably use it on many surfaces... might not always have a mousepad handy in the living room. Some good options are the Logitech V450 Nano ($40 regular, $15-20 sale) and Gigaware wireless laser ($50 regular, $25 sale). Both of these have small dongles that won't get in the way.

Final Cost
My final cost was about $275 but that involved Black Friday deals and existing parts. It would just cost a little more if you built one today based on my shopping lists... maybe around $350, but not more than $400.

Pistilli Grand Manor

I checked out a brand new condo my Mom was showing earlier in the day. Being used to the new wave of cheap, cramped and expensive Flushing apartments, I was surprised to see that this one was well constructed. The materials and craftsmanship were good. The walls were solid. Each unit was very spacious. Unlike Flushing where 2 bedrooms includes one medium room and one tiny room, this building actually had units with 2 huge rooms.


There was a trade off though... it's not near a subway station!

Budget HTPC (Part 1)

The Core

A media center PC can cost $500-$1000 if you go out to the store to buy one. However, in my opinion, it's really not necessary to do that. Older systems are very capable of operating as a home theater PC (HTPC)... especially if you're building something for a 720p TV. Buying a new dual-core or quad-core system with all of the latest parts is overkill unless you plan to do video editing and Photoshop work on your TV. In this series of posts, I'm going to write about the system I built for my parents' new 52" LCD.

This project started on Thanksgiving weekend and I was able to find a lot of Black Friday sales related to parts I needed. I started with the small form-factor IBM system from my apartment. I replaced the hard drive with something much larger... going from the default 40 GB to a 500 GB model ($35 @ Directron... FREE shipping). That had plenty of room for a bunch of DVDs and DivX movies. I also had a bunch of spare parts that I added to the system... a 802.11g wireless PCI card ($10 after a rebate offer) and USB 2.0 PCI card (FREE after a rebate offer) to fill up the 2 available slots.

Shopping List

1. System - First, you'll need a small form-factor system... something that will fit into your TV stand. It should also be energy efficient and relatively cool since it will be on a lot and could be in an enclosed space (depending on the type of stand you have). For good off-lease system, check out the IBM ThinkCentre S50 or Dell Optiplex GX series from PC Exchange. They're both Pentium 4 systems. For any system you order, get the highest possible RAM option and upgrade to a DVD-ROM if it has a CDROM by default. Leave the hard drive because you'll want a 500 GB or higher.

2. Hard Drive - Get a 500 GB or larger drive because you're going to store large movie files on it. It should be hi-speed... at least 7200 rpm, large cache, SATA is possible (IDE should still be OK).

3. Network - The best option is to connect via ethernet to your hi-speed Internet connection. The video throughput is much higher than wireless. If not possible, 802.11g actually works OK. With the HTPC I built, I was able to stream an episode of Terminator without any problems.

4. USB 2.0 Ports - If the system doesn't have a lot of these by default, you should add an additional card since you'll probably have a need to add media drives and connect cameras in the future.