Journey to the Past

To find out whether a user exists or not in a Linux machine: *    grep username /etc/passwd or *    id username To give a new user access to Linux machine: 1. Login as root user 2. Run this:     $ /usr/sbin/adduser new_user 3. Set a new password:     $ passwd new_user     (and put the password when prompted) To give them root access: 4. Edit the /etc/sudoers file     $ vi /etc/sudoers     User_Alias YOUR_GROUP = new_user     YOUR_GROUP ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL To test whether the new_user has been granted root access, run these two commands:     $ su new_user (user should be 'new_user' now)     $ sudo su (user should be 'root' now) If the conditions above met, then new_user has root access. If the new_user want to use public/private key gen authorization: 5. Change your user to be the new_user     $ su new_user 6. Create ~/.ssh/...

My time in Indonesia seems to be full of food and wedding-related activities. Obviously, since my main purpose is the wedding, I do lots of preparations for it. The thing is, for the wedding, I need to lose weight (always!). But the culture dictates that people offer food to whomever they happen to meet. So whenever I meet my future parents-in-law, lunch or dinner or snacking is sure to follow. My cousins would tell me all about the delicious food at a place they have just visited. Yesterday, my mom and I went to a jeweler's store, and he treated us to ice cream! We talk about what's for lunch every morning. After lunch, we plan our teatime snack and/or dinner. After dinner, there is a late-night snack talk. And of course, what's for breakfast. Ahhh... Life revolves around food during vacation. What a (yummy) life! ^_^

20 hours of flights in a 24-hour span, and I survived it! 48 hours without internet, and I survived it! Now, it's time for bed... Zzzz....

A friend of mine found out that I always did my own taxes manually every year. He then pointed me to StudioTax , a free tax preparation software for Canadian. This software is really powerful and convenient. When you run the program, it asks for your province of residence and the kind of claims you will make. If you study, you will claim T22. Workers claim T4. If you have savings or investments, you will receive form T5 from the bank. There are also selections for charity, RRSP, etc. Once you have made your claim choices, the screens you need to fill are very simple. It is basically copy-and-paste from your forms to the screens. The software will put the informations on the correct columns. If you make mistake, it will give you warnings before you generate the NETFILE file. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to fill one form. But with StudioTax , I was done in about 15 minutes or so. And that was my first time using it. If I have to do it again, I am sure it would take me less time....

Waaaaaahhhh... The moment I stepped out of the plane, I knew I was in Asia. The air is more humid, and have this after-rain smell. It's nice.. 1 more hour till my flight to Indonesia...

Finally... today I am flying out of Vancouver. It is a long-anticipated day. Strangely enough, I still have lots of things to do before my flight out. In any case, I can't wait to see my family again. It's been such a long time. We are all going to there to celebrate my younger brother's 15th birthday. I think the last time we did that was when he turned 2 .

Ha! I am finally done with my tax return. Next on the list: preparing my sisters' tax return vacuuming my room arranging a mountain full of sheet music

Yesterday after church, my friends threw me a bridal shower! I didn't expect it at all and I was taken completely by surprise. Every female members and friends (and girls) were there. Cik Anita organized the whole thing. She prepared some games where my friends did my evil make-up. Then they tied my hair into lots of small bundles and put a tiara and veil over it. The young adult females made this overall that looked like a Hawaiian skirt, with the duster incorporated in it. I still do not know how I looked, but it must have been pretty terrible, because the little girls were staring, and the teenage girls were giggling and pointing. I was thankful that nobody cried though.. so there is hope still... Then I had to identify 14 cleaning products in a story that cik Anita read. If I got less than 10, I would be 'punished'. Although I hate cleaning, the hours spent in front of TV pay off... I managed to identify 12. Hehehe.. I think cik Anita was pretty disappointed that I got ...

Some of my friends have been asking us to post some pre-wedding pictures. Well.. Chris has posted some on our wedding website and some more on Flickr . Without further ado.. here they are!

