nfiniti plus one

Move Along

2005-12-26T20:21:00.001-05:00

Nothing to see here anymore. ;) Move on over to the new site here.

It's Alive!

2005-12-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

As I promised, the domain + webhost I got is finally up. The DNS is still propagating through the world wide web, but at least in my parts, I can access the site now. It's in it infancy and I'm learning CSS like a madman. To say the least, it's just a test page up there for now. Doing this CSS stuff is pretty cumbersome at first, but once I get all the initial code down, it'll make for a much simplified updating procedure. I just have to get my photochop skills up to par. I am absolutely useless at it right now, but I've got a buttload of tutorials lined up and I'll just mess around and see what I can create. Expect nothing professional for a while yet. :|

In other news, I've realized that IE and Firefox both suck. Well, that's not true. It's just that coding that looks fine under one browser doesn't necessarily look fine in the other. Why can't they just get along and use the same damn engine or something. I can see why a bunch of pages back when didn't work for Firefox. When it had a much lower adoption rate, developers probably just said, 'You know what, screw it. I'm not going to recode all this so that it looks good for the 2% of users who use Firefox.' But not so anymore so I get the awesome task of coding for both browsers. Don't even drag Opera, Konqueror or Safari in here. Opera doesn't have the usage of Firefox, Konqueror is on Linux and I really don't want to go there right now. And while I'd love to pick up a PowerMac G5 just to test Safari compatability, I (unfortunately) don't have the dough. I'll see if I can't find some people using all those browsers to check compatability once in a while though... (Rene?)

So uh.. Hooway for hand coding!? <-- click it

Ramble Ramble Ramble

2005-12-20T18:23:00.000-05:00

Anyone here remember when this blog was actually named 'The Ramblings of Me'? Well I do. =P In any case, I've been sitting on my ass doing just about nothing (well... if reformatting counts as nothing) but a lot of reading. Okay, so I've been still doing 'stuff', but nothing close to the amount of work I'd normally do at university. It's been so great not having to worry about assignments and stuff. It's definitely a way better feeling knowing you went through it all and now you've got your break from it. Yeah, I've even been hitting up the old ivory keys these past few days. The first time playing in like a month and a half really killed me. Apparently playing the Black Key etude as a warmup tune after a month plus isn't such a good idea. My right arm was so tense and I felt like I'd been lifting weights after running through half the piece and just falling apart. Let me tell you, tenseness + fast = very bad. But I've been practicing and the Black Key's sounding a lot better now and I'm working on another Chopin etude. They're so fun. No joke.

Now, onto the geeky stuff. I've been having a ball listening to these podcasts, especially this one called This Week in Technology or TWiT for short. (for short... is that proper English? I'm saying it over and over and it doesn't sound very legit :$) Anyways, I'll have you know 'Podcast' is the word of the year according to the New Oxford American Dictionary. It didn't even make it into that dictionary at all last year. How ironic no? Oh what was I saying... Right, TWiT. It's an awesome show if you've got any interest in technology at all. Yes, it's a little geeky and whatnot, but it's also just plain hilarious listening to these respected ndividuals of technology verbally rip apart different companies, persons and whatever. Just a whole lot of fun. It definitely sounds like they're having fun.

So I've finally got most of the applications installed on the laptop again. I'm currently installing up a whole lot of games to keep me entertained over the work term. I've so far got this lineup:

Final Fantasy VII
SimCity4 (yeah, going to give this a try again)
America's Army
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Rome Total War
Maybe UT2004 for a little bit o' CTF fun once in a while
Steel Panthers 3 with DOSBox

Damn, that last game is so oldschool. Sometime when I get a chance I'll post up some screenshots of it. Ooooo those luscious 2D textures and practically MIDI sound effects... I even had to run it with DOSBox since otherwise it would run too fast. Those CPU cycles let me tell you. Apparantly computers have gotten faster over the past decade *insert rolling eye smilie here*. I've been also enjoying America's Army immensely. It's possibly the most realistic FPS game made so far. It became pretty clear to me UT2004 with the lasers and low grav isn't very realistic at all. I had a nasty habit of shooting the first thing that came through the door when I started playing America's Army and that's a sure-fire way of getting a lot of team kills which kind of pisses people off. At least I'm not the only one though. At one point on a map, I, along with 2 other teammates got blown to pieces by a friendly grenade. Way to go killing half your team! Hooway! I'm slowly getting better at it, but generally still suck. I'm sure I'll get lots of practice over the work term.

In other news, I've become extremely interested in various web technologies including Javascript, CSS and AJAX. I think AJAX is the thing that is most appealing to me. Basically a marketing term, AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript + XML. If you've used live.com, protopage.com, start.com or Gmail, you've used a site that incorporates 'AJAX'. It essentially loads up a bunch of things right when you open up a page so you don't always have to do the classical click-wait for server response-receive server response approach to browsing. You'll notice how quick Gmail seems when comparing it to say Hotmail for example. (Microsoft has their Live Mail Beta as well which uses AJAX to present an Outlook-like mail client) Eventually technology like AJAX could allow us to run more and more applications, not just email, directly on the web. I've already started to learn Javascript, which is going very well since it is similar to Java which is in turn similar to C# which I have, *gasp* learned at university.

How do I intend to learn and practice all this? Well, I'll be getting a webhost of course! =) I'm currently narrowing my choices down but I'm pretty sure I've found my host of choice. Hey Mike/Nick, remember our website plans from back in the summer? I should be able to get that going here soon. It'll be a test/community website. You'll get to put up with my buggy-ass coding and I get a place to test stuff out. ;) Kidding about the buggy code, I promise I'll keep that to a minimum. I have some ideas which I'll talk to you guys about. Maybe you'll be interested.

Ok, one last thing, I got accepted into the Microsoft Windows Live Messenger a bit ago. How is this pertinent to you? It's not. I just wanted to boast.

Carry on.

And I Never Thought I'd Make It

2005-12-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well, I never thought this day would come, but it finally has. Actually, this is really a few days late since basically I was free of the chains starting Friday around noon. But of course, I would have seemed extremely anti-social if I had of spent that day writing in my blog. Even I have limits you know. ;) Friday night was pretty crazy, although not as crazy as some of the stories I later heard about what happened that night in other parts of the university. We won’t get into that…

I spent a good portion of yesterday packing up all of my stuff in preparation for moving out. I was extremely surprised at just how much stuff I brought to my dorm. I brought stuff that I didn’t even know I brought. As I was folding all my clothes, I dug up so many shirts and stuff that I didn’t even know I had. I am glad, however, that I did not bring a desktop. I saw numerous parents lugging huge computer cases around.

As people were leaving they would all come down to my room and say a little goodbye until next semester (hopefully…) and it was actually pretty sad to think that I won’t be able to see them for 4 months. I’m going to be living in res again next semester since it was just the most convenient route to take for my work semester, but none of them will be back. It’ll be interesting to see how I got eat with, hang around with and all. Four months isn’t really that long and it definitely feels like I just met all of those people yesterday, but we’ve shared (nearly) the same experience and we’ve really grown close.

So this is just a short little update before my laptop goes under the knife. And by under the knife I mean it’s going down for a backing up and then a reformat. I’ve also got to go see if I can’t get linux working on this thing again. I didn’t have time before to fool around too much, but oh, it feels so nice to have all the time in the world right now.

And Then There was One

2005-12-16T08:13:00.000-05:00

Tis the morning of my final exam of this semester, Chemistry 102: Chemistry for Engineers. I'm going into it feeling pretty good. I did last year's exam as practice and just about aced that. However, I had the most horrible night of the semester, meaning although I got into bed at around 11:40PM, hoping to get a lot of sleep before the exam, I didn't actually fall asleep until around 2:00AM. In any case, I'm up and about and off to eat a nice light breakfast before the exam.

So close now! I can taste the freedom!

Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

2005-12-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

I'm just trying out a function of the new Flock browser I've been messing around with, that being the blogging function. No more visiting blogger.com to post anymore, plus I get a way better (faster I mean) spell check and lots of cool little functions that makes blogging that much easier. The previous version I tried (0.4.10) had this function broken for me so yesterday I was able to grab a 0.4.11 developer version off their site. Now it works! Hooway!

And even better, I can use almost all of the Firefox extensions so I'm happy. :-)

The Big One-Eight

2005-12-06T00:42:00.000-05:00

I always say it’s just one day older when I’m being really pessimistic but this birthday is supposed to bring something special. 1-8. What does that mean? I wrote about it a while ago in another post (aside – I always find it quite enjoyable to go back and reflect upon the things I’ve written in this blog of mine. Perhaps the second best thing about it aside from you guys being able to know what I’m doing and thinking is that I have a place to look back upon my life). The actual being 18 thing isn’t really anything fancy to me. I guess I can buy pr0n, lotto tickets (got one tonight) and vote in the elections coming up in January. That’ll be kind of exciting I guess. Ok, I probably sound really doom and gloom especially since it’s my birthday, today. The fact is, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now and I just don’t really have time for it. I wish I could delay my birthday until after exams were over and let loose. But nooooo. Oh well, I’ll have a nice Christmas I’m sure. You know what they say, there’s no happiness without sadness or whatever. I’ll thoroughly enjoy the lack of work after all this is over.

So my birthday huh. Let me dwell on myself for a little bit here. I went out with a bunch of guys from our residence/program to the local East Side Marios. I had a pretty good dinner and I even got the whole birthday treatment. You know, the random singing that makes you all embarrassed because everyone’s staring at you and then I got to spin the wheel for a prize. Maybe they thought I was like 12 or something… I took it easy last night. Well, today’s really my birthday but today is the beginning of the study week of death where I spend about 90% of my waking time with my nose in a book. That should be lots of fun.

And to show you how my birthday’s been going, I’ll tell you about my day. I went to our programming tutorial this morning. It just so happened that I was the only one who showed up for it out of a class of 120 people. So instead of actually doing anything productive with my time, I chatted with our TA, who I also talked to Friday night at the party. We reminisced a little and we told each other what we did afterwards. After talking for a while, I went back to residence and ate some food and then proceeded to our last four lectures of the semester and of 2005. They were all just review of random things, although calculus was nice since what we had to know for the exam was slightly clarified.

After all that, I ate dinner and started studying. Since my first exam is physics this Thursday, I decided it would probably be a good plan to really start now. I’m about 2/3 of the way through one of the previous year’s exam and it isn’t too bad, yet. I’m hoping I don’t run into anything too difficult, although I don’t expect to get them all either on the first try. I’m still wondering when I’m going to fit in enough studying for my other courses. As easy as it may sound, Linear Algebra has the potential to destroy me. In all the other courses, I at least understand (mostly) all the concepts. It’s in algebra that I actually don’t understand what’s going on some of the time. I’m definitely going to have to work on that and ask a few people some questions. Stupid math proofs. That’s for the mathies here…

So yeah, basically the only thing I’ve done 18ish is buy a lottery ticket tonight. And the lady didn’t even ID me. What a shame. Maybe it’ll be a winner; who knows. That would be the funniest thing ever. Well only 365 more days until I can drink… legally at least.

Oh and I’m still on the lookout for a good web host that isn’t expensive as hell (or crappy as hell).

The Day After

2005-12-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

Seeing that yesterday was really the last day of our normal university semester, the local party house, Unit 36, held its regular end of term party. It’s the times like last night that you see in movies and TV shows. There were more than 200 people crammed into a townhouse and the backyard. On the menu was ‘Batch’ and your regular keg beer, brewed here in Waterloo. Batch is basically a mixed drink the engineers here came up with. It doesn’t taste much like alcohol but has a pretty solid kick to it. I downed 8 and a half cups in the course of a little over an hour. To say the least, I was having a good time. Who says you can’t have fun in computer engineering? I went along with a couple friends in my program as well as a few from out residence. It was good times and I’d have to say that was one of the most fun filled parties I’ve been to. It’s great when you’re having a few with your teaching assistants. That’s always gotta be good for the marks or something!

So the party ended at only 9PM, and most of the upper year students went on over to the engineering bar, POETS (Piss On Everything Tomorrow’s Saturday). The guys from our res decided that it would be a prime time to retreat back and lick our (drunken) wounds. But on the way home, we stopped at this Vietnamese restaurant. I didn’t really know what I was doing and supposedly I told them I didn’t want anything to eat. So when I was in the bathroom peeing (I pissed 5 times in the course of like an hour and a half last night. Twice out in the cold against the side of the house. I realized I pissed on the power box by accident) they all ordered without me.

Well, as consolation, they broke a table there. Everyone on one side of the table like kinda passed out at the same time and the whole table just broke. That should teach them. Anyways, I drifted in and out of consciousness (ok, so I’m exaggerating a bit) and we finally made it back to our res. I spent the rest of the night eating chips and stuff. I had physics extra help this morning and I had to be functional in the morning.

So yeah, it was generally a ton of fun. But that’ll be it until after exams are over. I cannot wait until I get to just go home and not have to worry about anything. Last night was nice since I just let loose and forgot all I had to do. It’s okay to take a break every once in a while. Unfortunately, aside from the two hour physics session this morning, I haven’t done any work yet. Exams are only five days away. Uh oh!

