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Whistle – Free Phone Calls

Whistle I first read about Whistle on SlickDeals: Free Inbound/outbound Calling No Server required and what intrigued me was the fact it works with Google Voice as well as SIP capable ATA devices. There’s also the fact that it works on your iPhone and iPod Touch, but I currently own neither.

Whistle – Free Phone Calls to Anyone in the U.S.

I’ve been using Google Voice + Gizmo5 + ATA for almost a year and it’s been working great. The only downside is that outgoing calls are limited to 3 minutes. However if you initiate the outgoing call from Google Voice, it’s unlimited.

My Linksys PAP2 comes with 2 lines which means I can setup 2 separate SIP accounts, so I decided to give this a try. Creating a new account actually requires downloading their software. Installation was pretty simple, though their software was pretty much a very simple SIP client. The SD thread also links to a tutorial on how to set up your ATA: Use Whistle Phone on any SIP device – Make free VoIP calls to USA [Tutorial]

The only changes I needed to make was the following:

Proxy: proxy.whistlephone.com
Outbound Proxy: proxy.whistlephone.com
Use Outbound Proxy: yes
Use OB Proxy In Dialog: yes
Register: yes

User ID: (10 digit phone # – no dashes)
Password: (your account password)
Auth ID: (10 digit phone # – no dashes)
Use Auth ID: yes

I also learnt a bit on how to define ATA dial plans. Here’s what I ended up with:
(1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | <:1>[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | <:1425>[2-9]xxxxxxS6)
Which made me realized that neither area codes nor prefixes can ever begin with 1.

Gave it a test run and found out I had to disable my STUN Server. Never quite knew what the STUN Server did, but when setting up Gizmo5, the tutorial stated I should enable it. I disabled it and my Gizmo5 account was still able to receive and make calls. With the STUN Server disabled, I was also able to make calls using my new Whistle account.

As noted on the thread and site, you’re required to listen to 15 seconds of ads before your outgoing call is made, but there’s no restriction on how long the call is as long as it’s within the U.S. They do have international plans, but I have no idea if it’s a good deal or not. I made about 5 test calls and only the 1st one required me to listen to an ad. I’m not sure if it’s because I hung up pretty much immediately after calling my cell phone. Definitely worth playing with. There’s no ad requirement for incoming calls.

If you don’t have an ATA device, you can always hook up a microphone to your computer.

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The Egg

I first read this story on Digg which posted it as a screenshot of 4chan, but here’s the original source: The Egg by Andy Weir. A very short story, but very deep and thought provoking and definitely worth the 5-10 minutes reading it.

When I was a kid, I had a belief that reality was merely an immersive experience that beings from a higher place (i.e. angels) were partaking. In fact, my belief was that I was the only “real” thing in my reality and everyone else existed only to make my world complete. When we died, we would wake up inside a contraption (which back then really just involved some sort of goggles) and be able to select a new experience (sort of like choosing a new movie). Next to me would be other “angels” enjoying their own virtual reality. I was small back then, so definitely not as thought out as “The Egg”, but this story triggered that memory.

Something else the story reminded me of was why humans are trying to achieve the hand of god (aka the divine move) in games such as Chess or Go. Here are 2 dialogs from Hikaru no Go I’d like to share:

Kuwabara: Sakamaki-san, did you know that Go is a two player game?
Sakamaki: Of course I know that.
Kuwabara: No, you don’t. You can’t play Go by yourself.
Sakamaki: I said, I know that.
Kuwabara: You need two people. A masterful game cannot happen with just one genius. Right, Sakamaki-san? You need two people with equal genius. Two. When you have two, you can finally take a step towards the divine move.

Hikaru: Then the god of Go must be quite lonely. There’s nobody on the same level as he is, after all.
Uncle: Maybe that’s why the god of Go is teaching men how to play and devote themselves to Go. To raise a player who can play equally against him.
Akira: Does that mean Go players of the past and present are all improving together through friendly rivalry?
Uncle: That’s right! With each person affecting the other.
Akira: Sounds like a plan that will take a million years.

