I'm still in the States (hence the very sporadic Twitter updates and blog posts).

Since my last post, I went to NYC and met Agent. She was delightful, witty and absolutely wonderful, just as I imagined. :) I enjoyed our time together, and the meeting got me even more pumped up about my next project.

The next day, Hero Material and I hit MoMA. I know many people love modern art, but I decided it's not for me after the visit. I still don't get it, and I don't think I ever will.

After our MoMA tour, we went to MA to see Hero Material's extended family. They're lovely people, and their farm house was really cool. (I've never been at an American farm before.) They raise Black Angus, totally organic and grass-fed, and the cows looked so content, ambling around their emerald green fields. While in MA, I also got to meet Bethany, a member of my former crit group. I told her that next year's RWA is in NYC, so she should go if she finishes her ms by June. NY is so close to where she is. (I'd love to go to RWA next year — if I can — as well…)

Right now I'm in NH, surrounded by tall trees that love to dance with the wind. I've never been up in northern New England before, and I love the natural surroundings and cool summer. And of course, there's the oddity of my being the minority again. ;)

Hero Material and I are heading back to Virginia early next week for dinner with friends and so on. And I'm still not done with shopping.

How's everyone's summer? :)

Joely asked me to share my thoughts on Samsung NC10, so I figured it's about time I post something.

The unit's very solidly built. It does not feel cheap like some other brands I've seen. The keyboard is non-chiclet, large, and types very nicely. (FYI — I really don't care for the chiclet keyboards that seem to be so popular with MacBooks these days, and I actually like Samsung's keyboard better than an Apple MacBook's.) The battery lasts for a very long time. The trackpad is indeed small, but I got used to it within 2-3 days. Besides, I bought it to type, not to play with the trackpad or play games on it.

It's also very light, and doesn't seem to get that hot. At least I didn't notice anything bad about it. It sports a non-glossy screen, if it matters to anyone. (I like non-glossy screens for working outside.)

On the performance side, it boots, hibernates and restarts very fast, something that was helped by my upgrading memory to 2GB. It can run Office 2007 and Firefox, etc. with no problem, and the system is very stable (no crashes, etc.). The CPU is generally quiet on the standard manufacturer's setting.

IMHO Samsung's NC10 is better than the AlphaSmart Neo for writers, although if you have trouble staying away from the Internet, perhaps the Neo is the way to go. I'll post more thoughts later after a month or so of using both. :)

Finally I have somewhat reliable wifi again! :)

I've made it to the States for a two month-long vacation, and I couldn't access anything well.

BTW — if anyone wants to travel, don't do the Haneda – Narita layover. Haneda is in Tokyo, while Narita is in Chiba (even though people call it “Tokyo Narita”, it's really not in Tokyo), and it takes over an hour to travel between the two airports. If your flight's delayed (not that mine was), it can be rather painful.

I enjoyed my flight from Narita to San Francisco. JAL was wonderful, with great cabin attendants and an awesome selection of movies and games. My trip from SFO to Phoenix, however, wasn't as good. I was shocked at how dingy and filthy the U.S. Airways check-in counter was. Trash and crumpled paper littered the floor, and the U.S. Airways agents (there were only two) never smiled, didn't say anything more than they absolutely had to to check us in for our flight… didn't even speak decent English! Compare that to the JAL terminal in Narita, where JAL had over twenty uniformed multilingual agents helping passengers. The JAL agents were friendly, courteous and helpful. (And yes, JAL's terminal literally sparkled.)

Note to self: avoid U.S. Airways.

Also I finally got my Samsung NC10. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB, so now it runs faster than my main laptop. Absolutely love it. And the keyboard is super-comfy, which is my main consideration. I don't care for chiclet keyboards, so the NC10 is just right for me. And did I tell you it's a cute pink? And it's light & it does everything I want it to do — Word, OneNote, Excel, web surfing & email and iTunes. The NC10's battery lasts about 6-7 hours, depending on what you're doing. An excellent machine. I highly recommend it.

BTW — after I got my NC10, Hero Material and I went to the Grand Canyon. Absolutely gorgeous. I love the ruggedness of the place as well as the interesting sediment layers. We got to see condors and a few other birds flying around us. They didn't seem interested in eating squirrels, which was good because many of them reminded me of Buttercup (one of my female hamsters), mostly because they were such beggars. LOL.

Anyway, I'm going to cut this post short now. Have a great Sunday!

Last night, my site got hacked, and my hosting service suspended my account. It turned out that some @#$% got in and installed a phishing script on my server. Thankfully, my host didn't delete my account, and they gave me some tips on how to deal with the security issues. Unfortunately I had to delete my newsletter script from my nadialee.net site, but that's really minor since it could've been WordPress, which powers my entire website & blog. (FYI — I upgrade WordPress religiously.)

So in order to prevent the @#$% that had happened to me from happening to you, I suggest that you upgrade your scripts & applications you have on your server. I'm talking about things like WordPress (the core), plug-ins, Joomla, forums, etc.

And all you hackers & phishing scammers out there — there's a special place in hell just for you. :evil:

After a lot of research and so on, I've finally decided to get a pink Samsung NC10. Doesn't it look pretty?

A lot of people seem to swear by Samsung's awesome keyboard, and I need something other than my MacBook for working on my manuscripts. Although the MacBook's nice, it gets very hot, and I have to use a lap desk with it because its sharp edges cut into my wrists, etc. and cause pain when I type for a long time on it. (I have an ergonomic keyboard, but sometimes I want to be away from my desk, esp. with the back pain, etc.)

On another front, I'm going to the States for two months. I'm totally excited since I haven't been home in over two years. I plan to see Hero Material's family, Agent and friends. (My family is of coures on the list, in case Mom's reading this.) And shopping…! Can you believe I haven't bought any clothes or shoes in almost three years? I can't buy anything that fits me right in this country. I'm considered too tall and large. (Hey, at least Victoria's Secret thinks I'm small, so I guess that must count for something, right?! LOL)

Finally a short public announcement — I know I'm bad with blog updates. So if you want to know what I'm up to though, you can always follow me on Twitter, which gets updated almost every day. I don't auto follow, but I respond to tweets directed at me. Make sure to use @NadiaLee. Thanks!

I realized that I haven't blogged in over two weeks. Yikes. How the heck did that happen?

Mostly, I've been just busy and occupied with other things and didn't even think about it. I'm working on some secret revisions only a few people know about, getting ready for my trip to the States (which involves going to the local immigration bureau office)…

Oh and I'm back in rehab for neck & lower back pain. It seems like I go there every summer. Last year, I was stupid about it and waited until July, and basically couldn't sleep for weeks due to the most horrendous neck pain. Talk about lost productivity.

This time we did an MRI, and the doctor confirmed that I have a couple of herniated discs. The good thing is that with some extensive (and very long) PT & exercises, I should be able to manage the pain and lead a normal life. The bad thing is that the pain I have all along my spine can cause a horrible migraine. (Which is probably the reason why my head felt so awful recently…) The doctor ordered me to come back ASAP after my trip to the States to resume my treatment. If he had it his way, I'd stay in Japan and get rehabbed three times a week.

P.S. Buttercup had babies. Again. (I think this brings us up to 21 hamsters, total.) They're incredibly cute. However, since Buttercup is under some delusion that she is starving (she isn't; we give her tons of food every day), she always pushes her kids out of the way to get the most delish treats. *shaking head*