The Final Stretch

2005-12-02T01:28:00.000-05:00

It's been almost three months and I'm coming up to the end of this, my first semester at university. It's been a lot of pain and fun all rolled into one big mess. Many of my fears were proven to be unfounded while others have magnified in their seriousness. Let me give you some examples. I was never really a shy person back on PEI, but I wasn't the most outgoing person either. I was terribly afraid of not meeting anyone and making new friends here. Well that was proven completely wrong. I've never made so many friends. Perhaps it's due to the fact that we all feel basically the same and everyone's accepting, but nevertheless there's an awesome bunch here. On the other hand however is the matter of school materials and difficulty. Okay, I knew I was going to a good school with high academic standards. People told me expect a 10% drop in my average from high school. At this point, I'd be happy with only a 10% drop. I expected university to be hard, but I never had any inkling that I'd be getting kicked in the ass so hard. The initial trauma left me basically useless. Towards the end of this semester I picked things up and started organizing myself better. We'll see if it's good enough for the finals here.

Speaking of finals, I'm really in the final stretch now. We've finished up in all of our courses save for Calculus and we'll be finishing the very last bit of work to be covered tomorrow. Okay, I'll be honest, it was a weird feeling hearing the professor say 'Okay and that's the last material we'll be covering in this course'. I've moved through elementary school, junior high school and senior high school without this feeling save for upon Grade 9 and Grade 12 graduation. Moving from grade to grade didn't really mean anything. This was different though. Perhaps it marks the beginning of the end of my first stretch of a challenging academic and social life ahead of me. I have never worked as hard (and didn't really imagine I'd ever work as hard) as I have this past semester and I could definitely do better.

I finished my last bit of regular classwork this evening. A couple of us got together and worked on our C# programming assignment. The program we had to write included things such as reading in a data file of 20 000 different cars, writing methods for finding certain makes of cars, deleting specific ones, and sorting the entire list in order of price. The concepts weren't too difficult at all, however the implementation was pretty much death in a program. There were so many ways to go wrong, not just in syntax but in logic as well. It's hard to wrap your mind around every single possibility that the program could possibly run into. But since I've finished that up (not even due until Monday!) I've got a clean slate until exams start next Thursday. It's a nice feeling to know that you can concentrate on studying. Plus since we're in 1A, the first year office was nice enough to plan our exams so that we have them every second day. Our 5 exams are spread out over more than a week. My first one is Physics and the second is ECE (programming). Those are definitely going to interesting and an awful way to start of the finals.

So yes... See? I'm super busy and yet I still find time to post something to my blog. What are you people doing out there? Where's your update? I'm patiently waiting. =P

You've Gotta Reward Yourself Sometimes

2005-11-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

And that's exactly what I'm doing now. I'm at the library listening to the Last Samurai soundtrack and typing up a blog entry. What could be more relaxing than that? (ok, well sleeping's probably better) I just finished a nearly three hour long study session so I decided I deserved a break. It's nice to have something to look forward to. And I'm sure my efficiency has gone down like tenfold from when I first started studying this evening. I worked on some chemistry as well as programming. God, programming's fun and all, but it's damn frustrating and boring to actually read the notes and textbook. I never feel as tired as I do when I'm reading my programming textbook. It's like the cure for insomnia or something.

So I came here to the library by myself tonight and I was able to get some fresh air and thinking done on the way over. I can't really say what I thought about specifically; it was more just a mess of things. I've had a lot of things piled on my shoulders recently and I think I'm just bottling it up inside. The trauma of having exams so near has pushed everything else to the back of my mind and I'm not sure what's going to happen once they're done and over with. So I tried to get things I've been neglecting back into my concious thought. I whizzed through a few thoughts on the way over, but I haven't yet resolved anything really.

On a totally unrelated note, I've been trying out this new webbrowser (yes I know, another one) called Flock. It's based off the Gecko engine and is very closely related to Firefox. It's pretty much an offshoot of Firefox which implements a lot of cool things like Flikr and blogging integration. Basically, it'll allow you to blog right through the browser without ever even having to go to Blogger.com or Word Press or whatever. It also has a RSS feed aggregator which could be really useful. The only problem right now is that it's quite unpolished with many bugs. But then again, everything starts somewhere. I'm really excited for what this browser could bring. As I've been saying, anything to make using the internet easier and more efficient.

Ok, back to university stuff, I got accepted back to V1 residence for the Winter co-op term. I'm actually pretty happy with that since I don't have to make myself food (you know how poorly I cook I'm sure) and I don't have to go apartment hunting anymore either! It'll be interesting meeting a new bunch of students, but I'm up for it. I know a few 8 stream students as well so it won't be all bad. And for my study semester after that, I'm trying to move up to the third floor of my current residence. There's an 8 stream person up there who will be moving out during my second study semester and I'm hoping to take over his room. I'm friends with the people up on the third floor and it's a nicer spot than right beside the lounge which at times makes me feel like clawing my ears off. When it's 2 or 3AM, it's probably time to sleep, but nooooo. These guys don't feel like it's necessary to get up for morning classes, but they shouldn't be preventing other from doing so. Let me tell you, a couple days in a row of 4 hours of a sleep a night really gets to you.

Anywho, it's time for me to wrap it up and start my trek back to residence. I've done enough studying for the night. Just look at me! I'm starting to study for finals and the first one's more than a week away still! Aren't you so damn proud? I need to do well on these exams and studying hard's the only way I'll be able to. You'd better feel special that I'm even writing anything in my blog these days. If I followed my parents' advice, I wouldn't have any contact with you guys until after my exams are done (December 16). Uh uh. You guys mean too much to me.

Two People I Know Will Enjoy This

2005-11-30T08:20:00.000-05:00

So as the title says, I know at least two people who will enjoy this immensely. You know Jesse Cook? Nomad ring any bells? Anyways, he's coming to Kitchener to put on a benefit concert for something. (Didn't listen closely enough) No, I won't be going to see him. Being a benefit concert, the tickets are kind of expensive, at $100. But yeah, it's funny that he's coming here.

Just thought you'd get a kick out of that.

So This Is What Withdrawal's Like...

2005-11-29T00:34:00.000-05:00

You know I've never been addicted to any drugs (never even done any I'm glad to say) so I definitely wouldn't know what it's like to experience the withdrawal symptoms from those drugs. However, I did experience withdrawal symptoms of a different kind. The kind where you're addicted to computers and you're all of a sudden without it. Let me explain.

I went home for the weekend as some of you may know. Now maybe it's cause I'm absent-minded or perhaps it was because of the rush to make it to the bus going back to UWaterloo. Whatever the case, I left my laptop power cord at home. I realized this just about halfway between St. Catherines and Hamilton. I sat there on the bus the whole way to the university brooding and rationing out my laptop battery time. If I dimmed the screen down a lot and disabled the wireless and all that, I figured I had anywhere from 4 to 4:30 of battery life. Now I had several things to write up for our professional development course which I had to submit over the internet. Additionally, I hadn't finished the programming assignment which is due next Monday. I hadn't planned on going back home this coming weekend and so I was stuck. In order to do my assignments I needed my computer. And to provide myself enough time, I had to cut down my extraneous computer time down to zero.

And you wouldn't believe what that's like. Usually I get up in the mornings and automatically turn my laptop on. I do my morning surf of the stock market futures and any glaring technology news and events. This morning, I didn't turn my laptop on. I honestly got up and stared at my turned-off laptop for 10 minutes. Then I went and took a shower. Seriously now, it was the most terrible feeling. I didn't take my laptop to class which I had been doing a lot more recently since OneNote has been so useful. I couldn't even charge my iPod! (Damn Apple for not providing a power adapter anymore) It must have been pretty pathetic seeing my trying to read whatever was on the screen at nearly the lower brightness setting.

But you know what? It made me realize just how much time I actually waste on the computer in the course of a single day. Without the use of my laptop for the good portion of today, I had so much more time to concentrate on my schoolwork. Everything I did do on the laptop was done quickly and efficiently. I planned everything out on paper before turning my laptop on, typing it all in and submitting my assignment. Honestly, it was probably for the best that I left my power cord back home this weekend. It's shown me how much more studying I could do without it. My parents have actually sent the power cord to me in the mail and it should be here tomorrow. I'm going to try to act as though I don't have it though. It could do my studies some good. Even posting this right now doesn't bode too well for self-control when I get it though.

In other news, my iPod is definitely getting scratched solid. Good thing I have a screen protector on the screen. The rest of it seems to be fair game for scratches though and they're really starting to make themselves apparent.

In other other news, I watched my first two and a half episodes of Smallville tonight and I'm actually really liking it. What can I say, the women are hot. Oh Nick, you were the one who really liked that show right?

To Friends

2005-11-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

I was sent an email from a dear friend that really touched me. He didn't even write it himself but the message associated with it is really close to me. I thought I'd share it with all of you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the"Peanuts" comic strip.
It only takes a second to read and I think it outlines what most of us try to define in our lifetimes.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor andactress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. Here's another quiz ...see how you do on this one:

1. List at least two teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name four people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Wasn't that easier? The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones who care."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

See it's not necessarily about how big of a business(wo)man you are or how much power you have or what amazing discovery you've made. Friends are friends because they care. You could throw as much money as you'd like at me but deep down you're still not a true friend. Just remember this: You'll be best remembered by those you've cared for and the people who care for you.

This goes out to all those people who have helped guide me through my troubled times and shared in my joy during the happy days.

Trivial

2005-11-27T15:45:00.000-05:00

You know something I really miss? Or perhaps you really miss? When I used to do at least one post per day on this blog. Like back when I had almost zero work to do and I spent 70% of my wakinglife posting? I still remember waking up one morning, actually I believe it was the morning right before our first Seussical performance and I wrote up a little entry. Yes, back in the days when the sun was bright, the winds warm and friends were all around.

*sigh* Time to read more C#.

WFT?

2005-11-26T23:45:00.000-05:00

Since I'm really not feeling too creative right now, I've come up with this (definitely) cryptic post name. Can YOU figure it out?

In other news, I'm home for the weekend. Actually came home on the bus and skipped physics lecture because of that. Aren't I a badass? Aside from missing half a lecture for my co-op interview, I've actually attended every single class so far this year. Too bad it hasn't helped me much. We're actually done covering all the material that's required for physics now and we're just doing practice problems during physics lectures. It's fun to know that our classes are all about doing problem sets with absolutely no meaning in the real world. Let me give you an example. (concocted, but realistic)

An unknown mass is hung on a pulley which is attached to the ceiling by a spring. That pulley is then attached to a rod which gets spun when the mass moves which in turn pulls a piece of string attached to another mass resting on an incline with a coefficient of friction of 0.3. Please calculate the distance the block will fall before attaining kinetic energy equivalent to the potential chemical energy found in a 50g chocolate bar.

Ok, so I totally made that up, but in all seriousness, they may as well be that absurd. The only two classes which are even slightly practical are ECE150 and GENE167. One is our programming class and the other is the general engineering class. Oh that reminds me, we were learning a bit about businesses and entrepreneurship in class Thursday for our GENE167 lecture. Oh that brough back a whole bunch of great memories from Economics class at the Gray with Mark Holton as well as the JA company we had (the site's gone, RIP). We were talking about small business, corporations, shares and whatnot. I was ripping up the questions he was asking. Oh it was great.

But it made me realize something. I don't think I'm cut out for the technical guy's job. I love business and management and working with people. Oh I want to be in the technology sector for sure, but I definitely don't want to be the guy in the white cleansuits working in a closed off lab. I thrive on working with others and looking at the big picture. It's often times very easy to lose sight of your goals when you're slamming through those damn calculus integration problem sets. What do I want to do when I grow up? Solve huge ass multi-variable integral problems? Hells no. I want to be in the tech business. Let's put it this way. I love technology and I want to see it advance. I also love business so what better way to do everything I love by combining the two. Maybe I'll start up a new company (like back in the internet bubble days =P) or try to move my way up the corporate ladder into a position where I can actually have some influence in the company as a whole. For some reason, I had this feeling I was gonna be a complete nerd type guy when I grew up. Nope, not cut out for that honestly. I'm planning on taking a managerial or business option with my engineering degree. Then I'll go do my graduate studies and hopefully with the research I do, I'll be able to jump start something. Then I'll have an idea and the management abilities as well. Oh it all sounds so nice right now, but who knows. Maybe I'll drop out of school after next semester. =P

Oh but then I was talking to my Dad today about how much I hate politics and whatever. That'll be another post for another time. Anyways, basically he told me that if you're going to be in business, you'll get into politics anyways. Essentially the only way to avoid some sort of politics (office politics are just as bad if not worse) is to go completely technical. But meh, that just doesn't appeal to me. It's everyone's lust for power. Me included. I'm not saying I don't want power... MWAHAHAHA.

I'm listening to Coldplay's X & Y album right now and that definitely brings back good memories. *shivers* Good times.

Growing Up...

2005-11-23T00:13:00.000-05:00

So I was home this past weekend and had a few nice talks with the parents. You know, when you're at university, you just don't get the time or chance to do that and you realize how little you really see them. It used to be that I'd go home everyday and you'd just know they'd be there or if not right then a little later. But when you're no longer at home, it really puts things into perspective. Taken for granted? For sure I'm shamed to say. It's not until it's taken away from you that you truly realize what you had.

