I just noticed these “aliens” and “space ships” in my backyard:
Archive for November, 2007
Aliens in my backyard
Sunday, November 18th, 2007Grey’s Anatomy cutting in…
Friday, November 16th, 2007Has anyone noticed that since this season started, Grey’s Anatomy has never ended on time? Yep, it has yet to end at 10.00pm this season. It’s been 10.01, 10.02 and even 10.07pm!
I have the Comcast DVR and it can only record 2 shows at once so when one show runs over, I can only record one show the next hour.
The 2 shows I want to record that starts at 10.00pm are ER and Without a Trace. But because of Grey’s unfair behavior, I have had to sacrifice the 1st few minutes of the other shows. It’s so frustrating.
Play fair, Grey’s!
Zoom Zoom Gas Prices
Thursday, November 15th, 2007I filled up my car on Tuesday at Costco and it was $3.299/gallon. Today, driving around town, I saw a Shell with $3.56/gallon and this 76 gas station with $3.53/gallon.
Ouch, it sure hurts!
Amazing Photo!
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007National Geographic always has the best photos! Check this one out from today’s Photo of the Day:
It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? It looks like someone drew a happy face on this spider! It’s Nature that did it!
And that’s exactly its name. The Happy Face Spider, found in Hawaii. It’s supposed to discourage birds from eating it.
Truly Amazing!
AZN Tv messes up again!
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007AZN Tv channel is showing a black screen tonight, saying it “will be available shortly” but it doesn’t!
This means I don’t get to watch Dae Jo Young tonight 
boo hoo…
Just a few weeks ago, instead of hearing the actors’ voices, we get what sounded like the local Comcast broadcast. It’s so annoying. Whoever works there should be fired!
Spiderman 3
Sunday, November 11th, 2007Spiderman 3 is now out on DVD and we finally watched it last night.
I thought it was pretty good, entertaining…we get to see the dark side of Peter Parker a.k.a Spiderman.
I don’t think I can ever get tired of watching Spiderman swing from one building to another 
Episode 82 - Dae Jo Young
Friday, November 9th, 2007I thought it’d never happened but it finally did!
Episode 82: Dae Jo Young is FINALLY on his way to becoming a king. He has finally realized that he is capable of becoming a king, even without having royal blood.
Dae Jo Young is a Korean drama series that I’ve been following…faithfully. It’s on AZN Tv Mondays through Fridays at 6pm. It’s a looong series. It’s on 5 times a week, and it’s now Episode 82 which means that I’ve been watching it for over 16 weeks!
The synopsis given by AZN Tv about this series is “A dramatic series about a love triangle involving King Dae Jo Young”. That is simply hilarious since that barely even touches the surface of it.
It is more like a series that follows a man’s journey to becoming a king through many ups, downs and battles… in short.
In long, it covers how the Goguryeo kingdom, founded by Jumong (another great series that was shown before Dae Jo Young), fell to the Tang dynasty. There were many fierce battles and betrayals before that happened. Also before Goguryeo fell to the Tangs, a baby was born under a shooting star and was destined to be a king.
The kid grows up and it’s been one betrayal after another and one battle after another to save Goguryeo. Goguryeo finally falls, then it was one battle after another to revive Goguryeo.
And between those, there were plenty of good-ol-way-to-get-people-to-talk tortures.
Anyway, I knew that historically Dae Jo Young eventually founded his own country and became a king but I didn’t think that it would take 82 episodes to actually get the process started!
Fall Colors
Thursday, November 8th, 2007It’s magic. The minute we turn back the clock, it starts to look and feel like winter. It’s like someone flipped a switch and winter’s here.
But it’s still fall!
Good thing I captured some pretty nice fall colors last month. I thought I’d share:
Foggy morning
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007It’s starting to look a lot like winter…
America’s Wealth Spectrum
Monday, November 5th, 2007Read this article on Yahoo Finance today…
Supposedly every three years, the Federal Reserve Board conducts a national survey that tracks the financial health of American households. Who knew?
If your household makes $170,000 per year, then you’re among the nation’s top 10% wage earners. The middle point is $40K, that is if you make $40K per year, then you’re already in better shape than half the households in USA!
I don’t know how they define households, but here in the SF Bay Area, earning 40K/year would put you in the poverty level. I suppose one person could live on 40K per year but it’d be tough. A household, I assume, is 2 or more people.
40K with 25% federal taxes and 9% state tax would leave you with 25.6K which is just slightly more than 2K/month. You can’t afford to rent an apt so let’s say you rent a room at 500/month.
That leaves about 1500/month for food, gas, insurance (car, health, renter, etc.), entertainment, etc. It’s definitely not much!
Income level (percentile) Median income (rounded)
Level VI (90 to 100) $170,000
Level V (80 to 89.9) $99,000
Level IV (60 to 79.9) $65,000
Level III (40 to 59.9) $40,000
Level II (20 to 39.9) $24,000
Level I (less than 20) $10,000
Source: Before-Tax Family Income, 2001 Federal Reserve Board Survey
According to the Fed, the US national median net worth is $86,000 meaning that half of citizens have more than that and half have less than that. Net worth is assets minus liabilities (debt).
Net worth (percentile) Median net worth (rounded)
Level VI (90 to 100) $833,600
Level V (80 to 89.9) $263,100
Level IV (60 to 79.9) $141,500
Level III (40 to 59.9) $62,500
Level II (20 to 39.9) $37,200
Level I (less than 20) $7,900
Source: Family Net Worth, 2001 Federal Reserve Board Survey
Somewhat mind-boggling is that :
The top 1% of the population of USA, approx 3 million people, currently have as much money as the 100 million people at the bottom.