Tips for Traveling with a Baby in Japan - Travel Gears

We traveled with Boyan, our 13-month son last month to Japan (for those who are wondering, yep, he is the main reason why this blog has been so quiet in the past couple of years. :-)) and spent a unforgettable 10 days there. Before I went there, I searched over the …

more ...




Museum and Cultural Tour of Bulgaria in 9 Days - Day 1 (More)

We were quite amazed by the National Archaeological Museum, especially the Thracian treasures. 

The museum is located in the largest and oldest former Ottoman Mosque in Sofia.

Thracian treasures. Can you believe that they were made before the Roman Empire?

Gold jewery

Gold wreath

Gold mask and ring from Thracian …

more ...


How to get a kitty manicure

Speaker: Tom

Dear fellow kitties, I am going to show you how to get a kitty manicure and pedicure.

First of all, let me show you my beautiful finger nails. My mom polishes each and every one of them on a weekly basis. Such weekly pampering is essential for a …

more ...


My First Encounter with Dirty Diaper

Today I have encountered dirty diaper for the very first time in my life and it is not pretty.  While doing routine cleaning of our guest bathroom, I was shocked to discover a stack of dirty diaper deposited in the trash can in our guest bathroom.  I am still struggling …

more ...


Pursue of the Perfect Solution for Cat Hair (1) --- Vacuum

If you have one or more long hair cats at home, like our Mayori and Tom, you probably share the same dream as us --- a house without cat hair, at least a house without having cat hair everywhere.

Towards this dream, we have tried out various products. Here is a …

more ...

High Resolution Image for Pdflatex

While preparing the camera-ready version for our CIKM demo, my colleagues and I found that the screenshot included in our paper appeared to be fairly blurry in the pdf version, even though the original .jpg file looks fine.

I searched online to try to find the solutions. After a few …

more ...

Screen Saver Option Disabled on Windows 7/XP

For unknown reason, my machines would suddenly disable their screen saver options (e.g. with the "on resume, display log on screen" check box grayed out). Whenever this happens, it would trigger the security alert and I will get a warning from the IT department to fix the issue.

I …

more ...

Machine Learning That Matters

I happen to come across this excellent article from this year's ICML on Machine Learning that Matters. I encourage everyone, especially computer science Ph.D students, to read it.

As an industrial researcher who draws a lot of job satisfaction by making both scientific and practical impact, I completely agree …

more ...

Commonly Used Forms for Home Remodeling/Repairs

As a new home owner, we have been going through a lot of home remodeling and repair projects. I found myself often search online for the same set of forms again and again. This post is to record all the forms that I often use and sometimes difficult to found …

more ...

Baby Cloth Shoe - First Attempt

As a busy computer scientist, I don't really get to exercise my inner Martha too much. But I did somehow manage to make my first ever attempt on sewing projects --- baby cloth shoes (as gift for my niece).

Here is the result --- I added the handmade pompom for extra cuteness …

more ...

Cat Photography with iPhone 4s

It has been a while since Yunyao got her iPhone 4s, which is known for its "superb" camera --- "8MP camera with all-new optics also shoots 1080p HD video". 8MP on a cell phone sounds really impressive, does it? Maybe she finally can leave her big heavy Pentax for a while …

more ...

Review for Canine Cat Scratcher

Updated on 09/10/2013: It's now only 295 USD, with 100 USD discount!


As a cat and modern design lover, I am always looking for cat items pleasant for both the cats and my aesthetic standard. I had my eye on the canine scratcher for a while, but its …

more ...