Okeee... moving on. So where was I. Right, talking with the folks. So we were just finishing up dinner Saturday night and were talking about my housing for the next semester. For those of you who don't know (I'm surprised, most of you don't!) I'm going on my first work term this coming semester. So, recently I've been on the lookout for an appropriate place to live. Apparently, it's pretty hard to find a decent place. It's either living in some person's basement for a semester or sharing an apartment with several unknowns. All my friends here got jobs elsewhere or haven't gotten jobs yet. And I can't realistically wait for them to get jobs. Anyways, the point wasn't the housing itself. I realized that I'm well, growing up. There used to be a time when you could easily retreat to the safety of home to lick your wounds. Those days are quickly drawing to a close. In a way, living here at residence is really shielding us to the reality we'll soon have to face. There is still some sense of control and organization enforced onto us by the housing people here. Once we move out, we're really on our own.

This semester has really flown by. In fact, you know what, my whole life has flown past when I really look back on it. I can still picture Michael and I standing at the back of the West Kent playground planning the Millenium Group's eventual conquering of the world. Oh I can still see the maps we made of all our 'armies'. And we went on that grade 6 trip to Cape Breton when a bunch of the other schools were going to like Mill River (the Islanders will get this one =P). And yeah Mike and Alex, remember that trip?! Haha, see those were good times. Then it was junior high and somehow I became amazing friends with Nick. I don't even know how it happened and the last time we talked about that, he couldn't come up with the real progression of our friendship either. I recall our band trip in grade 9 and playing that solo in Shark Bait in that school. Apparently it was really good, but I couldn't really understand why I was so pumped that day.

Then senior high school at the Gray. Those were the best days of my life. Especially grade 12. Grade 10 and 11 weren't all that special. I had a weird obsession with school those days. I really let loose in grade 12 and I don't regret it one bit. Two musicals and four band trips in three years. I will always think back to those days with great fondness. And those were the times when I solidified my friendship with all you special people back home. (Yes, I still think of PEI as home; cute isn't it?) Oh yes friends, that brings me to my next thought...

I was talking to this person here at university about what we left behind. This person has become better friends with the people here at university than they had ever been with the people back in their hometown. Now this isn't some loserish person who never became good friends with the people back home. Quite the opposite. I can tell this person would've been a very popular person who most likely was well-liked.

I thought about this in my context. Am I better friends with the people here than I am with the people who are still back on the Island (or on exchange)? The resounding answer is no. Oh don't get me wrong. The people here I've become friends with are awesome people. They're nice and share so many things in common with me. But that doesn't really seem to matter. The people I've left mean something totally different to me. There's something special with them that I don't think I'll ever find in anyone else. Yes, that's saying a lot, but I've met a lot of people and I just don't see that sort of ... element to them. I'm going to be with many of these people for the next 5 years of my life and I will grow very close to some of them, but it won't be the same. Some people told me when I was leaving PEI that I'd find other friends, other very good friends. I accepted this, but I also accepted the fact that I may never find the friends I had from back home. That's why I'm so excited to be going to visit next summer for a couple weeks. Yeah, it's such a long time away, but I'll be looking forward to it each and every day. I miss you guys and the Island so much that I came the closest to crying this weekend I have in a long time when I was looking at some pictures of my time there. Not even ashamed to say it.

So it's only 12:10AM but I think I'm going to hit the sack and listen to a podcast or something. This is going to be the earliest time I've gone to bed in the past month and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Sorry to all those I haven't written emails to (specifically Michael, Nick, Alex, Sean, Maryse, and... I think that's it. You guys wrote me great emails and I feel terrible for not having written back... in some cases in more than a month). I promise to get some out tomorrow. It's an awfully nice feeling to be finished of assignments in advance of the day they're due.

P.S. This whole post is actually totally off topic to what I orignally intended. It just started flowing so I thought I'd let it go for now. I'm continue my original train of thought in a later post.

Don't You Hate it When...

2005-11-21T07:38:00.000-05:00

... you think of something to write in your blog, but when you actually sit down you've forgotten?

... you don't know how to put something down in words?

The Past Three Weeks

2005-11-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

You're shocked and appalled and so am I. Or at least I should be. It's been about three weeks since my last update here. That's just terrible. But you'll just have to excuse me. Unfortunately, blogging isn't exactly a top priority for me here at university. However, I owe something to the people who still read this and my friends back home and around the world now on exchanges. Plus, even my parents are nagging me to update! I have to listen to them right? ;-)

So what's been going on? Well, I finished my exams towards the end of October and that's where I left off in my last post. So I'll pick up after that. So you'd think that maybe, just maybe, we'd get some sort of break after midterms. Oh no, of course not. Not only were we blasting through the material during out midterms, there was no letup afterwards and the assignments and quizzes restarted. In addition to that, we had a huge technical report to write for the week after my midterms were over.

Basically, we were given a power inverter and energy requirements. We then had to design a connection from a battery to the inverter that would satisfy those power requirements as well as taking into account the current limit of the conductors, the price, as well as the resistivity of the wire. Since most of us didn't have any, or at least very little knowledge of electric circuits, the project was generally pretty difficult. I was lucky that my parents are both electrical engineers and so they could help me out with any design or general problems that I had. As I wrote, more issues started popping up which required covering and so the report grew in size. I'm glad I started relatively early. Taking our first draft that was due a long while ago, I started the heavy work on Friday. I worked throughout Saturday and Sunday. I returned to campus Sunday evening and was still not finished. Luckily, I had gotten most of the work in Saturday already (worked for probably 10 hours that day) and so just needed to polish it off a bit. Unfortunately, for many of the other people, they had just decided to start on the project Sunday. That night didn't go too well for them. I knew at least 6 people who didn't sleep a wink that night to get it done in time for the due date.

Ahhh moving on, I'm currently listening to the Seussical soundtrack. Now this music brings back some damn fine memories. Actually, I'm sort of cheating. I was organizing my music in iTunes (gasp) to put on my new iPod this past week. If it weren't for the fact that I had ripped the CD in WMA format, I probably wouldn't have paid it an extra notice. However iTunes being what it is, doesn't like anything Microsoft too much. So I had to convert my all my WMA stuff over to MP3 format. In the process, Seussical was converted. And clearly, just seeing the name brought back memories so I decided to listen to it. So I decided I needed to listen to it again while I write this blog post cause I'm sure it'll bring back some interesting things from waaaaaayyyyyyy back then. I can picture everything so vividly. Hell, I even have the DVD here if I really want to see it again.

To Nick whom I wrote that something really funny happened last weekend: I played UT2004. Yeah I know, that's just hilarious isn't it? You know me and my past obssession with UT, well my interest really got piqued this past week. You see, we were talking about games we could play online with the guys here and a few names were rhymed off. Of them, UT2004 was the one that really got me going. So being me, I really got going about those good old days when I'd play competitively with my clan. So that Sunday, about 8 of us got together on our computers (only at Waterloo no?) and had a game of UT2004 Bombing Run. I was in heaven for a little while. Hasn't this just been the week of reminiscing? Yeah, those were good times. So young so carefree... Haha.

As you can probably guess, I've been obsessed and tinkering with my new 5th Gen iPod for the good part of the week. First off, I had to reorganize my music collection to sync it up with iTunes. Then to test out the video playing capabilities of the iPod. I searched around and found out how to properly convert videos over to a format that the iPod could correctly recognize and play. Clearly, I had to try it out with some Family Guy shows first. I was amazed at the quality of the videos. They were absolutely beautiful. Next, I loaded up some Mythbusters. Remember sitting over at your place watching that show Nick? Those were damn good times. So yeah, anyways, I loaded those up and they looked very slick as well. I found myself watching videos on the iPod basically just for the sake of using it this past week. I just as easily could have watched it on a 15.4" widescreen laptop, but nooooo. Had to watch it on the iPod. Here's a picture to end off this section. I'll see if I can't put up a review of this sleek player this weekend. We'll see how the work goes. I've gotta work on my picture taking abilities of shiny things. Flash makes the pictures look terrible, but apparently I have tourettes or something. Can't seem to keep my hand steady enough to get a clear picture.

Alright, on to other news. I've been feeling a bit better about school in general recently. It seems like either I've climbed over some mental obstacle or they're teaching easier stuff cause I've been understanding Chemistry, Physics and Linear Algebra better. Programming is getting there (I'm still not so hot at it, but I think I'm thinking a bit differently when it comes to programming now) and Calculus is coming along. I guess I'd have to say Calculus is giving me the hardest time currently. At the beginning of the year, we were doing pretty easy stuff, but we've moved on integration now and boy, they don't ease you into it at all. I think the biggest problem is that I need to review it more and do more practice problems. Basically after about a week of teaching integrals, we're supposed to be able to do all single variable integrals already. There's some solid problem solving involved with integrals. Definitely a lot more than with derivatives. But enough of that; I'm sure I'm boring all you artsies out there. =P

So that's a pretty decently update for now. I've got a few thoughts about some 'deeper' things that I'll write about in another post. That way I'll provide the illusion of writing more and I'm sure you're about to either fall asleep or close this window right around this point. I'm reading Nick's, Will's and Reese's blogs and they're all like talking about the meaning of life and all that and I feel totally superficial. Perhaps that's what happens when you're too busy to think about anything other than what you have to do in the next 10 minutes of your life. I'm not poking fun at you people away on exchanges. You definitely should be enjoying your time and taking it all in. Just well... I'm a little busier than I was in high school. From what I hear from you Nick, you're definitely living it up. =D

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go downstairs and rifle through boxes of stuff to see if I can't find my Seussical piano music score. I have this sudden urge to play some of those tunes and try out my fingers again. I feel like an old person who can barely move my fingers compared to what I used to be able to do less than a year ago. Toodles.

P.S. This post originally started off titled 'The Past Two Weeks' but somehow writing this post has taken the better part of a week of on and off updating. I was never able to pull enough time out of my schedule in one big block to write it all. So yeah, this has taken me a week; you better enjoy it. ;-)

And For The Win

2005-10-30T23:44:00.000-05:00

The last week has been a week of up and downs. I had three midterms this past week, physics, calculus and chemistry in that order. They were far from fun and I realized that I started studying for this set of exams far to late. Luckily we didn't really have any assignments due during the course of the week however. The professors are still pretty decent in that respect. Reasonable all of them. Of course they've started up again already and I have a calculus, a chemistry, and a physics assignment all due in the next week. In addition, I have a huge technical report to do for our GENE (general engineering) class. That's a pretty intense little paper that I'll have to write. It's going to be in the range of 15-20 pages and it's just plain rough.

So my week. After the programming exam the previous week, I didn't feel too good about any of the upcoming exams, but it made me work harder. It's always a nice feeling when you get totally raped by an exam and all of a sudden you realise you're not all knowing and all powerful. It's been rough for me. After doing do well in high school, the sudden trouble I've been having is very unsettling to the mind. I've been having a lot more troubled sleeps that I've had in a long time. But on the other hand, I've been somewhat spurred on to work harder. Humbling experiences have a tendency to do that to you.

I studied like a madman for calculus and the exam came and went quite smoothly. There was one question that I didn't really get but I put something down and hopefully the part marks'll roll in for that. Generally speaking however, it was a lot easier than it could have been and I did fairly well I'm sure because I prepared better for it.

We had physics on Thursday, which was possibly the exam I felt the worse going into. Unfortunately, coming out didn't feel much better. I got totally destroyed on the first question and had a very rough time on the second one which threw my moral out the window without a second look. I finally regained my footing about half way into the exam which meant I just didn't have it in me to make up entirely for it. As a result, I don't think I did so hot on that exam, but hopefully I passed it. Yeah, after that programming exam, passing's pretty good. Oh I found out today this year's physics midterm average. Last year's was 39%. This year's is a solid 1% better at 40%. So I'm definitely not looking forward to getting that one back. However try as I might, I can't change it now. I don't really understand why the professors bother to make it so rediculously difficult only to bell curve it later. Why don't they make it a little easier. It's not like letting us get 50% on it and then bell curving it to 85% really means we know 85% of the material. Anyways, whatever.

Chemistry was our last midterm and was situated on a Saturday morning at 10AM. Basically, I had spent all my time and energies on the first four exams and I had left chemistry to the last day. I had Friday to study and that was about it. So I've been sitting by this girl in all my classes and it's been somewhat difficult to concentrate on the actual material in class. So that's just plain terrible and I know it's probably wrong that I still sit with her all the time, but as of yet, I've been unable to really discipline myself for that. She's a ton of fun and definitely makes some of those seemingly unbearable lectures more bearable. In any case, I don't blame her one bit. She knows when to be serious and get to work which is pretty awesome. So with that said and out of the way, you can see what I haven't really picked up on the stuff we've been learning as quickly as I'd like to. Essentially, I had 1 day to review all the stuff we had learned from the beginning of the year in chemistry. Now we've done quite a lot on gases, stuff I've never even seen before so I couldn't use common sense. If you didn't know how to use the formulas, well you were pretty much SOL. I stayed up pretty late that night studying away, but I still got enough sleep. After all, it's no good to know your stuff but be falling asleep halfway through the exam.

