credit card fee realization...

So, Do you know how your credit card fee is calculated? I just figured it out!

We've been watching our credit closely and learning how to raise our credit scores (without paying lots of interest fees).
We bought a couch last week and I wondered how the credit cards come up with the seemingly random finance-charge so I found out something very interesting.
They charge a tiny interest daily (.04%) SO I wanted to know how much money we would be paying if we put the couch on credit for 1 month verses 1 day.
In other words: what would we save by paying the charge the day after the charge instead of at the end of the month.
TAKE A LOOK!...
$18.75 vs 63cents !

We're expecting

a new couch any day now. We're very excited and anticipate it's arrival. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but we do know what color it is. Dark Grey (and very comfortable I might add).

GOOGLE READER: ok, i'm addicted

(click)to google reader! basically it looks like your email in-box but instead of mail you get the newest articles that your favorite websites post. I have a "design" folder with ~20design sites that I SHOULD be keeping track of as a designer but had no way to do it efficiently. Now i just tell it which sites OR search "gadgets" for instance and subscribe to the site "feed". Now i can skim through 100s of articles with photos and see what catches my eye. I can do proactive research.

it does local NEWS, you-tube, anything! Even your friends Blogs post to your "inbox".

There is a "SHARE" feature that you can show your friends what caught your eye.You have to start using it to get the full effect, but HERE ARE A FEW OF MINE:
(pictured is a super-thin and durable tyvek mailing-envelope wallet featured in the museum of modern art I tried to make one, but I want the designer's version)

Making Fun of Fonts

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

Design tool:

we have something like this... (but it only prints plastic but i have made plastic molds to make rubber parts)

Magic wheel (Gauswheel) = Awesome toy

Stares: good or bad?

Friday, July 18, 2008, 8:19:26 PM

i'm adding a photo:

So, we got all dressed up - me in my 3-piece suit with red tie and new faux-hawk she in her brown skirt & top with plaid heels and [hot] neck scarf with her hair all curled and looking absolutely gorgeous...

A good situation is when you open the door for your wife at a nice restaurant and, as you follow her in, you see that many of the men are looking at her... then of course they see me and avert their eyes = Good situation.

So it's strange when I open the door, let her step in ahead of me, follow her in, see the guys staring BUT then I am caught in an uncomfortable eye-lock with the row of gay guys standing at the bar = Good situation or Bad situation... uncomfortable either way.

Amy enjoyed it and laughed though. I just don't know weather to be flattered or not. So, backstory is that she loved Roy's restaurant in Hawaii and after hearing they opened in San Fran (http://www.roysrestaurant.com/), I made a reservation. we ate the appetizer canoe with yummy everything including these lobster pot-stickers. For dinner, the m academia crusted butter yellow tail and for desert- chocolate souffle and strawberry shortcake. yummy (BUT, we still love CreAsian better )(we found it on the way home from the temple) (better price and portions great presentation). http://www.creasianbistro.com/index.html

Farding Kills

Ok, so get this… It's "ride-you're-bike-to-work-day" so naturally I appeased Mother Earth by strapping my bike to the roof of my car and DROVE-my-bike-to-work… (Does that count?). So, now I'm driving down Winchester in the "fast-lane" on my way to work -Chomping on my yummy blueberry Cliff bar- when I pull up to a stoplight and tragedy strikes... almost.

So, I'm slowing to a stop when a sun-damaged, renegade Ford Mercury flies into my lane while turning left – heads straight at me – and then onto the center island – dodges around traffic-light and sign posts – all the while casually signaling a merge into the proper side of the street then jumps into the proper flow again. I'm unscathed, but on tomorrows commute, that woman will think twice about farding.

(look up "fard")

Eating Healthy-

This Salmon Burger recipe confused us- http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/epicurious/105602/salmon-burgers-with-spinach-and-ginger
274 kcal = low-cal meal? (yes/no)
We found that
1 kcal = 1 Calorie (big "C") = 1000 calories (little "c")
So, in fact, this recipe has 274,000 calories!
if that's not confusing enough... we Americans interchange Calorie with calorie and it's really only 274 "Calories"


AVOCADOS:
Amy has been awesome at making sure we eat healthy. I've never seen so much fruit in my life and she's always finding healthy recipes that she wants to try out. I don't know as much as she does and I definitely think that I know how to eat healthy- but in truth, she knows more and i slowly pick things up from her... slowly. For instance, I heard that Avocados were one of the fattiest foods so I avoided them for so long, but often indulged when making deli-sandwiches- one of my favorites. She says i was wrong and I trust her - especially since I saw the nutrition facts on guacamole. Needless to say, my naivety about nutrition and OUR desire to eat well together has often led me to be re-informed. I'm learning- In fact, i think i'll look up avocados now...