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4th of July

Jan Lyk's Party I’d like to first thank Ryan and Angel for inviting me to their 4th of July party. I’d also like to thank Jan Lyk and Joanna for inviting me to their house warming party. I apologize beforehand for taking such crappy pictures, but there were others who took much nicer pictures than me.

As always, there’s tons of yummy food at Ryan’s and Angel’s and of course the desserts are the best part. The grilled asparagus comes to a close second. We chatted and played Rock Band. I was then introduced to Time’s Up, a mixture of charades/taboo which was really fun. Unfortunately my team lost big time as I’m not that familiar with pop culture (nor the inside jokes apparently), but it was really fun. I’ve always been a big fan of charades and pictionary and other team guessing games.

Ryan made me an Old Fashioned and for some reason, I thought the drink was way too thick. By thick, I mean it had a high viscosity and I didn’t particularly like that. I kept on adding ice to it, and it helped a bit. I felt like it had a consistency of syrup, but maybe that was because it was so sweet. When I was at Jan Lyk’s, I had a couple glasses of whiskey on the rocks and found that to be much more enjoyable. Though apparently it’s a sin to have Johnny Walker Gold w/ ice. Maybe next time I’ll have it straight up.

I left Ryan’s around 7:45pm, but not before I had a spoonful of their homemade vanilla bean ice cream (which was awesome!).

By the time I got to Jan Lyk’s, it was pretty much a full house already. Jan Lyk’s new place is really sweet! I think they really have great taste in design and furniture. What’s missing right now is a giant TV in their living room.

So Jan Lyk was also having a BBQ at his party and apparently this was a Brazilian BBQ in contrast to the American one at Ryan’s. The difference is American BBQs typically comprise of hamburgers and hot dogs, while Brazilian ones comprise of racks of meat. I was pretty full by the time I got to Jan Lyk’s party, but I couldn’t pass up on medium rare filet mignon. There was also chicken, racks of lamb, racks of beef, and probably some pork also.

Kitchen

Later in the evening we went up to his roof to watch the fireworks going off at Gasworks Park. We had a pretty good view, besides the fact there was a nude guy across the street walking around his apartment with his blinds opened. I did miss blowing up fireworks at Ryan’s since I love being a little pyromaniac. Plus they usually have ones that shoot up like 20ft into the air which is just awesome. Maybe next year.

At Jan Lyk’s, I noticed this funky chalkboard clock and I mentioned to Aurash that he should fix the rooster:

Clock Chalkboard

After speaking with Joana, she explained why there was a rooster. See if you can figure out why there’s a rooster on the clock.

I met a bunch of new people and we chatted quite a bit and everyone was having a swell time. I finally left Jan Lyk’s around 3:15am. I should probably go get some sleep.

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How I Deal With Stress

This is actually a happy post as I’ve been reflecting these past few days on a lot of things. I wasn’t sure if I was going to write this up initially as there’s quite a bit of stuff I don’t feel like sharing with the world. In the end I’ve decided to split it into 2 posts. The 2nd post will most likely be password-protected if it ever gets published and is currently titled Krunk is a Jackass.

I can be a very private person, especially around people I’m not familiar with. I generally don’t like talking about myself, and would much rather listen to other people. Then what do I call this blog? Some of the stuff I’ve written up are pretty private. I’ll get to that.

Given that I’m a private person, I tend to keep stuff bubbled inside me. It’s all fine when I’m happy and content, but when I’m stressed or sad, it sort of builds up and I can get really depressed. Usually when that happens, I have 2 main outlets: close friends and my blog.

When I’m really depressed, I usually call up some close friends and grab dinner or something. Sometimes I do talk about my problem, but what I really want is the company. Just being around people who care about me always makes me happier.

The other outlet is my blog. I find that I’m able to talk a lot more about myself on my blog than to people. It helps me reflect and is very relaxing and soothing. By typing everything out, even if no one reads it, it allows me to channel all the pain away.

Something else I find that works for me is watching comedic TV series. I’m not sure if it’s just any funny series or the fact how “How I Met Your Mother” reflects a lot about myself, but whenever I watch it, all my problems seem to melt away.