In the end I did very well on that exam. I think I got either 10 or 11 out of 11, which I'm very excited about. Perhaps that'll make up for the total utter disappointment I'll most likely have for my programming and physics exams. We also get our Linear Algebra exams back tomorrow (more than likely) so I'm hoping that goes okay.

So clearly after the exams were done and over with, we had to let loose a bit. No, I didn't drink if that's what you're thinking. However the place I was at was as drunk as anything I've ever been to. A bunch of jock guys getting plastered. Actually a lot of fun in general. That girl that I sit with in class, wow can she ever hold her alcohol. She'd definitely put me to shame and probably half the guys back on PEI as well. Without a doubt better than Mike at least (*poke*). So anyways, that was pretty entertaining. Plus we got to watch Toronto as they got totally bent over by the Sens. 8-0. Yeah, booyah. And I've been playing Final Fantasy VII. I played Final Fantasy VIII back in the day but didn't really get into it. Then one day for no reason really I had this werid urge to play Final Fantasy again so I asked a few guys here at res and they recommended FF VII to me, mainly cause that was the most popular one and the one they had. I absolutely suck at it so far, but I'm learning. These RPGs are damn complicated. ;)

Oh almost forgot to mention, I bought that 5th Gen iPod that I promised you I'd buy. Yeah, what I mean by promise anyways... Well, I saw a guy in class on Friday with it and it was like total sex so, clearly I just had to get it now. Yeah, my Zen Micro bit the dust right so I think I'm entitled to a new MP3 player. I'll be sure to write up a review of it as soon as I get it (as long as I don't have like 10 assignments to do). I got a black 30GB with 'nfiniti plus one' on the back in case you care. For some reason the title of this site is really growing on me. For the while I used my classmate's iPod, I really liked it. It felt very slick and the thinness. Ooooo the thinness. Plus the screen is just dead gorgeous. Sounds like I'm talking about a hot girl or something huh?

Well, that's about it for now. I like promise I'll write more and since I'm done of exams, I don't even have a half decent excuse to give you for not. So be sure to check back once in a while and I'm sorry to all those people I've been neglecting to keep in contact with during the past couple weeks. I'm really sorry but around here time is marks (not money) apparently.

5000

2005-10-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

I've now hit more than 5000 blog visits since the start of it. Quite an achievement I'd say! And, it's nice to know that some people still wonder what I'm up to. It gives quite the nice warm, fuzzy feeling.

I'm spending some time now to get some posts done and maybe give you enough Charlie to carry you guys through the next week. Don't worry, activity should pick up after next Saturday as that's when my last midterm is. This blog definitely deserves more of my attention.

I Feel Like

2005-10-21T19:53:00.000-04:00

Wow, the predominant feeling right now is one of despair, wanting to scoop my eyeballs out with a spoon, chopping my hand off, etc, etc. Let me explain. It all started last weekend.

So weekend before the midterms. That's a busy weekend let me tell you. I spent basically my life at the library studying away for linear algebra. Apparently we've learned stuff in that class. So I studied quite a bit for that. Then I worked on my programming assignment for ECE150 class. That was just a generally frustrating time. You see I'm starting to understand it all, but it's still a new concept to me and I'm not exactly proficient in it. Far from it actually. But after probably 6 hours on that, I finish. Friday night and Saturday night, usually reserved for some sort of social activity was taken up by studying. Well, that's not true. I've been doing a lot of studying with two fellow Computer Engineering classmates and they're a lot of fun so it's not like it's all work. But still, at the end of each day, I felt mentally drained.

Monday: Classes start getting smaller due to people skipping to study. I also receive some awesome news. That interview I went to? Well I ranked it 1 on my job rankings since it sounded like a very nice job that I would definitely learn a lot in and push my abilities. Well, I got it! I was so unbelievably happy about that. However, I forgot to ask the salary at the interview so I have no clue as to what I'll actually be paid. It's basically up the road from our university though so at least housing won't be too expensive. Not like living in downtown Toronto anyways... So I can now officially say I'll be working for SlipStream Data, a company that has a very promising technology that is already used by a very large amount of customers. I'm very excited and can hardly wait to start there.

Tuesday: The day of my Linear Algebra midterm was a hectic one. Of course being the person I am, I crammed at the last minute for it. Classes were very small. We had probably 1/3 of our class at lectures. See the thing is, these profs don't stop or slow down cause people aren't there. They don't baby you around here. So Linear Algebra wasn't too bad at all. There were a few tricky questions, but the overall feeling was a good one. The studying definitely paid off fairly well.

Wednesday: Studying like mad for ECE150, possibly my weakest subject. I'm at the library again this day working on old assignments to see if I can still do them. I also read a bunch of the textbook material again since it's been a while since I had last read it and there was still about 50 pages I hadn't even looked at. I don't do badly on the old assignments at all. However remember this is with the help of a computer compiler that checks for coding errors and helps you correct them. Paper isn't so good at that. I know it's going to be tough to write out good code on paper. But I understand the concepts and feel okay.

Thursday: Totally utterly crushed. Generally feel like dieing and blowing my face off with a bazooka. If I'm going to fail anything, it'll be this midterm. Let's put it this way, I didn't finish it and left 16 marks out of 90 blank. Totally utterly blank. Zero, zip, nadda, goose-egg, 0. I had an overpoweringly sick feeling. But thankfully it wasn't just me. Although I'm just a beginner programmer, even the more experienced ones found the exam very lengthy. Let's put it this way. For this year's midterm, they shrank the time down to 1:30 from 2:00 of last years. It was longer in terms of actual work and harder than last years... Yeah... So of the parts that I actually did, I did pretty well (I think, don't want to say that then get totally owned) but the problem is that I didn't do all of it. However I think I know what screwed me over. I spent too much time perfecting the programs I did work on. If I had of left them semi-okay and moved on, I could've finished the exam in its entirety and probably gotten more points for doing all of them half-assed than doing some of it well. Kinda goes against what they taught you in high school no? So I basically wanted to die at that point, but hearing everyone else's troubles kinda eased my pain as sick as that may sound.

So we're on to Friday. Today. I had nightmares about the exam last night and I'm pretty ashamed to say it as it shows you how pathetic I am. But I've never felt that way before. New experience you know. I'm feeling a lot better now, had a pretty grueling day of lectures again though. I don't understand why they made our Fridays so deadly. I'm also going back home for the weekend. Even though it's always nice to get away from the folks and all, when tough times arise, it's good to know that there's a safe haven somewhere for me where I can let everything go. Then again, I'll be studying like hell anyways, so that doesn't really make much of a difference...

Troubles? Definitely, but I think I'll be okay. Chances are our final exams will be weighted a lot heavier if we have a marked improvement on them over the midterms. I'm determined to do better on that. But for now, this image adequately portrays my feelings. What's wrong with this picture now...

Sir Gates

2005-10-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

I feel like I'm in the big leagues or something now. I've been to my first high profile presentation. Looking at the pictures of the Apple presentations, I feel like I know what it would be like to attend something such as that now. There was quite a few police officers milling around and the media was all over the place. As Bill Gates stepped out onto the stage, those cameras all went off like some model photo shoot. It was pretty exciting to say the least.

He talked about the direction he sees technology progressing and how Microsoft is influencing that. He sees the next 10 years to be more revolutionary than the last 30 years of software has been. That's quite the statement, but after some of the things he showed off, I don't doubt it. I've been Microsoft-brainwashed! Surprisingly, I didn't see a bunch of guys show up in linux shirts. I definitely expected that.

So I got to see a live Xbox360 demo which was damn impressive. Now I'm not a big gamer myself, which is why the other multimedia capabilities really made it for me. The ability to turn your living room into a digital entertainment zone with the Xbox360 (and presumably the PS3 as well) would be highly enticing for me. He showed how you could easily connect your mp3 player or digital camera and access everything through the Xbox. Then you could play your music and browse your photos. The photo browser was especially slick and looked very professional. Definitely an exciting product.

But perhaps the most interesting and impressive piece of technology he showed off there was a prototype they're working on. Ok, so you have a cell phone with web abilities and so forth. But the screen's like 1.5 inches. That's terrible for tying to do anything too productive internet-wise on your phone. So what do you do on the go? So here's the vision. Say you're in an airport. These airports would have these 'digital surfaces'. Basically there's a camera setup that can see all your commands. You plop your cell phone down on the table. The camera scans it and then can log you into your phone with your thumbprint. A projector then projects your phone's screen onto the table surface, giving you a much larger image to work with. You can just interact with the 'table' instead of the actual phone. So you got a business card from a potential customer? Well throw that card down into the work area that's projected. The camera automatically scans the text card, retrieves information from it, converts it into a digital version and stores it into your phone's contact list. You don't have to type anything. When you're done, just pick up your phone and it automatically logs you off. Pretty spiffy huh?

With these new technologies and the advancement in the internet, Bill Gates is predicting the demise of the television and the phone. Voice over IP (VoIP) will replace phones as the preferred method of voice communications and instead of waiting for that show you come on, Thursday at 8PM, you can stream it over the internet whenever you want. So you're more into politics? Or perhaps sports. All of these preferences can be input into the system that then retrieves these things from the net for you. And all of it will be in high definition. You may have heard the fight between HD-DVDs and BluRay. Bill said that that will be the last physical media. Everything in the future will be digital sent through the internet. I'm looking forward to these things. I can't wait until we're away from the old 640x480 or whatever resolution.

Oh and does anyone remember my idea for a tablet device that would replace textbooks, binders, folders and all that? Bill Gates said the same thing today. He said that with advancements in technology, tablets can be used in the educational environment to replace all of the above at a lower cost. He also mentioned that once you go into a class, there'd be a virtual network sort of thing where the instructor can use the technology to enable us to be more efficient. I could hardly believe what I was hearing because it so coincided with what I want to happen. Of course, I'm sure he thought of it way before me, but it's nice to know I can think just like Bill Gates. =P

And after that presentation, I had an interview for a co-op job. I'm honestly not sure how to guage it. I think I did okay, however the interview was very technical. The interviewer specifically said to me before the actual interview that the questions he asked were the same for co-op students as for actual full time applicants. Thus, he didn't expect me to be able to answer all of them. And I definitely wasn't able to answer all of them, but even for the ones I couldn't answer with any actual fact or knowledge, I tried to decipher through logic. I think that may have impressed him since I BS'ed through a couple of the questions and actually came out with the right answer. So while my knowledge isn't extremely broad in the internet communcations field, I can learn that. Problem solving skills and logic are much harder things to learn. We'll see how it goes.

Hope you had a good day too! ;-)

Depressed

2005-10-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

There's no way around it. I'm completely, utterly depressed right now. I just came back from a three hour session at the library trying to get loads of work done. I got through about 7 assignment questions in chemistry and did a bit of review for the upcoming midterms. That pathetic little bit of work in 3 hours. God. Why? Cause that chem assignment was handing my ass to me on a silver platter with cheese on the side. Pwned? Noobed? Yes, all of the above please. To make it worse, earlier today when I was working on my calculus assignment, it was much the same. The very first problem had me laboring and laboring. I'm practically dead in the water. I have never known so much difficulty in my life, which is probably something to be glad for, considering I've never undergone too much hardship in the past, but this really takes it. The high school to university transition is nothing like what they said. Oh, they told us it would be a big jump, but this isn't a jump. This is an impossible leap. I feel as though I have my legs stretched all the way across the ravine and I can barely hold on. Either I get a big push over or I'm gonna fall straight down.

That big push is going to have to come in the form of help from TAs and professors. Even today, I went to our ECE TA's office and went through the programming assignment with one of them. That helped a lot. I really need to start doing that more. And going to the library too. There are way too many distractions even just in my room. You go to the library and pick out a little booth where you sit and do work without distractions, without noise. I plugged my headphones in and I was away doing work. I can see how some people crawl into a shell when they come to university. The study side of me is telling me to do it. It would be so easy to shun contact with people and just study away. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending) my social side is much stronger. I have to find the right balance.

But it still doesn't dismiss the fact that I am very down right now. With midterms quickly approaching, I feel as though I'm stuck on train tracks and a train's bearing down at me. It seems no matter what I do, I can't untie the knot holding me there. It may only be a matter of time before, SPLAT. It's times like these when I ask myself, am I cut out for this? Don't take this the wrong way, I'm still happy with myself as a person, but in terms of my studies, I dislike where I'm headed. And I'm not alone, oh no. A great many people in my program are feeling the same thing. Hell, a great many people in engineering everywhere feel the same thing. I mean just take a look at this article.

Confessions of an Engineering Washout

You know what? I feel frighteningly similar to what he felt just before dropping out. I don't intend to drop out at first signs of difficulty. In fact, I want to face them and overcome them. Nothing would make me happier or mentally stronger. Plus, I don't even know what I'd do if I dropped out of engineering. Take arts? No, I'd probably just crawl into a corner and die. See, I'm not cut out for programs like that. My heart is in computers and design. Engineering is my field. I just need to surmount these obstacles, those daunting, enormous obstacles in the way.

