The movies that I want to see yet unavailable on netflix

Dust in the Wind (戀戀風塵) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091406/

The Terrorizers (恐怖分子) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091355/

Vive L‘Amour (愛情萬歲)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109066/

Tropical Fish (熱帶魚) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117970/

The Personals (徵婚啟事)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212423/

A Brighter Summer Day (牯嶺街少年殺人事件)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101985/

Jerry Maguire

I don't remember when I watched this movie before.
But some famous scenes just never fade.

"You complete me"
"You had me at hello"

I hope both of us already found our own peaceful land.

Inside Job (film)

I haven't found a movie I like a lot for a long time. But this is really a good one. I never pay too much attention on those financial news. I don't really feel what those people in Wall Street did can affect my life. But actually it did. It'a a chain. Maybe the 2008 meltdown also partly contributes the current status of computational chemist in industry. 

House buyers <=> lenders <=> investment banks <=> investors

Before 1980s, the chain stopped at the second arrows. Regulation. After that , deregulation

lenders (predatory lenders) provide subprime loans (risky loans), which have high interests, to house buyers. Then they sell the mortgages to investment banks. Along with other debts, these are called the collateralized debt obligations (CDO). The investment banks can sell these CDO to investors (e.g., the retirement fund). They investors could buy the kinds of CDO based on rating companies' "opinions", which are paid by the investment banks. Many toxic CDO are sold  by investment banks with AAA rating. 

In this way, lenders don't care if the house buyers can buy their loans or not. They just want to get the mortgages to sell to the investment banks. And investment banks prefer subprime loans because they have higher interests and higher CDO values. More and more subprime loans. Everyone can get a house. Because of the need, the price of houses skyrocketed. 

Unfortunately, when the house buyers can't buy the loan, they face the foreclosure. They lost their houses. And the investors are also losers because they bought the toxic CDO.

There's another branch. The insurance company (e.g., AIG). They sell the credit default swap (CDS), which is insurance to the CDO. If the CDO went bad, they need to pay the insurer. However, CDS is not like the general insurance, which insurer can only insure their own property. Everyone can insure CDO. 

So if the CDO is good, the insurance company can earn short-term money (bonus to the workers) but if the CDO went bad, this would be a disaster. Because the insurance company needs to pay many people.

Moreover, before the 2008 meltdown, the investment banks even insured their own CDO. That's crazy. They even didn't believe their products.

Finally... the bailout of AIG... with money from taxpayers. 

The part that make people angry most: none of those "economist" or "directors" were convicted. They still have their bonus. They are still the major roles in administration. When they were forced to confess, none of them showed any regrets. 

For some of the killers, at least they admitted what they did is bad. 

my first somewhat big c++ project

yeah... finally this is not a "Hello world" program.
I rewrote the whole EnTess program to c++ plus pymol visualization.
Today I tested the new program (in my laptop) and the old one (on emerald).
Although it's not fair, I am still happy to find out that the new program only took  2 sec to generate 1 descriptor compared to the 18 sec by the old program.

UPDATE: 0.2 sec. to generate 1 descriptor

Besides, this really helps me build the confidence...

Interview trip in DC

I got an interview in DC during the early of the April.
Coincidentally, the NTU SOP reunion would be hold around that time. The SOP seniors arranged some interesting events, for example, the tour for DC annual cherry blossom
Additionally, Danny kept telling how great the last reunion was and how important it is to build the network
Therefore, I decided to attend the reunion before my interview.

The opening dinner was held in Far East restaurant in Rockville. I was surprised there were so many people.
The dishes were pretty good. Even the plain bok choy + garlic tasted very juicy.

Intermittently, the seniors reported the current stage/progress of SOP and  discussed about the vista.
I felt I was touched after Dr. Jane Hsiao's inspiring speech. She explained the difficulty in dealing with school politics when she decided to donate buildings to school and her effort to solve the problem.
I wondered what I could do here (in US).
I have been fighting for survival since I came here.
The cross-talk performance was also very touchy... somehow I hoped I could see more my classmates.

Except the opening dinner, Aleck joined the events. We went to the Tidal Basin, which was surrounded by cherry trees. Then China Town restaurant, Tony Chen.... but I guess this is the most decent one they can find in China Town.
Great Falls park is amazing! Kayaking Orz
Kenwood Cherry Blossom. These trees should be the earliest cherry trees in DC area according to the wiki.
A nice suburb.

A very nice reunion. The organization and new friends.

Interview.
Q&A slides are so useful and necessary.
Compared with many scientists in my interview in Industry, I really feel they are so energetic.
I hope I can get this job. Although I don't want to live alone, somehow I feel this might be the best makeshift I can find now...
If I don't catch up with Aleck, or at least be more experienced, there will be just even no jobs in the future.
According to the scientists in NCGC, the environment in  Industry is getting worse...

After the interview, I need to pick up Aleck in DC area. the Rossyln station ... It's hard to pick up people in downtown Orz

When we were back to CH, it was already around 9pm. Restaurants were closed.
However, the dishes in Boston Market with Aleck after the trip tasted so amazingly great! (plus the good service)