I've just coded and tested the default AI. It is fun. The coding effort is less than I expected. No fancy AI technologies is used, yet. But I will improve it when I have time.

But I did stumble over AI order animation code. In local play mode, after a user submits his order, the human order animation is run from the Swing event dispatch thread. Then AI takes over, and starts a new AI order animation thread from the same 'one and only' Swing event dispatch thread. All three threads need to access the same data model. I hate Java threads and concurrency! It drives me nuts. After a day's tweaking, I have finally figured out a solution.

Chinese president Hu told the world that China and US are not in a zero-sum game. Obama responded warmly, "We have an enormous stake in each other's success." Really?? How about "We have an enormous stake in each other's failure"?

China and US maybe in a non zero-sum game in the mid 70s of the last century, when Soviet Union and US were in a Cold War. But not now. Right now, US, Japan and South Korea are in a non-zero-sum game. China and North Korea are in a non zero-sum game. But China and US? They are definitely in a zero-sum game.

About two months ago, I had a very strange dream. In this dream, I became a member of a military special task force. I remembered walking with my team in a palace like building with big and long balconies. Then we were on board a military transport plane. The plane was doing a low altitude terrain-following flying in a mountainous area. Avoiding the Radar detection? The dream felt so real. I could see the GREEN colored trees on the hill tops from the plane. This is rare, I seldom remember color in my dreams. Whenever the plane cleared a mountain top and flew downwards, I had this weightless feeling in my stomach. I had quite a few out-of-body flying experience before, but this experience is so different from others.

I dreamed a lot. Most of my dreams are insignificant and forgettable. Not this one, this one felt so real and unforgettable. What is this? Was this dream showing me a part of my future? Not likely. I'm a military nerd and a gun nut, but I'm more intellectual than action oriented. I'm too old and weak to be a special agent fighting on the front line or behind the enemy lines:-) What is my sub consciousness trying to tell me?

Bioshock is a nice game. The 3D graphics is beautiful. I especially like the water effects in the game. It feels so realistic. But the part I enjoy the most is its music. The game designers know how to select these beautiful songs from the 1950s era. And they are strategically played during the lengthy game loads between the chapters. Nice! For a few times, I even waited till the end of the song before I progressed to the next game level.

You always hurt the one you love, by Mills Brothers

Beyond the Sea, by Bobby Darin

I just watched the movie Silent Hill. The film seems to contain bits and pieces from all the video games in the Silent Hill series. It is a good horror movie but I was not scared at all. It is good because it brings back some interesting memories of my "Silent Hill" gaming experience.