I notice recently when my mind wanders, either when I’m driving, sitting, or just walking in circles, my mind tends to drift toward embarrassing/depressing moments, and I would end out shouting expletives. For some reason, hearing myself shout the word F*CK, helps calm me down quickly. I usually don’t do it in front of people, but my brother caught me a few times quietly shouting under my breath while I was driving and he thought I made a wrong turn.

Another interesting observation I’ve made is that I tend to lose a lot of weight when I’m stressed. That sort of explains how I got from 170 to 140 in just a few months and why I lost like 5lbs this past week. Of course the exercise helps, but it helps more with maintaining the weight lost.

So a lot has happened in the past week. Besides what I’ve blogged about already, I think I’m finally over my *cough* problem. You know how you know you’ve finally moved on when you’re no longer trying to avoid someone, but can instead hang out with them and chat with them for hours. My brother has helped me put a lot of things into perspective. My brother has also helped instill confidence in myself that I’ve lost long ago. The Krunk in me is finally waking up from hibernation and it’s mostly thanks to my brother. Oh, haaaaaave you met Krunk? Yah, Krunk is a Jackass.

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My Grandma

As some of you know, my grandma recently passed away. These past few days have been somewhat difficult to go through, though probably not for the reason you’re thinking about.

I first got informed my grandma was hospitalized on Friday 6/18, the same weekend my brother was flying in to visit me. My dad tells me that the doctors are pretty sure she has some form of leukemia, but wouldn’t be sure which type it is until the labs reopen on Monday.

This sort of threw a wrench into all my plans and I should probably be tarred and feather for even thinking that. On one hand, the right thing to do would be to fly back to see our grandma. On the other hand, a lot of money had already been invested into this trip. We decided to continue with our trip and would get status updates. With that lingering in the back of my mind, I tried to enjoy the time with my brother as best as I could.

Fast forward to Thursday 6/24, I was informed that my grandma has a form of acute leukemia and probably won’t make it past a few days. My dad wanted to know if we wanted to see grandma one last time. My mom already had tickets back to LA on Saturday night and my brother was leaving Sunday morning. I figured if I was going back to LA to see her 1 last time, I’d try to get a flight Sunday morning/afternoon and fly back to Seattle early Monday morning.

While at work on Friday 6/25, my sister IMs me and informs me that grandma is probably in her last moments/hours and I should pray for her. I forwarded that message to my mom and brother. We were later informed that she passed away peacefully some time around 6pm.

I’ve been thinking this over and over for the past few days. Should we have flown back immediately when we heard of the news? What’s killing me isn’t the grief of my grandma dying, but the fact I’m not feeling much grief at all. I’m her grandchild and I should be feeling grief. Is there something wrong with me? This wasn’t just some random family member, this is my grandma who took care of of me since I was little baby.

My earliest memory of my grandma isn’t actually my own memory, but something that has been recorded on VHS. However, my parents and siblings make fun of me everytime about it. I was probably around 4 or 5 at that time and we in the back of our house in Long Island playing with snow. I would throw a snowball at my grandma and playfully she threw one back at me. I began to cry and I wouldn’t stop crying until she let me throw another snowball at her.

I spoke with my dad on Saturday and he sounded okay. It’s a good thing that at least my sister was home to look after him.

Dave told me about his experience and I may just be in a state of shock and grief will probably settle in later. I actually saw my grandma when I went back to visit back in May and she seemed to have been doing fine. The fact that this came out of nowhere may be another reason why I’m in a state of shock. Maybe when I fly back on 7/10 for her funeral, things would become clearer and I can find some emotional release.

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Empty House Once Again

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been alone in my house. I woke up this morning and it was eerily quiet. My mom’s been here since end of May and my brother came to visit me for the past week. I originally have a 3-4 page draft of what we did, but I figured I’d just talk about the highlights.

This trip has been a great bonding experience between my brother and I. Ever since I went to college, I’m sad to say we haven’t really spoken much to each other. There would be the customary calling each other during holidays and birthdays and whenever he had computer problems, I’d be there to help him. I guess my brother and I didn’t really have that much in common. On the other hand, I have a better relationship with my sister as we shared common interests.