And you know what adds to the feeling of being in a hole trying to climb out? The fact that there are no breaks. Sure I had a long Thanksgiving weekend, but a big part of it was spent either doing work or thinking about doing work. I know worrying doesn't help anything, but it's awfully hard to get your mind off it when you know there's another assignment due the day you get back. The assignments never end. Back at the Gray, you'd do a big set of tests all clumped together and have like a month in between when you could slack off. Here, they're giving out the next week's assignment before I even pass in the current week's. And they're not the do-it-before-class type assignments. As can be shown by my work tonight, I spent a good portion of that 3 hour library stint working on that assignment and I can't honestly say I'm finished. There's one question I cannot do for the life of me and another that I'm not too confident in my answer.

I just found a quote that exemplifies how I feel right about now. I did well back on the Island in high school, but here, well that's a different story.

"I entered Cornell as a physics major, thinking I was hot sh** because I had the high-school physics lab named after me (the teach promised that to anyone who got a 5 on the AP and 100 on the NY State Regents exams). I also planned to take a lot of CS.

I proceeded to get butt-raped by Calc 192, "Calculus for Engineers," as a first-semester freshman class.

Twice.

I don't think it was as much the fact that I could not understand the material in the allotted time- curiously, I got most of the bonus questions (which tested actual understanding) right on the prelims, but not the bulk of the actual test- I think it was the fact that I had no prior experience at the kind of discipline it took to plow through 6-hour problem sets on a biweekly basis (the kinds of problem types which, of course, made up the bulk of the actual test)." - 5n3ak3rp1mp

I never built up the discipline, much like this guy, to do these multiple-hour long problem sets. Back in high school, you could get away with doing very little aside from the little assignments. So clearly, looking at the hideous amounts of questions we're 'suggested' to do, I just laughed. And now those questions are laughing at me. Because the concepts are new and difficult, only doing problems and more problems will engrain them into my head. But I didn't realize that until now. And only now am I actually starting to get my ass in gear. Sure it sounds terrible to spend such a large portion of your time outside of class in the library, but it's the only way it's going to get done. I wish I could go out and party every weekend, but it's not gonna happen that way, at least not for now. Who knows, I may develop super good discipline through the week which would give me more time to rest on the weekends. But that can only come with time.

So maybe say a little prayer for me if you're religious. I think I'm going to need all the help I can get. If there's one thing I've improved on over this semester, it's that I'm no longer ashamed to ask for help.

HELLS YEAH!!!11!

2005-10-11T00:34:00.000-04:00

I'm going to see Bill Gates!!! OMFGWTFLOLGG!!: ??DDFF@#$%!!!! Yeah, I just checked my emails and I got an email saying that I was chosen to see Bill Gates, when he comes here to UWaterloo. And he's coming this Thursday. Oh jeez, he is definitely the highest profile person I'll have ever met. Bill Gates. Me, him in the same place, at the same time, I'm going to watch his little presentation and get to ask him questions and stuff. I can't friggin believe it.

And I have a co-op interview right after that too. What a day. Holy crap.

Random Musings

2005-10-09T21:15:00.000-04:00

We had a really nice dinner tonight, lots of food I really like. Anyways, I had a few more beers than I usually would and that got me into a thinking mood. We talked about quite a range of topics. A few of them are definitely worthy of me putting down on this blog.

First thought. I'm one of like 6 billion people on this Earth. Sure your parents have always thought you of as something special, I know my parents still do. But out of those 6 billion people, what says I'm going to do anything out of the ordinary. I think I have this idea I'm going to do something out of the ordinary, but what really gives me that idea? What says I can? What makes me different from the rest of the people on this Earth? How am I really so special? You see I have this dream of leading a research and development team in semiconductors. Now sure it's not the I'm going to rule the world dream, which is practically inconceivable, but this is pretty ambitious as well. A lot of people are intelligent and knowledgable. A lot of people have gone through engineering programs and have ended up as regular Joe Blows out there. What am I or going to do differently that will allow me to achieve my dream? What if I do end up as an average guy? Will I regret all that I've done through my life? Will I trudge through my monotonous job and wonder why I even exist?

Then my train of thought went back to when I was quite a bit younger. Some people can say they remember events from when they were very young, and I mean only like 3 or 4 years old. Sure I think I have memories of when I was that young, but in all honesty, I think those aren't really memories, but more images that have been put into my mind by people talking about what I've done in the past. I don't think I actually remember anything that heppened before I was 5 years old. I think I have glimpses of when I was around 5 or 6 because I don't remember ever telling anyone about those events so I can only imagine that they're my actual memories instead of some image fabricated by my mind. I know an extraordinary man who is getting to be quite old now. He's something of a godfather to me if those exist for non-religious people. Anyways, he made a point of remembering things of when he was very young. So now even at his current age, he still can recall things that happened a long time ago. I'm only 17 and I can't even remember things from ages he can. I truly wish I had made that conscious decision earlier, but I am now.

But this is a memory I do remember quite vividly. I used to bike a great deal when I was younger. I biked with a friend up the road, specifically Andrew. We ploughed through the trails in the woods and it was common for me to scrape my knees and arms on branches and trees jutting all over the place. I remember meeting a person for the first time who also lived up the road, but further. There was like a divide in that road. I knew the people from the bottom half pretty well. He was from the undiscovered upper half. He had a bigger bike than the rest of us even though he was our age. I sort of envied yet at the same time was threatened by him. He went by the name Ryan.

Funny thing is, I met this person again in high school and we became good friends. He still lived in the same area, but like me, he had lost the biking enthusiasm. He also remembered me from when were young. He wasn't intimidating anymore. He wass in fact a lot like me. We were even going to go to the same university. That didn't end up happening but we'll keep in touch and we'll meet again sometime soon.

The last thing we discussed was the matter of bad memories. My mom came up with the idea that we should be able to wipe away bad memories. But would you really want that? Those bad memories and trying times are the things that define who I am. Without the struggle and final success or failure, I wouldn't have improved my person and many of those experiences are some of the most important in my life. If we could erase all the things we don't find the most appealing in our lives, what would our lives be? I would forget a great many people who have made a difference in my life even if those contacts don't make of the best memories. Or perhaps a tragic moment in time left me feeling totally crushed and dead inside. But without those things that make us human, we would be monotonous boring people. I could meet one of you and said that I met all of you. You would all be the same. I can think back to events that could seriously make me cry on the spot. Sure they were far from enjoyable times, but would I ever want to forget them? No, definitely not. They've pushed me to places I haven't been and tried my character. I haven't yet broken and they made me stronger. I will always remember the worst times in my life just as I remember the best times.

This post has been the result of too much alcohol in my system but sometimes I do honestly think better and deeper when it happens. It's awfully depressing when I think about it, but I wouldn't trade myself for anything in the world.

After a Reprieve

2005-10-06T21:24:00.000-04:00

Well as promised, I'm updating my blog tonight, after what has seemed like a very long time. I mean that last post definitely doesn't count for a post at all. It was like 4 words. So I promise, you get to read lots and lots of stuff in this post. It'll be so long in fact, that you'll probably want to go grab dinner before you start. And off we go.

Why have I been neglecting my blog? Well, to tell you the truth, I've been totally utterly swamped with work. Do you remember back in high school when they told us they were preparing us for university and the whole shebang? Well, let me tell you, either they don't know what university is like at all, or they were lying. Coming to UWaterloo has felt basically felt like running full force into a semi-cushioned wall. The initial impact isn't too bad cause you're kinda still in the soft area and then you bottom out the cushioning and you find your face being owned by the solid concrete blocks. You then kind of bounce back a bit only to feel totally dazed and confused. I'm in the dazed and confused part right about now. Frosh week was like the cushioning. It was a shock to be in such a different environment, but it was generally still a pleasant experience, meeting people and getting acustomed to the student life. Starting about two weeks ago would be the portion of time characterized by the face-smashing and total utter pain of life. There were so many projects and assignments on the go that I couldn't even think about bed until at least past 1AM. Now I can't say I've been super efficient in my time usage, but it's a lot better than back in high school let me tell you. I've learned to do my assignments the day of getting them or the next day. That way you can get the majority of it done and you don't have to worry about trying to cram three assignments into one night.

I'm now on to the dazed phase after the initial shock. Classes are tough, concepts are somewhat abstract and generally we have to figure things out for ourselves now. Problems on assignments are regularly extremely difficult with a slight grounding in what we're doing but we have to apply real problem solving skills to answer them. I'm not at all ashamed to say that I honestly don't have a sweet clue how to do some of them. For the most part, I've never had that problem before in high school, but it's common now. That's not to say I'm doing poorly, far from it. In fact I'm more willing to learn than ever before. For example, I've never actually done any programming in my life (no, HTML does not count!) but I received a 38/40 on my first graded C# assignment. It's just not like high school where you could slack and still do well. I've been working hard and being rewarded by decent results. Oh, I'm definitely not getting a 99% in anything, but I'll be happy if I can get an 85%+ average.

Midterms are coming up soon, in about a week. I'm extremely unprepared for them, but I'm going to take advantage of this coming long weekend to get some reading in. Sure it's nerdy to study over Thanksgiving, but I'll need it. I'm also asking for help more now. At first it felt somewhat awkward to do so, but I feel so much better getting that help. I couldn't have done as well as I had on that programming assignment if I hadn't gone to a tutoring session for C#. It was extremely helpful.

I've been building pretty good relations with the professors and teaching assistants which is probably good. They even know me by my name and not student number now. =P We had our first divisional meeting with the professors and first year's office people. We traded some comments back and forth and I generally felt we got a lot accomplished. I can already see some of our suggestions being implemented by the professors. For example, I had been having a pretty bad time of it in physics, but we suggested that he explain his methodology more when doing problems. He's already starting doing that and I've been following much better. I feel more comfortable with what he's doing now.

Wow, I just had a long chat with one of my fellow classmates about a huge project we're undertaking at this moment. See with co-op, you have to write work-term reports which basically documents the work you've done during that job. So to prepare us for that, we're writing something of a technical work report right now. Basically it's the most complex and rigid piece of writing I've ever attempted to do. Being an 'engineer' we're liable and responsible for peoples' safety and well-being. So we can't take shortcuts on a design cause we're lazy. We have to account for all the needed factors and document any factors we're ignoring and explain why. It has a very strict layout and references are essential. They'll nail you for plaigerism just like that. The problem given to us is quite complex, the design of a circuit for a battery to inverter connection that needs to take into account load, voltages, temperature and opterating environments as well as minimizing cost. There's quite a few variables we have to account for that just makes it that much harder.

So we're done of applying for the first set of co-op jobs here. It's really tough being a first workterm student to find a half decent job since employers greatly prefer the upper year students who have already had work terms under their belts. In any case, I applied to a bunch of jobs and have 1 interview and 1 alternate so far. There's still 13 jobs that they haven't screened yet so I'm hoping for the best. The interview is at a place that does mostly web stuff which isn't too bad (it's not gonna just be like a tech call center :P ) and my alternate is at ATI Tech with the Apple Product group. If someone doesn't go to that interview that I'll be in and I'll poop myself. I've also applied to two other ATI jobs which haven't yet been screened so I still have a chance to get an interview there. That would be awesome. But to be totally honest at this point, I'll settle for just about anything tech related at this point.

So basically school's been really challenging. However I hope I'm up for it and I just need to discipline myself a little better. I mean this post alone has taken me two hours of on and off writing. But tonight's my rest night. I got all my projects and assignments done for tomorrow and it's a long weekend coming up. I'm heading home tomorrow so I can (hopefully) get a bunch of work done there. So that's it for now.

Not Yet.

2005-10-02T22:45:00.000-04:00

Not quite dead yet.

TGIF!

2005-09-23T18:38:00.000-04:00

Well, it's Friday again and I've just finished up packing stuff in preparation to go back to Niagara Falls. It's been two weeks away from home in a row now and I'm not even homesick. That's definitely a good sign. However, I'm still very much looking forward to sleeping on my own bed without people coming in and out of my room seemingly constantly while I'm here at Waterloo. I enjoy the bustling activity, but sometimes it's nice to slow things down and take it easy for a while. That's not to say I don't have any work to do for the weekend. Far from that in fact.

I've got two physics assignments for next week which are pretty damn tough. I've groaned and moaned about physics enough on here, but generally, I've got to read my textbook and really get things firgured out. I also have to finish up my C# programming assignment. I'm basically done already, but I have to code up the output part as well as an error checking component. I enjoy that assignment though, so there's not gonna be too much forced-feeding of that. I also have a calculus and chemistry assignment on top of all that. Basically I have constant assignments in all classes to do. Oh almost forgot to mention that we have to write up a draft technical report for our GENE167 class. It looks somewhat difficult since it has to be laid out in a certain format and the problem we have to solve is tricky. It's about power conversion and the guage of the wiring we have to use to connect a battery and a power inverter. Essentially, I have no experience with power systems whatsoever so I'll need to do some research as well. But then again, that's the whole idea behind this project.

