Turtle Platform

I was recently given a very adorable red eared slider named Fluffy.  For those of you who don’t know what a red eared slider is check out this Wikipedia entry. Unfortunately, he was having a very hard time getting up on his floating platform to bask under the UV lamp. It was incredibly funny watching Fluffy climb up on top of the platform only to flip over and fall back into the water. However, I’m sure Fluffy wasn’t having a very good time of it. So, I decided to build a better platform. Plywood, dowel rods, drill, glue, and screws – now Fluffy is able to climb out of the water and bask to his heart’s content.

And this is why I hate big companies

I tried to log on to my credit card’s website (http://www.citicards.com) from my Firefox 3.0b5 browser running on Hardy Heron.  The page only loaded from the bottom half down.  The top half where the login form is supposed to displays for a split second and then goes blank.  I checked the page source and I’m fairly sure the Javascript and CSS is partly, if not mostly to blame.

So, I called technical support.  I explained my situation.  The support person who answered the call said the reason I am having problems is because only IE, AOL, and Netscape are supported.  When I asked the support person why, he first mentioned that the site traffic is monitored and that IE, AOL, and Netscape are the most frequently used browsers.  Of course, I didn’t believe him (AOL??? Netscape??? Really???) and pushed for a better answer.  Almost immediately he gave the “to maintain a secure site” excuse.  Again, I didn’t believe him (IE??? Really???).  I wasn’t going to get anywhere fast talking to this particular support person so I asked if I could talk to someone who was involved with the actual development of the website.  He asked if there was a particular person I would like to talk to.  When I said “Director of IT”, the support person said that he was an executive with the company and that he’d be sure to pass along the information.

I promptly asked for his full name.  According to the support person, he only has one name, Abbey, but he was happy to give me his id number – AIS5804.

일기(5.17.08)

엊저녁 저는 아이스하키 했습니다. 우리들은 2대 0로 이겼습니다. 후에 저는 Snickers 을 먹었습니다. 그리고 CocaCola Cherry Zero 를 마셨습니다.

I played hockey last night. We won by a score of 2-0. Afterward, I ate a Snickers bar and drank a CocaCola Cherry Zero.

일기 (5.9.08)

화요일에 저는 ‘Okami’라는 제목의 비디오 게임을 샀아요. 그것은 아름다운 풍경와 호기심을 자극하는 이야기를 가지고있어요. 저는 여태까지 네시간 동안 놀이했어요. 저는 더욱 많은 시간 동안 놀이하려고해요.

On Tuesday, I bought a video game called ‘Okami’. It has very beautiful scenery and an intriguing story. So far, I have played the game for 4 hours. I plan to play for many more hours.

Running Ubuntu and Windows XP in Parallel

I initially installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron on an existing system running Windows XP and configured the system to dual boot.  Unfortunately, there are Windows applications that I am required to use at work including (choke) applications that only run in IE.  Thus I couldn’t scrap Windows altogether.  Still, I hated having to login and logout everytime I needed to switch applications.  (Talk about an efficiency killer.)  So, I researched some ways to run Windows XP in Parallel with Ubuntu.  The solution I settled on was a combination of VMWare Converter and VMWare Player.  A few tweaks later and I’ve got access to Windows from within Ubuntu.

First, I logged on to Windows XP and installed the converter.  I ran the converter on my two Windows partitions and stored the output on the larger of my Windows partitions.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Then, I logged on to Ubuntu and installed the player.  There were a few issues with getting the player installed and configured, but I was fortunate to find help online.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

The first problem involved missing resources during the configuration (compile) step.

http://www.nalinmakar.com/2008/05/05/vmware-player-on-ubuntu-804-hardy-heron/

The next problem involved not being able to allocate memory when running the VM image.  (This was related to the fact that I had saved the VM image on the Windows partition.)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=528614 (ocake)

There was also a minor issue with the floppy drive not being detected properly (because there isn’t one) and an annoying message popping up.

http://www.linux.com/articles/54411

Lastly, since I’m on a network at work, I needed to configure the network settings.  I set the ethernet connection type in the .vmx file to “bridged” rather than the default “nat”.  I think it takes a while for the network to initialize when first starting up though.  So I’m not sure if this step was necessary.  I might have just been impatient the first time I tried with the default settings.