I took 2 days off work and we went up to Vancouver and Whistler. You can see our photos on Facebook: Vancouver and Whistler 2010. We also went to see Cirque du Soleil and I took them out to several of my favorite restaurants.

Despite our mom being around, my brother and I actually had quite a bit of alone time to chat. One of the things we talked a lot about was relationships and girls. For some reason, I always found this topic hard to talk with people, especially with family, but my brother made it sound like everyday conversation. It was also a bit weird to be taking relationship advice from my younger brother, but he’s definitely had more experience than me. I think we finally found a common interest/topic we share.

On his last night here, we went out clubbing. It was a crazy night alright and I have a 1cm cut on my forehead to prove it. It’s also actually my first time going clubbing in Seattle. I guess my friends up here aren’t really into clubbing.

As with going out drinking with my brother, if you aren’t careful, you’ll get hammered fast. Fortunately for me, I’m starting to understand where my limit is, though I’m still surprised at how much alcohol I can take in and not get wasted. Within the hour, I had:

  • Long Island Ice Tea
  • Shot of Pitron Silver
  • Whiskey Sour
  • Shot of something that tasted like mint chocolate
  • Midori Sour

My brother also wanted to get me an Adios Motherfucker, but I had decided that was it for me that night. I was preoccupied most of the night looking after someone, but my brother was able to enjoy himself, which is really why we went clubbing. Unfortunately what happened after clubbing is sort of like what happens in Vegas, it remains in Vegas. I can tell you that he had a flight to catch at 5:30am and we didn’t get to leave Seattle until 4:40am. We arrived at the airport at 5am and he actually made his flight.

When I woke up this morning, the fact I was now alone in my house became apparent and feelings of loneliness started to creep in. I tried to sleep it off, but that didn’t really help. I ended up watching episodes of How I Met Your Mother and I think I’m feeling better now. Speaking of How I Met Your Mother, it’s interesting how similar my brother is like Barney. Me being Ted, my brother can be an awesome wingman.

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Roller Coaster Ride

You ever get the feeling that your life is on a roller coaster ride? No, I’m not on drugs. Haha. I’m talking about way too much stuff happening way too fast.

For the past few years, my life was like a roller coaster stuck in the middle of its track. Finally at the beginning of this year, someone finally fixed it and hit the green go button. Since then, I’ve been on a non-stop roller coaster ride. Now that I think of it, that someone may actually have been my brother after he got me drunk.

It all started with my 3 New Year resolutions. 2 of them have been semi-achieved already.

I’m happy with my current physique, though I’m continuing to tone my body and maybe even reach 130lbs. I’ve decided growing a 6-pack may be beyond what I’m capable of as several of my friends have warned me.

At work, I’ve been switched to a new project which I’m quite enjoying. My lead and I also have an understanding of what I’m trying to accomplish.

For those who know me well, well, you should probably know what resolution #3 is already. I’ve decided to slow down on that for now. I’ll still continue searching, but not as hard. Life was really a roller coaster ride back then, and let’s just say it caused way too much headaches.

Life has been everything except routine lately. There’s been weddings, family/friends visiting me, flying down to LA, planning a trip to the bay area, my new hair cut, my new style of clothing, and just too many to list.

What really prompted this blog post is that my grandma just passed away. She was really sick and was hospitalized last Friday. Turns out she had a really weird case of leukemia and it was too late for the doctors to do much. I was actually contemplating on flying back this Sunday to see her one last time, but it looks like I didn’t make it in time. I’ll be flying down 2 weeks from now to attend her funeral.

This afternoon I got a text from my sister:

just want to let you etan and mom know that grandma is possibly in her last few moments/ hours so pray for her

My grandma and I weren’t exactly close, but she is probably the grandparent I’ve spent the most time with. She was a really cool grandma, but can be very strict (part of the Chinese culture). It’s definitely sad she passed away and I’ll definitely miss her. I was told she passed away peacefully and that’s good to hear. I’m not quite sure what I’m feeling at the moment, but it’s definitely a mixture of emotions. I’m still not sure I’ve been able to wrap my head around this whole situation.

When life is slow, you can spice it up, throw some excitement into it. But when life is moving too fast, where are the brakes?

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