I've also been getting more involved in activities around the school outside of academia. I joined up with the ultimate frisbee team for our residence (V1 East 4) as well as recuiting a few guys from East 2 residence. Our first tournament game is actually this weekend so I'll be missing that, but I'll be back for the rest of the games. Also, as I said in a previous post, I'm the 1st floor director for East 4. Today, we held elections for our computer engineering class representatives. I was voted in as the rep for my block, which means I represent about 25 people at the First Year's Office. We actually had to do a short little speech in front of our class of around 130 people and it felt pretty good actually. If there's one thing outside of scholastics that I want to improve while I'm here, it would be my public speaking skills. I want to build my confidence when speaking infront of lots of people. It's not that I lack confidence, but whenever I speak to a lot of (relative) strangers, I get nervous. I hope to work on that in the years to come.

So basically I'm just chilling a bit before I go back to Niagara Falls here. I've had a pretty long day today and I'm really tired. I'll get rested up tonight and the rest of the weekend I intend to spend working hard to get things done on and/or ahead of time. To get things done before they're due really feels nice. I don't think I've really experienced this feeling before in high school since I could cram it into the last day and still do decently. Here, you can't do that. So you do it earlier. Some better time management is all you need!

Not Procrastinating!

2005-09-22T20:35:00.000-04:00

I'm very proud of myself you see. So far, I'm glad to say I haven't left anything to the last minute. I've been doing my work fairly early and getting them done before the due date. It feels so much nicer not to have the super stress placed on you when you know you've gotta cram it in to finish it in time. So far, I've gotten my chemistry and calculus done well ahead of the schedules due dates and I'm practically done of a programming assignment that's not due until next Monday. I'm slightly behind on my reading, which I'm not too proud of. I read about 50 pages of a general engineering textbook last night and had to finish that up early this morning.

And then there's physics. Well, physics is completely utterly confusing. I normally don't blame people, but I'd partly say it's the professor's fault. You see, he's too smart. He explains things in such intricate ways that it's very difficult to follow. He regularly tells us how easy it should be and all, but I honestly don't think 3/4s of the class can follow. Thus I've decided to do most of the learning on my own. I intend to study thoroughly the stuff that is coming up so that I'll basically understand it already. That way at lectures I can listen somewhat and maybe understand more easily or just tune out if it still doesn't help. In either case, physics is (surprisingly) the class I'm having the most trouble in. The assignment due Monday isn't quite done, mostly because I haven't understood what's been going on in lectures and the tutorial didn't help much. I'm going to do a ton of reading and learning this weekend. Oh yeah, I'm going home this weekend. It'll be nice to sleep on my own bed.

I also realized (today actually) why I shouldn't have gone into medecine or nanotech engineering. I totally dislike chemistry. I mean it's a good subject and all, I don't look down on it whatsoever. However, it's just not something that I look forward to. I still will have to do quite a bit with the subject since I want to do semiconductor R&D which means working with these substances like germanium and silicon, but it's a lot less than with nanotech or medecine especially. I'm really enjoying math more and more. I actually look forward to the ECE150 class (programming) because the professor is really quite good and I'm enjoying learning about programming. I could never really get a good foothold in learning programming myself in the past so now that I am understanding seemingly exponentially more and more everyday, I'm loving it. As I said, I worked on the assignment the night it was given out and I even went to a tutoring session where I was able to get some help from a TA, which was extremely appreciated and helpful. I've never really had anything click into place before just like that as I tended to grasp ideas just from listening in class. But when I was working on the assignment, it just all snapped into place. It was a most wondrous feeling let me tell you.

I've been making a very solid effort to get myself better organized and perform better time management. With the help of Konfabulator, I've got a To-Do list up on my desktop so every time I look at the screen I can see what's on the agenda and how urgent those tasks are. Then I take care of them one at a time and one by one, the tasks disappear. Before I know it, I'm done for the next few days and I'm ahead of the game. I've got about a week of notes that I've got to go over though. That first week I didn't really have my act together so I was pretty unorganized. I've got to read through those notes and maybe pick up some more understanding. The pace of these lectures is pretty breathtaking to be honest. It's pretty hard to write, listen and understand all at the same time. In any case, I've got a list of stuff to do for the weekend so I'll know exactly what I have to do.

Because I've got most of my work done already for tomorrow, I'm taking a break to write this while listening to Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble. I haven't updated my blog in quite a long time. But when you've got a class schedule that's close to a full time job already and add on time for studying and assignments, it's around a 60 hour work week. I can now officially tell my dad that I work more than him! ;) So I hope you can the lack of activity on the site. I may actually work on the site a bit more this weekend if I've got time. There are still parts that aren't up yet and others that I'd like to improve. But time really is the pricy commidity these days. I've got too little of it.

Sunday Night Update

2005-09-19T01:48:00.000-04:00

Hola people. I once again haven't posted in a while. For some reason I'm thinking that it's going to be hard to post something more than just a line or two each day, if I wanted to keep the daily updates going. So instead of doing that, I'm going to try and set aside some time, a few times a week to update my blog (and overall site now). As expected, school's getting in the way of my updates. I mean come on school, can't you lay back a bit so I can post more? Sheesh.

Anywho, I spent most of the weekend doing work. But doing work doesn't mean sitting in my room with my face buried in papers. No, work here is like socializing. We had a few guys working on our chemistry assignment in the common room here and that was a hell of a lot of laughs. Oh I can't really say what we were saying, as it would be really quite inappropriate, but let's just say I laughed more than I actually did work I'd say. We went to the library to do work today, in an effort to escape the distractions in our residences, but as I soon found out, the distractions aren't the surroundings, it's the people. But, I say distractions in the best possible way. I mean what could you want more than constant laughing and fun when doing a chemistry assignment? It really made me think back to times at Ryan's place when Sean, Ryan and I would sit and 'do our chem assignments'. Of course, those were just good times, with chemistry on the side really. Oh, how I miss those days.

So I finally finished my chem assignment after probably 6-7 hours of 'working' on it. I then proceeded to read my physics. Apparantly, the professors no longer baby you through your work. Instead of teaching everything in class and telling you every possible type of question, we have to do some learning on our own and apply the skills we've acquired instead of regurgitating. This is more like how I want education to be. In high school, after doing the same types of questions over and over, I just stopped doing them. After all, they were all basically the same questions with slight twists. Now I actually have to use my brain. I sat here for seriously almost an hour working on one question in chemistry. I did not mind the effort it took or the amount of time because I knew I was actually learning to apply what I had learned instead of just doing the same thing over and over. When I finally got it, I felt like I actually achieved something.

Oh to be certain, not everything is peaches and cream. There are difficulties here. Those mostly stem from the fact that even though it's just one week into actual classes, life has been extremely hectic. The professors have piled on huge assignments (like my 7 page chemistry assignment) and quite a bit of reading. In addition, co-op applications open up for, well, applications this coming Thursday and I really have to get my resume polished up. Gone are the days when you applied for that dish-washing job for the summer. Nope, these are jobs that are quite skilled so it's not really enough to put 'I delivered newspapers' on your resume and leave it at that. Unfortunately, I've never really had much experience writing proper resumes. We've learned quite a bit at the co-op seminar already and I can tell my resume is pretty deficient. I've definitely got to get working on that.

In other news, my laptop battery is out of commission. I can't remember if I've already talked about this, but whatever. Anyways, basically it won't charge up past like 45%. That's kind of a deterrent to my use of it anywhere's outside of my dorm room. I haven't actually needed it outside my dorm to be honest, but I'd like the ability to if the need did ever arise in the near future. So I've been in contact with the reseller and the manufacturer and I haven't received any contact back yet. It may be time to actually call them. They can plead ignorance to emails, but if I call them, they can't avoid me. So I'll have to do that soon enough. A slight PITA, but I'll deal with it.

I was actually semi-sick this weekend which was really crappy. Well, like really lightly sick. I just had a sore throat for the past few days, but it's already getting better. It's infinitely better today than it was yesterday. I should be fine by tomorrow.

Oh this evening, we went to an actual restaurant, as opposed to eating at the cafeteria at Village 1. We went to a place called the Mongolian Grill. It was actually a restaurant unlike any restaurant I've ever been to. Basically you go and get what you want, put it into a bowl, along with sauces/oil and then you stand along this round table thing. In the middle is a large cooking surface and the cooks use what I can only describe as huge chopsticks and they cook your food right in front of you. It was very good actually.

Then a surprise came. We were sitting there finishing up and a birthday line comes up from the employees/chefs carrying a cake thing. Anyways we all clapped and stuff assuming it was for someone's birthday. Weird thing was, they stopped at our table. Then proceeded to set it down in front of me and sang happy birthday. I was so shocked and confused. I felt like I was on crack or something. I can only imagine what the look on my face was like. Anyways, the rest of our like 15 person group were all singing and clapping. Of course it was Tosh's idea to do all this... In any case it was funny and surprising as hell, (apparantly it's not actually by birthday =P) but hey, I got free food. ;)

End of the day, I came back to the dorm and worked more on my assignments. I helped a bunch of people with their work as well. I think I've developed some sort of reputation here already. I think I'm gonna let a lot of people down when they realize I'm just another student here trying to keep up.

Lots of Changes Coming

2005-09-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

So I was super pumped that I didn't have to take an english course here at UWaterloo. Well, in a sense I'm wrong. I don't have an english course per se, however the GENE167 class is essentially a writing class for engineers. We learn how to write work and technical reports as well as your regular grammar, etc. It's kind of a pain cause I have to like read this grammar book now. But chances are, my english is pretty decent so it shouldn't be hard. The prof said that the course was going to be one of our easiest.

There's gonna be some major changes to this site in the near future. Being a student at UWaterloo entitles me to a certain amount of space on their server for my own website. I'm in the process of making that site right now actually, trying to keep the general look and layout that I have going with my blog. In addition, I'm branching this blog into several different blogs to keep down on the volume of posts a bit. It'll also keep the sidebar a little better organized since there's just sooo much stuff there right now.

So point your bookmarks or whatever to this site from now on.

nfiniti plus one homepage

EDIT: I was just talking with one of the guys here and he showed me his website. HE HAS ALL THESE FANCY THINGS I'VE BEEN WANTING TO IMPLEMENT. So yes, I shall ask him for some aid. Excellent. Mwahahahahaha!

Wow, Physics > Me

2005-09-15T01:34:00.000-04:00

So far university has been going pretty smoothly. I've met more people and they're all generally very friendly and nice people. Now everyone puts on a social mask in the beginning so we'll see as the days roll by.

My classes have been generally going well. I got a 13.5/15 on a math prep test here, which is actually pretty decent. Most people ranged from 6 to 10. On the list I saw one guy with a 1/15. Wow, that person more than likely did that on purpose. Otherwise I can't see how they got into the program. I'm still waiting on the english exam results.

Oh, I'm back from REV (Ron Eydt Village, another residence). A few guys decided to head over there cause there are actually females there. I met a few more people, probably won't recognize them in the future, but an enjoyable evening nonetheless. It felt like one of our old hangout sessions where we talked and did random stuff. It was a pretty cool crew there.

So yeab, back on topic. Physics is owning my ass right now. I had good marks in my physics class in high school, but as I've always said throughout that course, why don't we actually learn to understand the material instead of just learning it for the sake of writing a test. So it's now coming back to bite me in the ass. Since we always used the same variables and exactly the same method of doing the problems, a slight change throws everything off. And it bit me hard today. The material was familiar, but the questions were asked a little differently and approached questions from a slightly different angle. Since we never really understood, we can't apply those 'skills' we acquired in new applications. So basically I'm fubar'd for physics right now. I've gotta get into gear and really relearn what we've done. If you were in my physics class in high school, you'll know what I'm talking about.

On a more positive note, I'm becoming pretty good friends with a few people in my computer engineering class. The class has 124 people in it, so no like 500 people classes. Lectures are actually pretty enjoyable so far. The stuff taught isn't too hard and isn't progressing too quickly yet. I'm finding physics to be more challenging so far, but I can see the programming class being difficult as well once we get into the thick of things. Anyways, my math's still pretty good in comparison here and I've already started helping some people out. There's especially this one person, he's in our dorm, third floor and I helped him with Calculus today. But in return, he'll definitely be helping my with the programming class. He's had quite a bit of experience with it. It was actually pretty interesting today, him and I had a pretty nice chat about linux. I could never do that back on the Island.

So it is really about teamwork. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The best we can do is work together and combine our strengths to overcome those weaknesses. I can already tell university's going to be much different from what I envisioned, but in a good way.

I'll leave off here with an awesome quote tonight from when we were walking back to our res like 10 minutes ago.

"I've had blood in my alcohol system since last Friday."
- Jordan

What You Learn At University

2005-09-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

You think you come to university to learn about you field of study. Sure, while that may be true to an extent, you learn so much more by just experiencing student life. Some of these skills will help you out in the long run, others are just things that are good to know.