Theme for Nokia N80

I was getting really bored of the limited number of themes I had on my Nokia N80, but I really didn’t want to pay one of those download sites for a new theme. So, I did some poking around and discovered that Nokia is nice enough to provide a theme editor called Carbide UI. It even integrates with the Nokia PC Suite to install the theme on the phone. But wait, it gets even better, the entire application runs in Eclipse – my most favorite IDE for just about everything – Java, PHP, HTML, JSP, Perl, Cold Fusion, and so on. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy! :0)

Anyway, I started out by reading through a pretty decent tutorial, but since the interface was easy enough to just play around with, that’s exactly what I did.

The end result: My own personalized geekopolis theme.

Granted, I had to resort to using paint to develop new graphics and reusing some of the sample graphics that were provided with Carbide UI. So, my theme isn’t the prettiest. However, for a first attempt, it’s not too bad. In any case, I’ll probably spend more time tweaking my theme and learning how to properly use all the features when I get some more time.

일기 (4.4.08)

접은 자전거를 쓰있어요. 매일 자전거 타고 출근해요. 그것은 많은 붉은색 과 작은 은색 있오 고 계체량은 30파운드였습니다. 그것을 아주 좋아해요. 개개인은 접은 자전거를소유해야 돼요.

I bought a folding bicycle. I ride it to work everyday. It is mostly black with some silver and weighs about 30 lbs. I like it a lot. I think everyone should own a folding bicycle.

Who Am I?

Korean Translation: 현진 선생님

Listen안녕하세요. 저는 Ann Marie Kim Manzitti Steichmann 입니다. 저에게는 이렇게 긴 이름과 여러 가지 정체성이 있습니다. 그렇다고 제가 국제적으로 활동하는 스파이인 것은 아닙니다. 단지 저는 다른 사람들과 조금 다른 이야기를 갖고 있을 뿐입니다.

Listen저는 한국에서 태어났습니다. 저의 친부모님들은 저에게 김윤영이라는 이름을 붙여 주었습니다. 하지만 불행하게도 이분들은 저를 돌볼 수가 없었습니다. 그래서 저는 고아원으로 보내졌습니다. 여기서 몇 달간을 보낸 후, 저는 한 가정에 위탁되었습니다. 이렇게 얼마간을 한국에서 보냈지만 이 시간들은 제 기억에 남아 있지 않네요.

Listen6개월 정도 되었을 때 저는 이탈리아 계 미국인 어머니와 벨기에 계 스코틀랜드 계 독일계 미국인 아버지에게 입양 되었습니다. 저의 할머니는 재혼을 하셨고 이 때 아버지는 저의 아일랜드 계 이탈리아 계 할아버지의 자식이 되었지요. 그리고 아버지는 Mac Lean에서 Manzitti라고 성을 바꾸었습니다. 이렇게 하여 저는 이탈리아 계 성을 갖게 되었습니다. 미국에 오고 얼마 안 되어 제 이름은Ann Marie Kim Manzitti 가 되었습니다.

Listen몇 년 후 저의 부모님은 한국에서 문주형이라는 남자 아이를 입양하였고, John Vincent Hyung Manzitti 이라는 이름을 붙여 주었습니다. 그리고 저는 보통의 미국 중산 가정에서 자랐습니다. 피자, 캐이에프씨, 중국 음식을 주문하고, 햄버거와 프렌치프라이를 먹으면서요. 피아노 레슨을 받았고, 고등학교에서는 연극 동아리에 참여했고, 대학에 가서는 컴퓨터 공학, 수학, 러시아어와 프랑스어를 공부했습니다. 그리고 졸업 후부터 지금까지는 컴퓨터 프로그램머로 일하고 있습니다.

Listen그리고 몇 년 전 저는 저의 멋진 독일 계 아일랜드 계 프랑스 계 인디언 계 아프리칸 계 남편과 결혼을 했습니다. 그리하여 저의 이름은Ann Marie Kim Manzitti Steichmann 이 되었습니다.