"Although they are fruits, avocados have a high fat content of between 71 to 88% of their total calories - about 20 times the average for other fruits. A typical avocado contains 30 grams of fat, but 20 of these fat grams are health-promoting monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid." http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=5 (best link)

"It's true that avocados are high in fat -- one reason they've earned the nickname "butter pear." A medium-sized avocado contains 30 grams of fat, as much as a quarter-pound burger. That's why diet experts have long urged Americans to go easy on avocados in favor of less fatty fruits and vegetables. But now nutritionists are taking another look. They're finding that most of the fat in an avocado is monounsaturated -- the "good" kind that actually lowers cholesterol levels. Thanks to this new understanding, the U.S. government recently revised its official nutrition guidelines to urge Americans to eat more avocados." http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/avocado-advantage

"Between 70-90% of the calories in avocados are from fat. All avocados contain "monounsaturated" fat, the same kind of fat as olives. This type of fat may help lower cholesterol. Also avocados are high in beta carotene, fiber, folate (a B vitamin), fiber, and potassium (ounce for ounce avocados have 60% more potassium than bananas). To put the fat in perspective, per ounce avocados have less fat than lean beef, and a whole Haas avocado (the highest fat variety) has less fat than 3 tablespoons of Italian salad dressing. So, go right ahead and put some guacamole on your burrito!" http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0656.html

Anyway- enough studying for today
As usual, Amy's right and i heard wrong.

Zoolander-sized phone through wireless power

An interesting article about wireless power. Basically these MIT students made one coil of copper wire to transmit "magnetic resonance" (MHz) 7 feet across a room to another "receiving coil" to power a light bulb. This works a lot like an opera singer breaking a wine-glass that is receiving energy from her vocal frequency- except instead of harmonics, it's magnets. The cool part about this is that, unlike current electro-magnetic power-transfer, the power of this "magnetically coupled resonator" travels great distances and doesn't RADIATE and get lost in space creating RADIATION that can harm [human] organisms. Instead the power that isn't gathered by the receiving unit remains localized with the sending-unit.
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7418/
What does this mean to you? how about never having to plug in your "feather-light/paper-thin" laptop that doesn't even need a [heavy] battery or cord! Cell Phones are pretty thin now, but you could literally have a Zoo-lander-sized phone here. Pretty awesome stuff!
One of my school projects was Starbuck's furniture that had a fold-out table for your laptop and the table-top transfered power to your computer. Great idea, but this technology will quell whole "fear-of-cancer" thing that comes with current inductive power-transfer.

fight for freedom!

Amy and I went to Volleyball with Almaden3rd ward (it's now something else(?)) and there were all of these GoodWill clothes COVERING the whole stage. We sorted through them and found her brothers some hideous SF 49er sweat-pants (tiger and snake-skin patterns), her some black-with-neon-paint-splash sweat-pants and -of course- myself the MOST AWESOME AMERICAN FLAG PANTS! (made famous by Rex Quon Do in Napoleon Dynamite- http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=558). Of course we wore them over our voleyball outfits as long as we could untill we got super hot... Now I love them as pajama pants and even wore them to Costco today for the 5th of July.

I love going to Costco because I don't have to dress up as much as I do when we go to Walmart. :D

(j/k)

CHINA Tour-day Photos

Well, as you may know, I was in China for a week- including a weekend.
So one day we toured a nearby Ancient water-town (with a leaning tower temple) and some botanical gardens. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Front gates of Suzhou- ancient water town

Suzhou- North temple Pagoda (Leaning tower of Pagoda)

This is when it started to rain.

Arches

Now it's pouring rain. (you'll see the tower is leaning towards us)

(Well, it's been there for 2500 years- why would it fall now?)

Taking a boat ride around the city moat.

random

Now it's a monsoon- even the mannequins are wading.

Joe had the women's attention... all they wanted was his money.

Talking Maynah bird

Later at the botanical gardens...

"hello" There's a little cliff and stream below me that wouldn't fit in frame.

beautiful architecture and landscaping!

of course they put us to work

in the rain the lily pads fill with water, tip over and pour off into each other. a very tranquil and poetic design.

Dragon scales

here's the picture we laughed about-
The group shot was funniest to Joe and I because – as I tell the
story- someone offered to take or photo so Joe and I stood in frame
(as far apart as men are supposed to stand away from each other) and our tour-guides/co-workers filled in the gap. Little did we know that
(even with my hand behind my back to avoid any "appearances") the
picture would still come out looking like 2 couples out on the town.
Far from the truth- needless to say- ESPACIALLY since the whole time I was thinking
"WOW look at that! I really really wish Amy was here with me!"

fasting helps jet lag

It's true- I tried it. You can help re-set your internal clock by waiting 16 hours to eat at breakfast time at your destination. You sort of trick your body into starting a new day at the right time. Listen to the research...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90769113