Ha! Finally.. after postponing putting away the laundry for several weeks, yesterday night I hardened my resolve and spent 3 hours taking care of the laundry. Who knew I had so much clothes? Who knew I had so much too-small jeans? Must... lose... weight... (but love food too much to stop eating.. ). Hhh... Next up, filing tax returns. I am starting to dread the process and wondering if it worths paying $80 for a consultant service. Hmm....

Procrastinating.. Ah... You would think that a word starting with "pro" would have a positive meaning. Proactive, professional, protein.. They are all good. But this one pro is not good for health. Currently I have lots of things to do before leaving for Indonesia. Let's see.. I need to go to Costco and buy medicines for mom. I need to find more clothes as well. And arranging my room. And packing my baggage. Oh, and filing tax. Whew.. lots of things to do. And yet, every night I still sit in front of TV and watch these cool Japanese guys sing, act, talk, and play games. Procrastinating.. I have master this one art that I definitely can use without.

So I am back from yet another dentist appointment. And the dentist discovered new problem with my teeth. I need several fillings and root canals. Which means yet more appointments to come. Arrgghhhh!! I hate it when this happens. At this rate, I will know every inch of the dentist office by the end of Summer. Now I wish I do not like chocolate and go to dentist regularly. Then perhaps I won't be in this much trouble.

Earlier today, worshipmusic.com sent me a newsletter today regarding the release of Transposer 2.0 . Here is the full announcements: NEW: Transposer 2.0, pitch and tempo changing software! Singers, musicians, worship leaders- ever wanted to change the key of a song instantly, so you could hear the audio file in the best key for you? Changing the sheet music or chord chart was always something you could do, but how could you change an actual audio file with your favorite recording on it? The answer is Transposer 2.0. Transposer 2.0 allows you to raise or lower the pitch of any MP3 song without changing the tempo. You can also change the tempo of an MP3 song without changing the pitch. The quality of the recording remains the same, within reasonable limits (pitch changes between 4-5 semitones, and tempo changes of 25% or less). This program can be very useful to someone trying to learn a certain track of a song.Transposer 2.0 Some applications of Transposer 2.0 include: Practice or pl...

Graduating from university a few years back, I got my degree in both Mathematics and Computing Science. I have passed the classes for ODE, PDE, BVP, and other abbreviated principles of Maths. So how come I can't remember anything about Complex Potential and Ideal Fluid Flow? (Actually, anything with "fluid flow" in it spells trouble for me). Hhh...

Some friends found out about my shoes dilemma . Advices from those who saw the pictures are for the gold one. When I wore them though, the gold one actually looked worse (and less stable) than the white one. So I returned the gold one already. My friends told me an alternative I have never thought about before -- flat or lower shoes. Since I am short, I like high platforms. Apparently though, for the wedding, I will be wearing a tiara, which would add to my height. So lower shoes are better (plus, nobody look at your shoes anyway). I'll try browsing around more for lower shoes.

When I was growing up, my mother always told me that fictions were not the best choice for reading. I should be learning piano or Chinese instead, she would go on. Or improve mathematics skills and do some physics experiments that would be beneficial to my study. Being a kid, I disobeyed her and enjoyed novels very much. I read almost everything from short stories in magazines to detective stories (The Famous Five, The Three Investigators, The Secret Seven) to adventures stories to school-life stories (Malory Towers, St. Clare's). Oh, and of course, fairy tales too. In my junior high school year, Japanese Comic (manga) entered the country (Candy Candy). Along with it, the first anime also came (Doraemon). We have come a long way since Candy Candy and Doraemon, but anime and manga are still enjoyable today. One of the series I like very much is One Piece. And this might sound weird, but One Piece has really good advices and life values that I admire. One, Luffy is always loyal to hi...