Attendance of lectures aren't marked. Except maybe Arts. ROFL.
Books? Nope don't need them for lectures.
Go to your lectures somewhat earlier than when they start. Sure you could get away with going to classes right on time or a little late in high school. But there are only like 35 people in class. But at university, if you're late, you sit at the back of like 150 people where you can't see and can barely hear. Not a good place for learning, but great for sleeping if that's your forte.
Waterloo. The emphasis is on the 'loo'. Oops...
You can say pwned and tell math/techie jokes and get a genuine laugh. As opposed to the weird looks... :| Oh and I tried out ROFL and STFU with them last night. Those worked too. Elicited a nice laugh or two. Oh if you want to know how you actually pronouce those two out loud, its rofl that rhymes with waffle (rawffle) and stafoo for stfu. Just if you want to be cool. That or you're preparing to come to Uwaterloo.
Remember when you could ask your teachers to keep an overhead up longer cause you write slow? Now it's too bad. They have a set amount of time and they aren't gonna stop for anyone. So write fast and make acronyms you'll recognize.
I've always complained about the 75 minute classes in high school. They were seriously too long for anyone to concentrate. We now have 50 minute lectures. They feel so short and nice comparatively. I can actually stay focused most of the time and the time seems to pass pretty quickly.
When you're on a large campus you need to know all the shortcuts. Not only do you need to know shortcuts, you need to know where those 'shortcuts' lead. I seriously almost walked in a circle looking for my classes today. I thought I'd be okay without the campus map. Bad idea.
Sig Figs don't matter.

The learning atmosphere's pretty good. I'm not sure if it's just cause it's still early (very early at that) in the year. Everyone seems to be concentrating on their work. People are very good with helping others. No one knows when they'll be the ones needing help. Oh don't you worry, I'll be asking people for help soon enough. I can feel it. Especially physics and my programming classes. I have a feeling I'm gonna need all the help I can get in those.

So yeah, what have you guys learned in university so far? (Outside of classes I mean) It's really quite interesting and funny what I've picked up. Lots o' fun.

The Going Ons

2005-09-13T21:31:00.000-04:00

So university's basically kicking my ass already. We had a math proficiency test tonight, and while not too bad, I could definitely tell my skills are lacking. This was generally medium difficulty math at best and there were some that I hesitated on. I'm gonna really need to buckel down soon. That's not to mention I've already got three assignments due this next week. I mean can you believe it? First week and we're getting work piling up already. And these assignments aren't like your 10 question math assignment you get together in the mornings and do. These are pretty challenging to say the least. You remember grade 11 chem with Ms. Likely and us complaining about formatting? That's nothing. We learned the formatting for chem assignments today and it's like infinitely more stupid. Then we have to convert a bunch of units, units which I have honestly never worked with like BTUs, dynes, torrs and more.

I'm also now the floor director for our dorm. That means I talk to the people on this floor and help organize events with the 3 other floor reps. I'm definitely gonna try to get involved as much as I can here. It's definitely not about study, study, study. I need to broaden out. I also found out there's a piano room here at Village 1. I'll have to go check that out sometime and tickle the ivories again. It's been quite a while since I've been able to do that. It's real sad not having a jazz combo to play with. I miss that the most in my piano.

I also got my email account here at UWaterloo set up. Now I can feel all special when I tell people my email. Like yep, that random amount of cryptic numbers and letters followed by @uwaterloo.ca. Yep, ahhh, that's me. I also get some webspace or something on there. So I may consider moving the blog over there and expanding the thing a bit with stuff I can't add on here. Plus I'm in all these computer programming courses right? So I'll be able to know what the hell I'm doing. We had our first programming lab today. It was basically the best class I've ever had in my schooling life. EVAR I SAY. See this is what it's all about. Doing something you love. We made a simple program in C#. Something I could've easily done with 10 minutes and the internet, but nonetheless we have to start somewhere. At least we aren't jumping right into class structures or something I don't know anything about. Let me tell you, there are some hardcore coders there. They've taken like multiple programming courses in high school already and whatnot. If they want to go slow for people like me, then I thank them for it.

So I think I'm gonna head off here soon and do some of this kickass physics. And by kickass I don't mean awesome. I mean like it's kicking my ass all over the place. I think I can get the answer to most of the questions, but the setup and my logic is all over the place. I'd probably get like half marks on an assignment even if my answer's right. I'd better get cracking.

Cooked

2005-09-12T00:27:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a crazy night. I've got a nice buzz going and all. Engineering had a keg party. Their instructions for frosh were... If you don't know where it is, follow someone who does. It's so great. I can't believe this is what university's like. I can already tell it's gonna be great here. Unfortunately, I don't know my schedule for tomorrow morning and I can't even find out cause the site that tells me shuts down at midnight. God, what were they thinking really...

So I'm just posting this little update cause, well I feel like it. I've gotta head over to the lounge here soon. Captain Morgans on the go here. Man walking back from the party to our dorm was insane. We were screaming at the top of our lungs and were walking around with no pants. Craziness. I've gotta go get the second floor guys now. We're gonna continue this action. Ha.

EAST 4!!!!!!!!

Catching Up

2005-09-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

Well I decided that I should try to get some good rest in before classes start so I came home (to Niagara Falls) for the weekend. I'm pretty glad I did. I finally got more than like 5 hours of sleep per night. But as it was back in the high school days, weekends still go by far too quickly and I'm looking at the time now and I realize that I've only got a few more hours before I have to go back. We've got a residence meeting that I have to attend at 8PM tonight.

Since there was really no work to do this weekend, I decided to catch up on some of my emails. I had a huge backlog of them and needed to respond to a bunch of people. So I spent a pretty large portion of time yesterday writing away. Hope you guys received my emails. Several of them were directed at readers of this blog in fact.

So I'm feeling pretty rested up right now, but still dreading going to actually do work. Frosh week was a ton of fun, but it was meant to be that. I can't imagine classes being all too entertaining. Plus, everyone seems to be shocked when I tell them our high school didn't have any computer language classes. It would appear they've all get some coding experience under their belts. And no, html does not count unfortunately. Hopefully the classes aren't gonna start at some stratospheric level of comprehension of computer languages.

I downloaded some more songs for the Zen Micro here this weekend. I couldn't even download it to my laptop. Hmm, that reminds me of something weird. So I forgot to bring my power cord for the laptop home from my dorm, but that's okay, I've got like 3:30-4 hours of battery life on this thing anyways. So I was reading some articles on my RSS feed and the battery meter was showing like 2:40 of life left. All of a sudden, a little note pops up that says my battery's low on power. WTF? I look over at the meter. Still 2:40... Then it refreshes and all of a sudden I'm down to 14 minutes??!?!?!! So long story short, the battery was really messed up or something and I can't even turn the laptop on anymore. I'll have to do some battery calibration or something. To be honest, I haven't actually run the laptop on battery much. I definitely haven't run the battery down to zero before in continuous usage. For all I know, the battery could be defective. Hopefully not though.

Anyways, so I downloaded the songs to be desktop here and I had load up all the Zen Micro's software to tranfer the songs over. Damn, that was a bitch and a half. I think I've finally got the order you have to do everything in order for the syncing to actually work. No wonder Apple has the MP3 player field down. It's almost problem-free whereas this is far from it. But no matter, it's what I've got and I'll live with it. Currently, the Ipod Nano is the closest thing to satisfying my mp3 player needs. If it had at least 5GBs of storage and a FM tuner I'd buy it instantly. But unfortunately it doesn't, so it'll stay off my list, for now.

Right, I've gotta go take a shower and eat some food. We're probably gonna leave to go back to UWaterloo around 5PM. Yep, listening to Sigur Ros. Good stuff.

Finally a Semi-Good Apple Product

2005-09-09T19:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have to admit, once in a while Apple will launch something I don't want to lose my lunch over. In this case, it was the recent launch of the Ipod Nano. Packing 2GB or 4GB into a very small casing, it's supposed to replace the Ipod Moni. Now the main reasons I like this new player are size and performance. Size well, that's obvious. It's very small for especially the 4GB version. The reason behind the large reduction in size is that it's using solid state storage (flash storge) as opposed to mini harddrives as most players of the 4GB size use. Apple secured a very large and (relatively) cheap order of high density flash memory from Samsung. It has allowed the player to become very slim while maintaining decent battery life. Flash storage, having no actual moving parts brings down power consumption a great deal.

Performance should be improved as well. Flash storage is generally much quicker than hard disk based. Take RAM for example. They run along the lines of 50-200 nanoseconds access times while hard drives (desktop 7200RPM) are usually in the range of 10-13 milliseconds! That's a huge difference. These MP3 players use slower hard drives than your regular desktop 7200RPM drives as well. Even with flash memory being quite a bit slower than RAM, it's still significantly faster than a hard drive. So instead of waiting a few seconds when skipping around to random tracks, it should now be instantaneous. Now I've personally (obviously) haven't used this Nano, but if it performs anything like the flash players out there now, it'll be a great improvement on any micro hard drive based DAP.

But am I going to get one? The answer is still no. Well, if it's so good, why wouldn't I get one? Aside from the matter of price (I could get another 5GB Zen Micro for less than the cost of a 2GB Ipod Nano) its storage space is too little. I don't understand how Apple intends on replacing the Ipod Mini line with the Nano. In terms of storage, it's going backwards. Of course, Apple should be able to easily slip in another 2GB or even 4GB of flash and launch 6GB and 8GB players, but with the prices where they're at now, I can hardly imagine what those would price at. Personally, I have the 5GB of my Zen Micro nearly filled to capacity. Even a 4GB Ipod Nano wouldn't have enough room for my collection. Soon, the Zen Micro may not even be enough, but with 6GB players widely available and 8GB microdrive DAPs coming down the pipe, I should be okay.

So what do I say? A very nice move by Apple to go with flash, improving performance and decreasing size at the same time. However the step backwards in terms of storage space will keep people like me wanting.

So, I've Been A Little Busy

2005-09-08T14:19:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I think short of the time in June when I was on dial-up, I haven't had such a long period of time without posting something on my blog. I can't believe how much action has filled these past few days and the next few don't show any let up in the activity. The only reason I'm probably even writing this is cause I finished up my english proficiency exam (a short essay) and we've got some free time. It's actually the first time in a really long while that I've got nothing (or at least less) to do. So what's been happening?

Well, let me tell you, if the people and the week in general are any sign of what's to come, Waterloo's definitely not the dull, boring school you may have thought it to be. The guys here (my dorm is almost all engineering, also the biggest faculty in the school) are really cool. They're not all big nobs/nerds like what you may have imagined. They're far from the lock-myself-in-my-room-talk-to-nobody-and-do-work people. I've met many of the people in our dorm and am becoming pretty good friends with a few of them. We've done many of the activities together.

Now let me confess. Back at the Gray, I never knew any of the punky guys at all and I avoided the asshole-looking people. Probably the people I know best here would fall into one of those two groups. Especially this one guy from the States. On our first day, we had a dorm meeting and this guy was loud and obnoxious. I made a mental note to avoid him. He looked and sounded like a jerk. But I've gotten to know him quite a lot better now and I'm glad I didn't act on my prejudice. He's in fact a very cool guy, very nice and not at all an asshole. It just goes to show that we need to look beyond skin deep appearances. Many of our first observations about people are just that, first observations. We need to explore and see what they're really all about.

So, what have we been up to? Yelling/chanting/screaming at the top of our lungs for most of the week. My voice is already pretty raspy and I'm one of the better ones. Some have totally lost their voices now. We've had competitions against other groups in the engineering department and some of them have been absolutely disgusting/awesome. What am I talking about? We've been running around stealing other groups' mascotts, spray painting them and basically making them look bad. We've had competitions where we pack as many people as we can into a car. We had 32 people fit in one car. Think about that. Thirty-two! We had our own little junkyard war where we constructed poles for popping ballons way up in the air and catapults. We've had games of capture the flag with like 200 people. We've had two dances now which are pretty insane. You thought the dances at Colonel Gray were bad? Heh, well don't come here then. In fact, it's almost supported. The staff and the bar and the team leaders joined in on the dancing which was pretty cool.

The food here has also been surprising good and cheap at that too. I've been eating relatively healthy with the milk and fruits pretty regularly in my meals. I don't think I've eaten anything fried yet. I came here expecting a load of crappy food that would barely fill you, but I'm glad to say I'm pleasantly surprised.

And who said there were no women here? While there are definitely more guys in the engineering department than gals, there are still quite the number of hotties. As well, the arts department has a buttload of them. I can scarcely walk down the street here without gawking left and right. The guys I've been hanging out with along with me have shown practically no fear in just looking at them, pointing at them and generally being very less than subtle. They've even promised to show me the ways with hooking up with random girls. You know, the Mike pickup lines and stuff, except these actually work. I've seen them firsthand, let's just say. These guys are definitely well trained in the art of picking up. Heh, we'll see where that gets me I guess.

And to top everything all off, this week's weather has been awesome. Every day has been sunny and really warm. I've gotten sunburned basically everyday this week, along with most people. I think I'm several shades darker already. I can't believe how lucky we are that there's been no rain to mess up events, although at points I so hot and sweaty, I would've loved for someone to have poured a bucket of water on me.

The worst part? Well, in another few days, frosh week'll be over and we'll actually have to do real work. Oh jeez, I wonder what that'll be like. If we're always up to the hours we've been up to this week, it's gonna be tough. I can feel myself getting pretty tired throughout the day and they go on for so long. I had better get used to it!

