Monday, July 26, 2010

Twin Pregnancy Blog - July 26 2010 - Week 8 - "Two heartbeats"

July 26, 2010
1st visit to the OBGYN. We've already confirmed the pregnancy via over-the-counter tests. So, we went to the doctor already knowing what to expect. My wife, Chung Yee, was already 8 weeks pregnant at the time. The ultrasound only confirmed that point. We were relieved to see our baby's heartbeat was nice and strong. Both of us were extremely happy because this was the moment that we've been waiting for for a while. Then came the surprise...

Doctor: "You can see the heartbeat there...(pause)...oh...I think you may be having twins..."

I was standing at the time and felt my knees give away beneath me.

Me: "I think I need to sit down..."

I grabbed a nearby stool for support right before I was about to loose balance.

Doctor: "Yes, there are 2. Here's the other one."

Twins! Both of us were speechless. Happy speechless, but speechless nonetheless.

Photos:
Top is the baby on the right side. Bottom is the baby on the left side. They just look like tiny blobs right now but on the monitor, their beating hearts are unmistakable. They measured in at about 1.7 and 1.6 cm long.

Friday, July 16, 2010

A random thought on Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard


Webber, Rose, and Howard are the 3 best Fab5 players. They are all the same age. In terms of attention, I think Howard received the least throughout his career. Isn't it odd that Howard is still in the NBA being recruited by championship contenders while Webber and Rose are now TV analysts? Webber is probably a Hall-of-Famer but Howard could be the one who ends up with championship ring...

Webber
5-time All Star
1-time All NBA First Team
3-time All NBA Second Team
1-time All NBA Third Team
Rookie of the Year
National High School Player of the Year
Games played: 831 (retired Mar 2008)

Rose
All Rookie Team
Most Improved Player
Games played: 923 (retired May 2007)

Howard
1-time All Star
1-time All NBA Third Team
All Rookie Second Team
Games played: 1116 and counting

Agonizingly slow computer at the office


Damn, check out the specs of the computer I use at work:

The CPU is a Pentium 4 HT 3.0E. It's 3.0Ghz, 800mhz FSB with 1024kb of L2. It was released in Feb 2004.
I'm not asking for a Core i7 or even Xeons. But I'd expect at least a dual core. This damn thing is single core. Sure it has hyperthreading, but it's pretty much useless because of the next item.

It has 512mb of DDR2 in dual-channel.
Again, I don't have high standards. I don't need DDR3 or triple channel. At least 2GB of RAM would alleviate a lot of my frustrations. To add fuel to the fire, 8MB of the RAM went to the onboard graphics. (Even my smartphone has 576MB of RAM!)

Windows XP Service Pack 2
Oh my god. I don't expect any large corporations to be adopting Windows Vista since it was such a disaster. And Windows 7 probably still needs a couple years of testing. But Service Pack 3 released in May 2008!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

McDonald's Fries with Seaweed Seasoning?


So, I'm sitting at McDonald's and decided to slowly kill myself by having my side of fries. I noticed the little pack of seaweed seasoning that you're suppose to add to the fries. Checking the ingredients on the little package, I decided that the fries didn't need the additional help in slowly killing me.

Here are the ingredients of the seaweed seasoning.

Maltodextrin - Food additive; made from corn starch; often found in sodas and candy.
Dextrose Powder - This is just glucose; probably part of the maltodextrin.
Salt - Self explanatory.
Seaweed powder - Probably aonori.
Sea Lettuce Powder - Not sure how this is different to seaweed powder.
Lobster Powder - I was almost sure this was going to be a shady ingrediant. But apparently, it's actually made from lobster and is quite natural.
Sugar - Self explanatory.
Soy Sauce Powder - more salt and maltodextrin but this time with soybean.
Flavouring - Right...
Anti-caking agent E551 - Yum...
Flavour Enhancer E635 - Is this really necessary with all those aromatic powders already?
Vegetable Oil - Of course.
Spices - Right...

Mix this with the ingredients of McDonald's fries and you see what a mess it is.

Potatoes - Certainly...
vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives], citric acid [preservative]) - Wonder what they use for "natural beef flavor"...
Dextrose - We've seen this before...
Sodium acid pyrophosphate - Keeps potatos from darkening.
Salt - More of this?
Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent) - Again, more yummy goodness..