Lindsey's Homepage

Dan Shuei

Lindsey — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:53:38 +0000

Today we went to Swensens to meet Joy’s college friends for lunch. Joy’s sister came too and after that we took the MRT (subway) to Dan Shuei and met Joys brother and his girlfriend there. Dan Shuei is the last MRT stop to the north and is where the Dan Shuie river empties into the Pacific ocean. We took a boat across the river and rented bicycles. There were a lot of people everywhere. On the way back across the river we happened to catch some fireworks.

Here’s a video I made documenting the day:

You can also get it off YouTube directly.

Day Trip to JiJi

Lindsey — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:03:26 +0000

Today we took the High Speed train traveling at 240 Km/h to Tai Zhong in the middle of Taiwan. It took about 40 minutes when it usually takes 2 hours on the express train. From Tai Zhong we took a tourist train up into the mountains to the small village of JiJi. JiJi is a tourist town made famous by its beautiful scenery and many bicycle venders.
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We rented power assisted bicycles that allowed us to ride 2 people on a bike and would be powered when at cruising speed. On acceleration and steep hills you were required to pedal. It was really a lot of fun. One of the many little touristy places that we stopped at was a temple that had partially sunk due to the earthquake in 2000.

We’re in Taiwan

Lindsey — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:33:28 +0000

We’re back in Taiwan again visiting Joy’s family. This was the first time we’ve been back since moving to San Diego and were able to take advantage of the shorter traveling time. Only 14 hours compared to the 20-24 hours traveling time from Michigan.

The weather here is nice, in the 70’s of course the Taiwanese think it’s cold and everyone is walking around in layers of clothes. Joy’s been dreaming about the breakfast shop food and of course on the first morning we had everything in the picture below for only $80NT (about $2.50 USD).

Game Developers Conference

Lindsey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:21:27 +0000

I just got back from a few days at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. My company sent me along with 6 co-workers to check out the latest in game development from leading experts in the field. It wasn’t actually all that great. My company only gave us 2 conference passes and 4 exhibit passes. So, we had to share the confernece passes to get into the sessions. I was able to sit in on an AI round table, which was actually pretty interesting. I was sitting with people that did the AI for Command and Conquerer, the Sims, Age of Empire, and more. But that was about the extent of the trip. On the last day, a couple of us went to China town before catching the flight back to San Diego. Lesson here is, if you’re going to send employees on a trip and pay for the airplane, food, and hotel, make sure you get enough passes to make the trip worth while.

Father and Daughter Reunited

Lindsey — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:24:48 +0000

This Christmas we went back to Michigan and we took Peep with us. It was her first time on an airplane (at least with us). The vet gave her an eighth of a small sleeping pill and that seemed to help. We let her out a few times on the plane and hid her between Joy and I. Then when we got to my moms house she was reunited with her father Vegas. They were so happy to see each other.

Universal Studios Hollywood

Lindsey — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:46:21 +0000

Yesterday we took a break and went to Universal Studios Hollywood. We went with 2 of Joys friends. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The best part was the studio tour where they drove us down the back lots and could peak into the sound stages where they were making movies. We also drove down Wisteria Lane where they film Desperate Houseelves. They were setting up for a future episode where a huricane hits.

Game Released

Lindsey — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:21:28 +0000

After working 3 weeks straight without a day-off and some 24 hour shifts, we finally released the beta version for the Chaotic game. The website is up and running at www.chaoticgame.com and the game can be downloaded. The real release will occur in Feb. The cards can be bought at local hobbie shops and trading card stores. In Feb they will be available in most major retail stores.

Now that the game has been released, we’re going to take it easy for a few weeks and I’ll be getting some promised comp days. I really like working for the company - they have a family style atmosphere.

San Diego Fire

Lindsey — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:32:45 +0000

As has been reported in the news, San Diego is under siege from multiple (8) fires. I first noticed it on Monday when I was in a co-workers office and we noticed an orange haze out the window. Then we realized that we could smell smoke. It wasn’t until later that night when Joy called and told me that the fires were severe and that there were over turned trucks, huricane force?winds,?and freeways closed. I came home at around midnight and couldn’t breath outside. It was very windy and almost forced my car off the road twice. Ash was falling from the sky.

The next morning it took me over an hour to get to work because the freeway was closed and the roads were full of evacuees. As of today, there are 500,000 people evacuated and without homes. I stayed at work, but as the fire came closer to our home, I got worried, so I came home. Joy packed yesterday in case we have to leave. When I got home there were people packing there cars outside out apartment building. I saw someone taking their TV.

We haven’t evacuated yet, but we did go to the store this morning to get supplies. There is a chance we will loose electricity because the fire has knocked out 1 of 2 major power line arteries and the second is in the fire’s path.

New Job

Lindsey — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:19:20 +0000

3 weeks ago I took a new job with Chaotic USA, a new trading card game for kids. I am working on the online game where kids can use their cards to play games with other kids. Chaotic has a cartoon on every Saturday morning where kids in the cartoon are playing the online?trading card game and it becomes real. It’s an exciting time at the company because the cards will be in stores for the first time on October 24th. So, we’re rushing to have the game ready by then.

The game is similar to other trading card games like Magic or Pokemon, except that every card has a unique number that can be entered in the online game and so they can play with their actual card online.

I really love my job and I don’t mind working the extra hours required to meet the October deadline. It will be so fun to go to the store and see the product. It should be in all hobie and card shops as well as larger retail shops like Walmart.

New Car

Lindsey — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 03:14:20 +0000

Yesterday we bought a new car. We only have one here in San Diego, so when I go to work, Joy is left home and not able to easily drive around. When I’m working such long hours, I worry about her at home. Also, when she drives down into the city to the Chinese grocery store, I worry that if something happened, I can’t go help her.

We actually began the search several weeks ago. We’ve had a terrible time with dealers. Whenever we find a car we like, the dealer never wants to make a deal. We’ve had a few lie to us and most are sleazy. And, whenever we liked the sales person, they didn’t have a car we liked. Well, last night we had finished trying to negotiate a Mazda 6 and decided to check the Nisson dealer before we went home and we found a car that we both really liked. It’s a Mitsubishi Outlander, a cross-over between a car and an SUV. We both immediatly fell in love. We were even more amazed to hear it was advertised at a really good price. We negotiated for an even better price and at 1:00am we left the lot with a new car!

It’s a great car with lots of features like heated seats, alloy wheels, AWD,�and an Infinity sound system. We researched the car on the internet and all the people who say the bought one love it. I like it because it handles like a car, but is up high like an SUV. Joy likes it because it had lots of room inside and gets good gas mileage.