Listen최근 저와 남편이 아이를 갖기로 결정을 한 뒤, 저의 한국인으로서의 핏줄을 제대로 알지 못한 것이 아쉽게 느껴졌습니다. 그래서 작년부터 저는 앤아버 한국 학교에서 한국어 수업을 듣기 시작했습니다. 또 한국어 랭귀지 파트너를 일주일에 두 번씩 만났습니다. 한국 드라마도 보고, 한국 음악도 들었습니다. 김치와 비빕밥도 먹었습니다. 그러다 보면 언젠가, 어떻게든 한국 사람이 될 것이라고 생각했습니다. 그러나 저는 곧 제가 다시 한국 사람이 되거나 혹은 한국 계 미국인조차도 될 수 없다는 사실을 깨달았습니다. 이 때 다행히도 미시건 대학교의 한국 입양아 모임을 알게 되었습니다. 이 모임을 통해 다른 사람들과 느낌을 나누고 이야기를 하면서 저는 제가 한국 계 입양아 미국인이라는 사실을 자랑스럽게 여기게 되었습니다.

Listen제가 입양아인 것이 슬프거나 고통스럽지 않다는 말로 마무리를 짓고자 합니다. 제가 입양아라는 사실도 오늘날의 저가 있게 해 준 한 부분이기 때문입니다.

Hello. My name is Ann Marie Kim Manzitti Steichmann. I’ve had many names and many identities. However, I’m not an international spy. I’m just a regular person with a somewhat unusual story.

For the first several months of my life, I was called Kim Yoon Young. I was born in South Korea, but unfortunately my birth parents could not take care of me. So, soon after being born, I was left at an orphanage where I spent the first couple months of my life. I then lived in a foster home. I don’t remember anything from my time in Korea. Still, I feel that was probably the only time I could have considered myself entirely Korean.

At 6 months, I was adopted by my Italian American mother and my Belgian, Scottish, German American Father. When my grandmother remarried, my father was adopted by my Irish Italian American grandfather. Shortly thereafter, my father had his last name changed from Mac Lean to Manzitti. Hence, that is why my father ended up giving me an Italian last name. I became Ann Marie Kim Manzitti soon after arriving in the United States.

A few years later, my parents adopted my brother, Moon Choo Hyung, now John Vincent Hyung Manzitti, from South Korea. For the most part, I grew up in a typical middle-class suburban American family. We ate pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chinese take out, and hamburgers with fries. I took piano lessons, joined the high school drama club, studied Computer Science, Math, Russian and French in college, and started a career in software engineering soon after graduating. I went on to buy a condo and a dog. During that time, I considered myself simply American.

A few years ago I married my wonderful German, Irish, French, Native American, and African husband. Therefore, my name is now Ann Marie Kim Manzitti Steichmann.

Recently, my husband and I decided that we’d like to have children and I began to regret not knowing more about my Korean heritage. So, last year, I started taking Korean language lessons at the Korean School of Ann Arbor. I also began meeting twice weekly with a Korean conversation group. I watched Korean dramas and listened to Korean music. I ate Kimchi and Bi Bim Bap. I thought that perhaps in the process, I could somehow become more Korean. However, I quickly came to the realization that I could never really be Korean again or even Korean American for that matter. Fortunately, I discovered the University of Michigan Adopted Koreans Association. Through various discussions and gatherings, I learned to be proud to be an Adopted Korean American.

I will finish by saying that I am not bitter or sad that I was adopted. I have become who I am today because I was adopted.

일기 (3.24.08)

금요일에 아주머니는 콜로라도에서 미시간까지 갔아요. Al이란 이름의 아버지의 제일 친한 친구는 노령으로 죽었어요. 그래서 그 여자는 장의에 참석했어요.

My aunt, who lives in Colorado, came to visit us in Michigan on Friday. Her best friend’s father, Al, died. So my aunt came for the funeral.

일기 (3.12.08)

오늘저녁 나의담화집단이 만났아요.
맥주를 마셨어고 쿠기를 먹었어고 한국배우들를 이야기해요.
물론 공부했어야했어요.

I met with my Korean conversation group last night.
We drank beer, ate cookies, and talked about famous Korean actors and actresses. Of course we should have been studying.