SimpleBlob's Life

My Hard disk went a little foobar on one specific file. (downloaded from torrent)

When copying the file, it just freezes at 56% mark. And then several event logs of "Event ID 11" came up. From googling, it can be anything from motherboard controller, cable, or the harddisk itself.

This is the 2nd defect within 2 months of my Dell refurbished laptop purchase. I hope this is not a common occurrence, or else Dell should fire the whole QC department.

I always enjoy Khatzumoto's post about learning Japanese. His post is the motivation you need when you can't seem to go on anymore, and his post actually apply to anything else that is skill-based endavour.

This latest post is especially encouraging.

Although I think the innate talent is important (especially in the beginning), for most things the amount of work you put in will contribute much more to your expertise on the subject. Currently, there is only one exception that I can think of, and that is mathematician. For this one, talent rules all.

Lucky I don't want to be one.

In America, everything is a competition. Even in cooking, if you want you can make a competition out of it.

Quite similar to "America's Next Top Model", the Food Network has its own show of future "cooking" TV personality. From the 2 episodes that I watched, it was done quite well. There are originally 8(?) contestant in total, and each week the committee will decide who will be cut base on their performance. The test they made each week is something related to being a cooking TV host -- like food knowledge, or performance in front of the camera.

In the latest episode I watched, there are 3 contestant left -- Aaron, Liza, Adam. I feel most comfortable with Aaron so I'm cheering for him.