Threadless submission

Update: As I figured, my design was declined due to too many colors. 5 unique colors only!!



I submitted an entry!

Obviously it's going to be rejected because I've used too many colors! 1, 2...5, 6, 7...argh I can't even count. By the time I realized I am only allowed 5 unique colors with no gradients and no halftones, I was already done with my thing and too lazy to make all the little changes. But since I was done, I just sent it in anyways. So check it out! :)

New Website!

Update: My website needs a new home. It will no longer be hosted at bravehost.net. Apparently, the ad-supported feature is not frames friendly. Screwed me big time. It's still there, so you can see how badly it is. Oh wells, so now back to http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~xwt. Till I find a good, preferrably free, host...

Somehow I was convinced that CMU removed my AFS account (turns out now that that was not the case) so I decided I will find some free web hosting servers online...and perhaps, do a makeover since the current/previous design is really too child-like (not child-ish, and definitely not ugly :p).

So go check out my new website at http://ryantan.bravehost.com. I know the url sounds stupid, but hey that's what you get when you want things free. The website is still being constructed, a lot to be added and tweaked, so stay tune!

Optimus Prime

The hero.

my good-bye trip: Phipps & Schenley

Friday, June 22
Phew. I woke up late today and barely made it for a 1-hour tour at Phipps Conservatory. The last time I visited was couple years back. At that time parts of the Conservatory were still under renovation. Now they're all done and I even found some very interesting additions to the flowers and trees. Some examples are:


It's the "Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! 2007" series of events and exhibitions! Pretty? Many of these actually reminded me of some stuff in WoW. :) The Thailand tropical forest setting in Phipps was new too. Unfortunately, time was running out so I didn't get a chance to see the rejuvenated Japanese Garden.

The gnome-like me:


You can laugh all you want...but that is NOT my real height!!


The Phipps Conservatory tour ended in a rush. Took a break and decided to go to the lake in Schenley Park for pictures.

The lake is still as dirty as ever. There were junk including tires, in the lake. And I felt sad when I saw the little duckies preying on *stuff* in the mud. :'( They should really try to conserve this area if they want to put duckies here. How can they survive on dirt!?


But seeing this family of duckies, something else came to our minds:

嘎嘎~ 嘎嘎~ 嘎-嘎-嘎
嘎嘎~ 嘎嘎~ 嘎-嘎-嘎
游來游去真快樂
就是母鴨帶小鴨~~

Heh the 母鴨帶小鴨 song that QiQi listens to.

Lastly, here's me saying goodbye to y'all from "my good-bye trip: Phipps & Schenley".

Bye bye Pittsburgh.

I have officially moved into my sister's place in Atlanta, my new home!!

sigh...the last 1 day and 2 nights in Pittsburgh was actually quite unbearable. Esp when mr. goh just left and I have nothing left to kill time with...except for a book that mr. goh has been pestering me to read, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

mr. goh bought me the book *i dunno when* but of coz the lazy me never got to read even a tenth of the book. I think I stopped at...chapter 2. Haha that was 11 pages. I actually knew the story already when my eldest sister came to visit last Halloween, she read it and told me and my second sister the story. She was very frustrated with the narrator...etc. Now 8 months later, mr. goh came and made me read it. Since I expected mr. goh to pack my desktop into my luggage before he leaves (that's 1 day and 2 nights before me), I saved this book to keep me occupied while waiting for my flight early Sunday morning. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep after the first 2 pages on Friday night.

The next morning, dreaded by the fact that I have nothing fun to do, I started reading. Then I read and read and read. And I finished!! Yay! This was the second time in my life that I tried reading nonstop. My first was Harry Potter. See all the concentration I had? That was supposed to be impressive, you know. I have many books. I shipped 6 boxes of books on media mail to Atlanta (includes textbooks and books I brought over from Singapore 4 years ago), none of them were read completely. mr. goh called from *somewhere think Tokyo* and was impressed, at the same time delighted that I finally read one of the books he bought me. Hurray again!

Btw, The Kite Runner tells a great story. Now I want to recommend to everyone because it's so moving. I was so touched by the ending I almost shed a tear. Go read!