Weeds and Pests

Last Tuesday Lisa helped pull weeds in my garden. It was really neglected and some weeds were over a couple feet high. We filled up 2 garbage bags in the end. When I bought my townhouse I was told the HOA would perform all landscaping work including the individual patio areas but the information was incorrect.

For the past couple weeks I've noticed an increase in the amount of tiny bugs, ants, and spiders in my townhouse. I guess the ants like to eat the bugs and the spiders like to eat the ants. I spent part of the long weekend trying to track down, block, and spray for the ants. It's not easy trying to figure out how the ants are getting in.

Home ownership comes with benefits but also more hassles.

Hakone Matsuri

Hakone Gardens held their annual matsuri today and I decided to go with Mike, Lisa, and Grace. We had lunch at A&J Restaurant in Cupertino and then headed over to Saratoga. The parking lot at Saratoga High was full and we had to park on a street nearby. It probably wasn't a good idea to have the festival on the same day as another event at the high school. We had to wait a bit for the shuttle bus to take us up to the gardens. It was a very hot day and the sign at Saratoga High read around 104F. The bus seemed at one point to almost get stuck while straining to climb the slope up towards the gardens. I heard that maybe the unused bus in the parking lot had overheated.

From 090517

We walked around the grounds and up the short walking trail. Some areas were closed that day. There were a lot of people and we skipped some of the crowded activities such as the tea ceremony. We were able to enjoy some of the music performances.

It was a very hot day and we decided to walk back to the car rather than stand in line for the shuttle and be stuck in a hot bus for 10-15 minutes. On the way back we stopped at Big Basin Cafe to rest and get drinks.

NeuroSky

At CASPA's Career Development Seminar I was able to hear Stanley Yang's story about NeuroSky. The company started in 2004 and around 5 years and $5 million later they are ready to launch by selling their sensors to their customers. NeuroSky makes a sensor that can read brainwaves. The technology evolved from being implemented as a $300+ board to a <$5 single chip. At the seminar he showed videos of people controlling toys such as RC cars and video games solely by using the headset device with the dry sensor. In the past sensors had to be implanted inside the head or use contact gels to read the brainwaves accurately. Unlike competitors such as Emotiv Systems, NeuroSky does not sell products themselves and allows customers to set specs and pricing.

So far the announced toys and video games only use the device to measure concentration levels. It will be interesting to see if the technology really works and if it's mature enough for the mass market or too simple for people to get really excited about.

Snacks

Lately I've received a few snacks from Indonesia and Taiwan.

A coworker gave me this from Indonesia:

From food

Nancy brought these for me from Taiwan:

From 090505

Oscar gave me stick things from this company. He told me they are very popular. The purple item below is the taro snack from Nancy:

From food

Sightseeing around Silicon Valley

Today I took Eva, Nancy, and their mother sightseeing around the bay area. We first went to Napa and visited Robert Mondavi Winery for wine tasting.

From 090505

Afterwards, we stopped by at Beringer Vineyards and the CIA. On the way back south we had lunch at Mustards Grill. It was my second time at the restaurant. I wasn't very hungry and ordered the soup and crab cakes. The soup was a tomato soup with 4 lamb and pork meatballs. The crab cakes were small but completely filled with crab. I also tried a piece of duck and a pork rib.

From 090505

After Napa we went to SCU and then Santana Row. We ended our day walking around Stanford.