site stats


If you didn’t know already: IE does not display this site correctly, due to web standards. Most importantly IE is susceptible to viruses, and spyware; due to Microsoft’s inability to patch it’s own browser in a timely manner. So I highly recommend, a safe, more standards compliant browser such as Mozilla Firefox.

Reminder…

April 9th, 2006

Just a reminder that I will not be updating ChapterTwo anymore (not even to add reminders). If you have a bookmark set to http://elyliu.com/blog, please update it to http://www.elyliu.com. I will always have the index page forward to the most up to date blog.

Thanks for your cooperation.

The end and the beginning…

April 4th, 2006


Today is a big day. It marks the beginning and the end for a couple things.

First of all, today is my last day working for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online. It is a sad day. I am proud of myself for not breaking down and sob. I really will miss everybody at WDPRO. It’s been awsome working with everybody. During college, I was dreading the day I start working 40 hour weeks. Working at PRO was nothing I thought working life would be. I had fun working. Who woulda known I could have fun at work!?!?!

I am touched by all the people that showed up at my going away lunch today. Thanks guys for coming out. It really means a lot. I am also touched that people would actually spend so much money on me for a going away present. I confess. I was actually suspecting that I would get an iPod since that’s kinda the only thing I wanted that I have not actually gotten. However, I was expecting a 2GB Nano or something, not the TOP OF THE LINE, iPOD VIDEO w/ 60GB! (and a charger, and $20 cash) WOW! And sorry if I didn’t seem as ecstatic at the restaurant. I was mostly stunned. I’ve already put the iPod to good use. I backed up 15GB of stuff from my work computer (mostly car videos and MP3s), uploaded 400+ photos, and uploaded 14 episodes of Lost. Thanks again, everybody!

Ok, moving on. I can blab on how I am gonna miss everyone for a long time, but I need to move on so I can get some sleep. I need to get to ABC.com early tomorrow.

Hmmm, what else. Oh ya. Today is the official beginning of another triathlon season. I wanted to go to the kick off meeting, but I was tied up wrapping stuff up at work. :( GO TEAM DISNEY!

Also, 6 monthes ago from today, the WordPress blog was set up on elyliu.com and my first blog post was written. So happy 6 month birthday elyliu.com! As of today, there are…

  • 144 posts (including this one)
  • 77 comments

And in the last month, the hits to elyliu.com has EXPLODED. I got 1600+ hits last month (none from me)! Check out the growth of elyliu.com…

Yay for elyliu.com!

Here’s a random fact that is vaguely related, but my friend still wanted me to include it in this post for no apparent reason. 144 is also the year the Han dynasty ended. Since so many things are starting and ending today, I feel it is appropriate to bring ChapterTwo to an end. Farewell, friends. See ya in ChapterThree. :)

Ruby on Rails…

April 1st, 2006

What the hell is it? Ruby is just another language like PHP, JSP, and C++. Rails is a web application framework written in the Ruby programming language. Rails allows you become more efficient by eliminating boring repetitive work. Here’s a quote from the philosophy section for Ruby on Rail in WikiPedia

Ruby On Rails’ guiding principles include “Don’t Repeat Yourself” (DRY) and “Convention Over Configuration.”

“Don’t Repeat Yourself” means that definitions should only have to be made once. Since Ruby On Rails is a “full-stack” framework, the components are integrated so that bridges between them need not be set up manually. For example, in Active Record, class definitions need not specify the column names; Ruby already can find them from the database itself, so defining them in both the program and the RDBMS would be redundant.

“Convention Over Configuration” means that the programmer only needs to define configuration which is unconventional.

For example, if there is a Post class in model, the corresponding table in the database is posts, but if the table is unconventional (e.g. blogposts), it must be specified manually (set_table_name “blogposts”).

Sounds cool, huh? Here are more links if you want to learn more about Ruby on Rails…

Good overview of RoR
WikiPedia
Videos of RoR in action…
Interview with RoR’s creator, David Heinemeier Hansson
Good place to start learning Ruby (fun site!)
More RoR links

Google Romance…

April 1st, 2006

Google just launched a new dating site: Google Romance! Check it out.

Duke Nukem…

April 1st, 2006


So the new Duke Nukem is almost out, and here’s an review of it. I am usually not a big on talking about games, but the new Duke Nukem is cool because it’s built using AJAX and Ruby on Rails! Here’s an demo of a 3D shooter built using AJAX and Ruby on Rails.

New car smell…

April 1st, 2006

The first thing that I smelled when I got home today was the new car smell. It’s kind of odd because we didn’t get a new car. And even if we did, it wouldn’t make the house smell like it.

It turned out that the smell is coming from my new Bacco Bucci Parra… :)

I got a SWEET deal on it too (thanks, Christine). Zappos.com is selling them for $170 a pair. I got it for less than $65 out the door! :)

Tray sliding…

March 31st, 2006

See what you can do with McDonald’s trays… :)

Early riser?…

March 31st, 2006

So I’ve been trying the early riser thing for about a week now. Every single day, it’s been PAINFUL to wake up early. Today, it’s different. I went to bed at 2am last night and I am up now at 7am, WITHOUT AN ALARM! WOOO! And I am gonna get some swimming in before work (after I am done with this post)…

We’ll see if I can permanently be an early riser…

UPDATE: I didn’t go swimming. :( Once I logged on, I couldn’t log off. Next obstacle, how to become a regular exerciser…

More interesting blog post/articles…

March 31st, 2006


This article says NBA wants to ban players from wearing tights on the court. What’s wrong with wearing tights? Wearing tights are awsome for sports. Tights offer muscle compression and they keep the muscles warm. If NBA wants to ban tights because it is now a fashion statment, they should ban the headbands, armbands, and the rubber wristbands as well. Ridiculous…

Interesting news about students organizing protests via text messages and MySpace.com. And Danah Boyd’s analysis. This is definitely an interesting phenomenon. Crazy kids…

Lastly, another interesting blog post from Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users. This post is titled “Code like a girl”. :) Interesting read… And if you haven’t subscribed to that blog yet, you should…

I am outtie…

Crappy day…

March 30th, 2006

It’s been a pretty crappy day. Here’s why (in no particular order)…

  • My going away party was bundled with the quarterly birthday party (BUNDLED WITH THE QUARTERLY BDAY PARTY?!?!?! UGH! WHERE’S THE LOVE?!?!)
  • My Yahoo stocks are doing crappy
  • My Z’s shocks feel like it is going bad
  • I was at work til 9pm on my third to last day at work (doing work)
  • People are yelling at me (via email)
  • My dinner plans got canceled
  • I am hungry
  • Lakers are losing right now
  • My Google AdSense account got disabled

Pretty crappy day, doncha think?

UPDATE: Lakers lost :(