I have an “unlimited” data plan for my iPhone, so I was a little surprised by this. Did I use an unusual amount of data this month? I did finally use my Slingbox a lot more. I log into my AT&T account to view my mobile usage…and I just passed 2 GB of data usage. That doesn’t seem like a lot. Can’t image that’s “12 times more data than the average smartphone user” as AT&T’s email suggests.

The email (below) goes on about how AT&T will essentially throttle my data usage if I am within the top 5 percent again. Apparently with not much warning. Odd that I can switch to a tiered data plan for less (2 GB for $25/month, still available to me) or the same amount ($30/month, new plan) and get 3 GB of data usage. AT&T’s way of encouraging their users to get off the “unlimited” plan?

The email explains how I will still be able to enjoy my “unlimited” plan…with 2G/EDGE speeds? Not exactly a deal.

In the news (updated):

Feb. 13: AT&T customers surprised by ‘unlimited data’ limit
Feb. 24: California iPhone user wins $850 from AT&T for reduced data speeds
March 1: AT&T relents on ‘unlimited data’ plan limits

For only $198,801! Thank goodness I qualify for free shipping:

Usually each morning, I bring him over to his great grandma’s house. She watches him all day, cooks whatever he likes to eat (porridge, noodles, rice) and lets him zone out to PBS Kids and Nick Jr. This has been his typical routine every day since Hong used up the last of her maternity leave more than two years ago.

But my grandma was getting knee surgery. With months of rehab looming, there was no way she could watch Nicky any longer. And to be honest, he’s now two-and-a-half years-old, and it’s about time he went to school and learned to socialize with other kids.

He gets along great with Nathan and his young cousins. But I could tell the difference between Nathan (who went to childcare at just 16 months and is now almost four years-old) and Nicky in a social environment. Last month, we took both kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has a playground area and some interactive exhibits. There were a lot of kids running around, playing, and Nathan quickly jumped into the fray, went down the slide and ran through tunnels. Nicky on the other hand appeared scared and didn’t seem to know what to do, how to react. He just stood there, frozen, while kids ran past him and pushed him. I kept nudging him to go play but he wouldn’t go.

So just seeing that helped Hong and I decide that it’s time for Nicky to go to school. It’ll be tough on the wallet to send two kids to preschool at the same time. But it’s important for him to go. Since he’s not potty trained yet, we couldn’t send him to the same school as Nathan.

The first day

When he first walked into the classroom, he was a bit apprehensive and didn’t want to get near any of the other kids. But he happily grabbed a toy airplane and plastic car and sat on a rug near the door.

Here’s a short video:

After a little while and some prodding from his new teacher, he was willing to sit at the table with other kids and play with Lego.

I stayed with him for roughly 40 minutes…and snuck out the door when he wasn’t looking. They have a window that lets you peek into the classroom, so you can watch the kids from the outside. Poor guy was crying and screaming for me when he realized I was gone!

I felt absolutely terrible for the rest of the day. I still remember my first day at kindergarten — I cried and didn’t want my dad to leave — so I know exactly how he felt when I left him.

Picked him up early

Nathan tagged along to pick up Nicky on the first day…and he was pretty darn happy!

He enjoyed the playground before going home:

The teacher said he didn’t eat much lunch (only ate white rice) and didn’t sleep much. But that he should eventually get used to going to school.

His favorite time of the day is when we pick him up!

After school, on the third day:

I have no idea why he started using my e-mail address. I guess he thinks he signed up for that specific username? I have several e-mails in the inbox indicating someone tried to change the password unsuccessfully.

After three years worth of messages not intended for me, what I can see is, this guy:

- Has some connection to Cal Poly Pomona. Maybe he went there? He joined their Vietnamese student association.
- Trades stocks in Singapore at least several times a week.
- Lives in the Toronto area.
- Needs to work on his grammar.
- Likes astrology and Marvel comics.
- Travels often to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore.
- Has friends that e-mail jokes every so often. And friends that want him to join a zillion different social networks. (But who doesn’t have friends like that?)
- Applies to a lot of jobs.

It’s kind of weird. Since his real e-mail address has been carbon copied on various messages, I guess I could have e-mailed him and told him to quit it right in the beginning. But when I originally signed up for the Gmail account, I didn’t really *need* yet another e-mail address. (I just figured I might as well take the username just to have it, in case I wanted to use it in the future.) So I didn’t check it frequently. And now, three years later, it seems kind of pointless to try to do anything about it.

In a way it feels like someone’s invading my personal space. But on the other hand, with e-mails that aren’t intended for me, I feel like I’m invading his space!

I guess when you have a name (Dan/Danny/Daniel Wong/Wang) as common as mine, people can get confused. Not sure how else to explain why this happened.

In fact, just doing a quick Google search with my name, I see:

There’s a photographer, a designer, a game critic, a chef, an author, a real estate agent, a stunt man, a sports commentator, a mobile guru, a Web administrator, a professor – and most impressively, a student leader/protester who was No. 1 on the Chinese government’s “Most Wanted List” as a result of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Wow! And that was with me spending only a few minutes on the search engine!

There are probably a ton of other people with some form of my name. At the very least, I beat them to the punch and snagged the danwong.com domain name early on. Not that I’ve ever done anything with it, except for this semi-pointless blog.

So, anyway, I do this one morning a couple of weeks ago. And since I was awake, I figured I might as well fire up my computer and do some early morning Web surfing.

All of a sudden, I hear:

BOOM!

What the heck was that noise? Sounded like it came from my refrigerator. Maybe the ice maker was on the fritz?

I open up the freezer door…nothing unusual, weird.

Then Nicky wakes up. So I grab his milk bottle to put away. I open the refridgerator door…and notice all this brown, icy substance all over! What the heck is this?

After pondering it for a while, I realize the temperature for the refridgerator has been turned to its coldest setting. (The kids!!)

I feel some soda cans and they’re completely frozen!

Apparently, the fridge was so cold that a couple cans of Diet Pepsi just exploded!