In my spare time, I love watching anime (Detective Conan, One Piece, etc) and Japanese drama (Liar Game, Hana Kimi, etc). After watching lots of Japanese shows, I started noticing how Japanese market their products. It is very different than how Western does it. Their advertisements are embedded within the drama. So while the character does something boring or routine (such as driving or locking the apartment door), big letters would appear and names of sponsors would be displayed. Audiences will sit through all the sponsor names for sure, because the drama is still playing in the background. They also market their actors differently. Some actors are dedicated to acting only ( Oguri Shun , for example). Some do modeling on top of acting ( Shibue Joji ). Most, though, are also singers ( Yamashita Tomohisa ). If the actor is a male singer/actor (also referred to as idols), then chances are, he "belongs" to Johnny's. I don't really know the details since I don't spea...

So I am back from my second dentist visit of the year. It was 2 hours long, and my mouth is numb from all the freeze they injected. I still have to go back just for cleaning. I am starting to feel that the tooth fairy hates me. Anyway, while I was sitting on the dentist chair and trying to think about anything but the drill that was in my mouth, I imagined what would happen if our teeth can grow indefinitely all our lives (just like crocodile). If it hurts, we can just pull it out (gently, of course), and it will grow again. There will be no need for hygienist and dentist (or limited need for this profession as we know it now). No drilling in the teeth and no freezing anymore. Instead, there might be field for teeth-polishing, teeth-coloring, and teeth-shaping. Much like what we have for our hair and nails. Come to think of it.. I am so thankful that hair keeps on growing and nails grow back after we cut it. If I have to go through the drilling thing with my nails, I would absolutely g...

In my culture, people have big weddings. Everyone the parents know gets invited. The friends of the bride and the groom also get invited, of course, but they usually make up only about 5% of the total guests. My husband-to-be is a first son in his family. More reason that we will have a big wedding. Anyway, big wedding means standing up for a long time. Which means that I would be needing a comfortable shoes that I can stand in (and walk around with) for hours at end. The shoes must make me taller (since I am short). But it can't be too angled (it would be too tiring for me). I want it to be white (or at least mostly white), and above all, comfortable. I thought that with all these shoes stores, there must be tons of choices that I wouldn't know which one to buy. Boy, was I wrong! It's really hard to find shoes that match those requirements. I walked around for 2 hours with no luck. Fortunately, at the end, I visited Aldo store and managed to find 2 pair that more or less f...

If I have my way, I would never ever have to go to the dentist. My tooth hurts at the thought of dentist. I fast-forwarded "The Little Shop of Horrors" on all dentist's scenes. That's all because of my first visit to the dentist when I was small. He worked on my tooth without anesthetic. I was in pain for a day or two. Ouch! Anyway, after running out of excuses not to go to the dentist, yesterday I finally mustered up the courage to visit one. It was a painful experience. My teeth and gum were very sensitive to touch and cold water, so they need to be frozen first. It turned out that I was hard to freeze. The hygienist must have injected my gums several times with little luck. So she only worked on 1/4 of my mouth's section. Yup, it means that I have to go back to the dentist at least 2 more times!! The good news, though, is that after I got it all cleaned, the gum will start healing itself, and hopefully next year's experience won't be as painful. But unt...

My day started as usual: driving to work, getting stuck in traffic, having coffee (water, actually), checking emails, coding. But today, I got pinged my a friend who told me that he would be leaving the country for good this weekend. I knew he had had problems staying here, but I thought he found a way to finish his study. So his news saddens me. I asked him the reason he suddenly was unable to stay anymore. And he said, "because... it's April Fools' Day!" He got me. I hope your day was full of more pleasant surprise from those around you. Today, a blog I am following, Free Money Finance posted several interesting April Fools' stories. Check them out if you have time. John Bogle Punks World, Admits Index Funds Aren’t Real How to Sell Your Home in Any Market? Be Aloof Government Steps Up Efforts To Assist “Stupid” Homeowners Planning for Retirement in a Post-Apocalyptic World And more April Fools' stuff from around the web: Google's gDay TM with MATE TM V...