Silicon Valley... 的个人资料Living in the Silicon Va...照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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8月20日 Great Seats for SF Symphony Scored!I can hardly contain the excitement of my recent purchase of SF Symphony tickets for this coming season. The best part is that my seat is in the dead center of the section. Nothing can ever beat good seating. Good seats always help justify the time spent leisurely enjoying good performances to divert the mind for the mundane chores and other time-wasting activities.
Having been a subscriber quite a few seasons ago, I already have a routine for ticket purchase, availing of subscriber services, and performance day procedure. With this upcoming season, I'm sure my routine will have to be revised and upgraded a little. The subscriber perks seem much better this time around or at least I'm noticing them. In a few days, single tickets go on sale for subscribers only, so I have a task to identify other concerts worth attending.
My initial reluctance to renew the subscription after my first two seasons was because going to the concerts became an unwanted production. Driving up to San Francisco for an occasional weekend concert when I would rather be hanging out at home proved to be a nuisance. Then, there was also the predicament of going to these concerts alone. There are times when having a regular companion to go with helps make the logistics slightly more bearable.
In spite of that, I still signed up for this season by myself because I didn't want to tackle the task of recruiting another regular for the season. If I did, I would have to tackle differing budgetary expectations, scheduling conflicts, and finally carpooling options. Recruiting an occasional companion should not be an issue, but finding another regular could prove to be more challenging. In the mean time, I took the selfish shortcut of taking care of just myself. Although it seems kind of pathetic, it's not that bad to be resigned to doing these things on your own. However, I forsee organizing a leisurely group outting for a concert or two in the future. 3月28日 Behind on Netflix, AgainWhen I first signed up for Netflix's 3-DVDs-at-a-time plan over 2 years ago, I was militant about watching at least 3 DVDs a week. That made my subscription a worthwhile investment and ensured that I had absolutely no time whatsoever after work to engage in social or atheletic activities, as 10:30pm to 11pm was my usual bedtime. If I didn't work hard enough to finish the 3 DVDs during the week, the weekends were my fallbacks. As dedicated as I was to my subscription, I depised 3-day weekends or any government holidays that prevented the USPS from delivering my DVDs. My boring life revolved around my exciting Netflix queue and yoga took a backseat. I blamed my inconsistent yoga participation on the lousy commute home. Who has the energy to work out after 40 minutes of traffic, when those enticing DVDs begged to entertain you mindlessly? I'd re-check and re-prioritize the DVDs in the queue, multiple time a day. Why didn't they have a counter telling me how many times I've reviewed my Netflix queue? That would have been a good indicator of my Netflix obsession.
After watching a healthy (or some may say unhealthy) amount of DVDs over a span of 2 years, I began to slowly regain consciousness and surface from the deluge of DVDs. There were a few months of intense withdrawals, during which 3 DVDs sat on top of my TV set collecting dust because I was too lazy to pop in the DVD of a foreign film. Movies with English subtitles require more effort and focus. The subscription-driven me would never have allowed that to happen. After much internal debate, I had to prioritize and sadly acknowledge the fact that my time with Netflix was nearing an end...and I had to wind down to the 1-DVD-at-a-time plan, which typically was used by the less dedicated subscribers.
These days, I'd be lucky if I even remembered I had a DVD at home. I can hardly recall the last time I even took a look at my queue or even opened the red and white Netflix envelop. All those sweet Netflix memories shall be treasured and looked back upon fondly. Tuesday nights are typically devoted to that lonely Netflix DVD I received in the mail. But I opted instead to watch TV (new episodes of Law and Order, can't miss that!) and read the newspaper. Well, Netflix, I'll be penciling you in for a date next Tuesday evening and it'll be all about you! 3月25日 Your Profile Was Viewed X TimesBusiness website owners generally want to know how many hits their websites get as a means of gauging interest and also the success of their company's internet strategy. In addition to the number of hits, they'd usually want to know how the traffic was directed such as the source (ads, email newsletters, referring websites, etc.) That would measure the success of their advertisements and partnering websites. They'd also want to be estimate how much expected traffic to accomodate with sufficient servers so that the website's response to user clicks would not be compromised. Nothing is more frustrating to an end user than poor performance.
Somehow, this concept of tracking hits and identifying referring addresses has extended itself into the online networking and blog world. Let's just admit it, we all want to know how many hits our profile gets. These days, if you have an online profile, a counter that tracks how many hits recieved is almost a must. In some cases, you may even be able to identify who viewed your profile or at least how they arrived at your blog. If the online networking host lacked that feature, I'm sure it's on the "Cons" column rather than on the "Pros" side, if comparing the different networking sites out there.
This past Friday, my friend's girlfriend asked me if I paid attention to that number at all, because she believes that my friend is obsessed with that number. Of course, being the honest person that I am, I said that I most certainly did. Then, she followed it up with the inevitable, "Exactly how much do you care -- let's quantify it!" As if I were filling out a survey, I was asked which category I belonged to:
1. 0-5 times
2. 5-10 times
3. ....
I stopped at #2, because I couldn't possibly be checking that counter more than 10 times a day! I wouldn't mind some attention, but I don't have the time to be tracking that number all day long. My friend looked at me disbelievingly and said, "Come on...just tell us the truth. If you don't check it more than 10 times a day, you're definitely way better than me." OK, so I revised my supposedly honest answer with more details. I did check my profile 5-10 times -- more like 5-10 times in the morning, another 5-10 times in the afternoon, and 5-10 times before wrapping up the day and going to bed. Fine, I guess I got caught in my little half-truth here. If you think about it, how hard is it to check when the browser is already open and every once in a while when taking a mini 3-minute break, to just check out the headlines and a little by-the-way eyeballing of that number?
Does that make me (and hoards of other people because I know I am not alone here) some desperate person needing numbers to quantify my popularity or at least the level of curiosity people have about me, a complete stranger on the internet? If the website never offered the feature of tracking the number of hits received, would that make me less inclined to keep my profile and blog current? I sure hope that my online ego does not require that much stroking. At any rate, as of today, after slaving over 181 reviews, my Yelp profile was viewed 1972 times and I firmly believe that number is 100% attributed to the fruits of my Yelp labor and not at all to those sexy pictures of the Magnolias blooms that I've been posting. 3月20日 Justin Timberlake Rocks!JT's music from his most recent album have been played in radio stations and clubs. I have to say that I'm quite impressed with his latest album, specifically with the two songs, "My Love" and "Bring Sexy Back." I believe both of these songs were performed with Timbaland, who also worked with Nelly Furtado on "Promiscuous." I think Timbaland definitely puts a pretty good touch on the songs. The falsetto voice JT uses in "My Love" is kind of annoying but it makes the song unique and oddly appealing. Anyways, I had these two songs replaying on my iPod during my commute. In fact, I nearly missed my exit to downtown Mountain View because I was paying too much attention to the lyrics -- not as if he was saying anything too worth remembering. At any rate, I have a feeling I will get sick of these songs pretty soon. Luce is already on the back burner to take over JT's spot when the inevitable happens. |
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