Back from the dead...

After an almost 5+ month hiatus, I decided to revisit my blog... ahhh... good 'ol place where I lament and ponder about things past and present (I try to worry too much abt the future, life is busy as it is already now! :) ...

Anyway, let's have a brief re-cap of what went on in the last couple of months since my last post (in August 2007!)...

- My parents stopped in for a visit, a hop from my dad's business trip / partial holiday in San Francisco. Always great to have mom and dad around! Plus, we found time to celebrate my dad's birthday!

- Our good friends Jinji & Siewling had a new arrival in their family! Baby Edward arrived on Earth with a strong voice and a wicked sense of timing. That's Jinji's boy alright! :)

- My wife managed to score some great tickets to Las Vegas and a hotel room in the Riviera on the weekend just prior to X'mas Eve... We had a great two full days in Vegas, catching the sights like the Bellagio fountains and the Siegfried & Roy's Tiger/Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. Of course, we flew back from Vegas on the Eve, in time to join my brother, sis-in-law, niece and fellow Singaporeans to count down to Christmas! :D

- My bro hosted our Singaporean-Ohioans' New Year 2008 party at his place... lots of folks joined us to count down along with the rest of the revelers at Times Square on TV. We also had a few rounds of Choh Dai Di (a.k.a. Taiwanese/Chinese "Big 2" poker)... it was great playing it with everyone - brought back fond memories of high school and Chinese New Year! :)

- At work, as the deadline looms closer, there's been quite a bit of research and groundwork needed to be done by me (along with my colleagues) to ensure that our IT operations are in compliance with the University's new computing security standards. We've been working on different ways to get our machines secure by encrypting hard disks, removing unnecessary local accounts, reducing the number of users with admin access, and occasionally locking down machines in research labs and offices! Phew!

- I've been looking into switching from Cable Internet to DSL, ever since AT&T decided to offer a "Naked" DSL service (part of a FCC ruling) at a somewhat reasonable price - $29 per month for 3Mbps/768Kbps. Without the promotional offer, having to fork out the full cost of $45/mth for RoadRunner broadband (6Mbps/768Kbps) each month makes me really think about my Internet use and bandwidth requirements. AT&T doesn't make it easy to get that offer tho! You'll need to know the right number to call... :P

Hmmm... Ohio seems to be going thru a rather mild winter period in the start of 2008, with pockets of very nice weather (once it got close to Indian Summer temps!) in the midst of the frosty winter chill. :D

Hopefully I will be able to post more stuff when I've got time... till then, happy new year 2008! ^_^