China Garden Moberly MO

TRAVEL

Had a buffet in China Garden Moberly, MO. Very nice place, and friendly people! The prices are rather cheap too. They're open New Year's Day, as well as Christmas. I should stop here more often!

Hello Mr. Phone

TRAVEL

Found this on Petro in Oak Grove, MO. Kind of hard to believe that people would stand in front of this device and talk to the wall. Did you notice anything missing? No dials! Imagine that. Voice dialing works here.

Going thru Colorado mountain

TRAVEL

Going to Steamboat Springs thru Kremmling. Kremmling? Rather unusual name!

Holiday shopping

FUN

Holiday shopping does take its toll. I was going to buy a few items. They're all sold out! Huge sale does have something with it. But people are buying goods. I wonder how the after New Year sale traditionally held will be like.

DS Colors!

ART

I just got a homebrew kit for my Nintendo DS and installed Colors. I like it very much! I think I doodle too much now. Colors is a painting program, and unfortunately, it is obvious that I can't paint! Well, at least I can draw and it works well, too!

Check out http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/index.php and search for 'ramstrong' to see how I did it!

Greatness

ZEN THOUGHT

I read about this some time ago. I didn't realize it at the time, but as I was wondering about it, I realized then that Japanese has a way to achieve greatness.

There are 3 guiding ideologies that defines Japanese work ethic, that if followed will result in greatness.

1. Perfection: This means making no mistake. Refusal to accept inferior effort. If you know something isn't perfect, then strive to do better next time. This has been abused by the idea of "best". There is no best thing. Only pros and cons. There is no silver bullet. There is no ultimate magic wand that you can wave and achieve the ultimate. But you can certainly note your mistakes and resolve to fix them and not repeat them in the future.

2. Constant improvement: Always learning. Always adding new skills to the toolbox. Just as there is no single best thing, having a wide assortment of skills allows you to pick and choose the best tool for the job. Some people would go for the minimum. Others, stop when they reach maximum. Within the minimum and the maximum range, lies the acceptable performance level. However, greatness comes from achieving, then exceeding the maximum level.

3. I don't remember what the third one is, but I believe it is Discipline. Discipline can be construed as hard work, and certainly many people take it as such. However, I choose to take it as good habit forming. "You are what you frequently do. Therefore, greatness isn't a matter of ideals, but of habits" said Aristotles.

Steak 'n Shake

TRAVEL

So, I stopped by Steak and Shake on Lincoln, IL. The place looks nice enough. Good crowd. But service is lousy. I end up just leaving. No tip is given. I don't know why. Usually service is nice, you know?

As far as the food, it's somewhat okay. The bun looks terrible. The meat was overcooked on the outside. The bacon felt like rubber, signifying undercooked. The tomato was sliced too thin. Notice that there is no french fries! For the price, I expected Hardee's or Arby's quality. This is even worse than McDonald, yet more expensive!

Overpriced food. Uncaring servers and cooks. It makes me wonder why people come to this place as Godfather's Pizza is just across the street, which is where I'll be next time. Anywhere but here.

This could be an anomaly Steak 'n Shake. But as this is my first impression of this chain, I'm forced to conclude that all Steak 'n Shake restaurants are like this.

I finished the food and I'm still hungry. At least in a real restaurant, I won't be leaving hungry. The food is just so overpriced, you know? Not enough value.