Live From University of Waterloo

2005-09-05T23:58:00.000-04:00

Well, I can still hardly believe it, but I’m typing this to you from the University of Waterloo. I moved in around 10:30 this morning and spent most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon unpacking. It’s pretty disgusting how much stuff I brought, although there are people who brought more. When packing it was like, well I’ll definitely use that, I’ll more than likely use this, oh, that looks useful, yep, bring that, I’ll maybe use this, oh I have to have that, oh what the hell, let’s just take everything. That’s honestly what it felt like. But the room here isn’t that small and everything fits fine. Although… I don’t have my minifridge here yet. :o

As of right now, I’m actually just typing this up in Word since the internet doesn’t work as of right now. We’ve got a floor meeting coming up in about 45 minutes from now at 5PM where hopefully we’ll find out some more info about the coming week. There’s some wacky events happening outside, but I don’t think they concern us first year students. Just watching a bit, it looks pretty funny and entertaining.

I just took a walk outside after that last paragraph to go get my WATCARD, which is the U of Waterloo student ID and like everything incorporated into one. Want food from the meal plan? Use your WATCARD. Want to sign out books from the library? WATCARD please. So and so forth. It’s a terribly nice day outside, sunny and warm so I don’t mind walking around the campus. I thought I’d get lost, but guess my general sense of direction isn’t too lacking.

However I have encountered a problem. You see, I don’t know anyone here. Not a soul. I’ve said hi to the guys I’ve seen on my residence floor but that’s about it. Said a greeting in passing. It seems like everyone’s busy, heading somewhere that it’s hard to talk, not withstanding the fact that I probably have little to commence a conversation with anyways. But as I said in my mid-year’s resolution, I intend on making that extra effort and meeting more people than if I sat around passively waiting. That’s generally the game I’ve played and I don’t think it’s going to get me very far here. So yeah, I’m looking forward to this floor meeting as well as the week in general. Hopefully it’ll jumpstart the whole process. I see many people walking around in at least twos or threes which makes me envy them a great deal. If only I could have one person I know here. That would make life a lot easier. Eh, it’ll push me, which is good. I need to learn a bit of aggressiveness.

On the other hand, there is no lack of hot women despite what you may think about this school. As academic as it may seem, I have a feeling it’s far from at least what I expected. Of course the ladies are always good in a situation like this to make me feel even more hesitant. I spoke with someone back on PEI about this matter. He and I both concluded, hot ladies make us scared.

Oh I bought my books today. For this term alone I spent $700+ on books. They’re all big and disgusting looking. I haven’t even bothered opening them, but from the thickness (a book can always be judged by thickness ;) I’d rate them a 2 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being easiest to read. I’ve seen worse, but when a book entitled C# Concisely is like huge, you can be sure it’s not gonna be good night reading.

I watched a few sections of the Chris Driscoll Tribute Concert DVD. It was so inspiring. I’m not ashamed to say I shed more than one tear at the end of the Drum War to End All Drum wars between Alan, Richard and Chris McCann. I remember that concert well. It was long, but I wanted it to continue forever. That was an amazing night. I’ve got track 9 of the first DVD ripped audio only so that I can listen to it. I can’t remember what it’s called or who it’s by (maybe Bob Dylan?) but it’s the one with the organ dude and Ian Toms. It’s a fantastic performance that I now love listening to. In fact, I’m listening to it as I type.

Okay, back from the frosh week opening ceremonies. It was a lot of fun actually and a ton of yelling. Great stuff for building the whole community feel. Plus I did a bunch of things that I normally wouldn’t do, but since we’re all in the same boat, it didn’t feel too weird at all. In fact quite relieving and gives me confidence going into the rest of the week.

So I’ve basically met everyone on my floor of this residence and many of the people in the building (there’s 59 of us). Unfortunately, for some off reason, we got the only all male residence. Kinda crappy (actually no, really crappy) but there’ll be many visits to other dorms soon enough I’m sure. The guys are all pretty cool and it’s pretty funny when people actually say noob in real like. I’ll have to ease into the stuff like OMGWTFLOLPWNT, but I think I’ll eventually be able to say it without getting weird looks. That would be quite the stunt. It’s great how they set up the dorms as many people on the floor are in the same faculty, in my case engineering. This almost guarantees that there’ll be something to talk about that you have in common. Pretty neat.

Also the opening ceremonies only solidify my initial thoughts about the hot women here. Yes, there are lots. Yummy. It should be interesting actually finding ways to get to know them, but it should be easily done with the friendliness shown by everyone so far. As they say, it’s fun if you want it to be.

But I think it’s gonna be soon time for bed here. I may read some of this new book I recently started, another one in the Dune series. It’s been a good read so far and I look forward to continuing it. It’s starting to get quieter here as well, and I’m terribly tired. I have a feeling my voice isn’t gonna be what it was tomorrow morning. All that yelling and screaming can’t be good for the vocal chords.

So til next time, adios.

D-Day Minus 1

2005-09-04T02:24:00.000-04:00

I haven’t really written anything substantial on there in the past few days, mainly because I’ve had a lot to do and on my mind. A somewhat irksome time for me, but it’ll soon pass. But maybe something’ll be spat out into this post.

Well it’s finally down to crunch time. In one day, I will be off to the University of Waterloo to commence my studies. I’ve been expecting this day for a long time, but at the same time, I’m hesitant. I remembering thinking about three weeks ago that I still had that much time before I needed to worry. Well, those weeks seriously flew by and I’m on the verge of a new chapter in my life. It’s at these points in my life that I like to think back and reminisce. It’s been pretty busy all summer here, and I feel as though I’ve been neglecting what I had prior to the move. Already I’ve fallen out of contact with some people. It’s inevitable I guess, but oh, do I ever wish it weren’t. So here I am sitting at 2AM listening to Ben Folds Five. I’ve always Ben Folds to be my kind of sad/remembering music. It’s so mellow; I can’t help but listen to the words and get swept back in time.

It’s really quite sad how much I’ve been putting this university stuff off. In fact, I only started packing my clothes and stuff today. Who knows, chances are I’ll forget a crapload of stuff that I don’t realize that I use. Fortunately though, I’m not too far from home, so I can always get it some other time. I’ve finally got the laptop working pretty much as I want it after the reformat. The MP3 player I tried using the MTP firmware again. Just testing it again here, it’s still buggy. God, why can’t they just make a half decent firmware for this goddamn player. Eh, it’s usable at least. Oh, just trying it again, seems like if I open the sync program before I connect it, it works well. Gotta remember that now.

I’ve been getting m fix of UT2003 before I head off to university. UT2003’s a terribly addicting game, one that I will more than likely have to avoid at university. I can’t be playing UT multiple hours a day there. There’ll be better things to do and I can’t let that UT calling get in the way. Eh, you have to sacrifice some things to get ahead in life.

You know what I need to start doing more? Going on MSN. I haven’t been on MSN in soooo long and that could be something that’s contributing to my lack of contact. I’ve never liked MSN to talk to friends, cause I took for granted the fact that I could see them just about everyday face to face to talk. Now it’s just not possible. Maybe MSN’s not so bad. I’ll have to write some people emails sometime soon as well. Probably not tomorrow since I’ve still got lots to do in preparation for moving in. And well, tomorrow’s my last day to prepare. Better prepare as well as I can!

Hmmm, speaking of preparing, I just went and reread the two most recent emails from Waterloo. The first is one about proper use of the ResNet. There’s info on how to protect your computer on their network and so on and so forth. It’s just the regular old ramble about use antivirus, use a firewall, get your Windows updates, don’t d/l pr0n, eat your wheaties in the morning, etc, etc. The second email’s one about some President’s scholar gathering. Great, I get to meet the president of the university, along with the geeks of the school. Hooway! =P I kid, I kid.

So uh yeah, I think it’s about time for me to go to bed now. It’s like what, only 2:30AM now? Sheesh, doing other crap and writing this at the same time really slows me down. Oh well, g’night..

OMGWTFLOL!

2005-09-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

Man this FEMA chief dude got his ass handed to him by the reporters, victims and Mayor of New Orleans. Take a look. It's quite funny to see how incompetent these guys are right now. When 60-70K people need help and evacuation, all he can do is spout BS about how well it's going. We should drop him in the middle of the Superdome and see how he handles it.

One of the CNN articles actually worth reading:

The big disconnect on New Orleans

EDIT: Added, here's a link to a page with a very emotional interview by the Mayor of New Orleans. Personally, I'm very surprised by what he said. Seems prime for lashback by their state and federal governments against him. But it also goes to show just how little is being done and how much needs to be done. I respect this man greatly.

New Orleans mayor lashes out at feds

Click on the link in that article of the interview with the radio station WWL-AM.

Windows Pwned Me

2005-09-02T01:15:00.000-04:00

So I had decided long ago that I would do a reformat before I headed off to university. I wanted a system in pristine condition with no crap on it to bug me while I'm at Waterloo. I had loaded up a bunch of useless junk that was cluttering up my hard drive when I was still in semi-testing mode. I had gained a lot more experience with what programs are useful and which ones are not on my laptop. So last evening I started with a, what I thought would be a straightforward reinstall. Boy, was I ever wrong.

I pop in the Windows XP CD and reboot the computer selecting the DVD burner as the first boot device. System restarts and I press any key to boot from the CD. Good so far, Windows is checking my system configuration. Blank screen. Hmmm, that's odd. Hard reboot. Whoops, again... Well, maybe I'll wait and see if it loads up the windows setup after a bit. So I sit there and nothing. Not to be discouraged, I go off to play some UT2003 while I wait. Come back like 3o minutes later and still nothing. So I take the CD out and take a look at it. Well, it's slightly scratched. So I decide to try it out on one of the desktops here. Loads up no problem. Oh well that's not good. Could it be the DVD burner be busted? No, I don't think so. I've read plenty of discs that same day. So I decide to start into Windows on the laptop (remember, I still haven't been able to install anything so I haven't formatted yet). Everything's working fine, the DVD burner still seems to be fine.

At this point, I'm kinda stumped. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the disc or the drive. I check the BIOS over, loading defaults, but that doesn't change anything. I try hooking the laptop up to another monitor thinking it may be the LCD being messed up. I try a different mouse as the USB sometimes messes up OS installs. I start a massive search on net through various tech forums to see if anyone has had similar problems. Not really, the closest I could find was someone having to change a setting in the BIOS to output to an LCD or something. Well I have no setting like that in my BIOS. I also read that overclocking could cause it. Well, the dipswitch mod I have has overclocked the CPU from 1.6GHz to 2.13GHz, but I've been running like that since ever and I haven't had a problem. Well, it's worth a try, I don't really have anything else to go on. I disassemble the laptop again, setting the switches back to default. While I'm at it, I take the whole cooling system apart and did a mod to improve cooling a bit.

Put it all back together and nope, still no go. By this time I've entered somewhat intial panic mode. I haven't really come up to a computer problem of my own that I haven't been able to solve. It would seem like as long as I've gotten myself into it, I can fix it. And this was stumping me solid.

Revelation. I've got a dual boot of SuSE 9.2 Pro and WinXP Pro. The MBR (master boot record) was rewritten by my SuSE linux install. That could be preventing my system from booting off the WinXP CD properly. So I start looking for tools to reformat the system from a boot disk or the like. Couldn't come up with anything conclusive. Then I remember that I have those linux distro discs all around me. Those'll wipe the hard drive for sure. I load up my SuSE disk and proceed to reformat everything. Unfortunately I couldn't just wipe the drive, I started installing SuSE, but I didn't want that, so I canceled the install. So I was left with a semi-clean hard drive. Trying it again, I'm greeted by the same blank screen that's been haunting my system.

Now the crazy ideas start flying. I consider taking it apart and installing the hard drive on my desktop computer. Now this isn't as easy as it sounds. Laptops use 2.5" hard drives while desktops typcially use 3.5" hard drives. I wasn't even sure if the connectors were the same. Could I install Windows on an external hard drive? Nope, USB won't be detected til Windows is installed and I need to install Windows through the USB, but to use the USB I need to install an operating system, a bit of a catch-22 there. Could another part of the computer be defective? Well I don't have a stockpile of spare laptop parts lying around (unfortunately) so I can't really test that theory. In addition, the system was working fine so I didn't think that was it.

The only reasonable course of action I could take at this point was totally install Linux. Sure I had wiped the hard drive, but it had installed a small part before I canceled it. Perhaps a partial boot record was there. So it's well past midnight by this point and we were going to Niagara-on-the-Lake the next morning, but that's another story (I've got some really nice pictures to share) ... I install linux which takes like a solid hour hoping it would work. Finish installing linux. Restart the system, insert the Windows CD. Windows is checking your system configuration. Blank screen. Crap. Then, Setup is loading. Hooway! So it finally worked. I proceed to do a barebones install of Windows XP cause I'm too tired to get all the drivers and updates going. Crash to bed, the end.

Moral of the story? There is none. On the plus side, I've got an updated version of the RSS reader for Konfabulator which is friggin awesome. Helps me keep sober reading about the going ons in Louisiana. Truly sad what's going on there. Oh remember that cooling thing I said I modified? Well, it dropped my CPU temperatures by around 10 degrees C after I put the dipswitch mod on again pushing the CPU back up to 2.13GHz. Nice eh? (oh, for those of you who don't know if that's a lot or not, yes, it's a huge drop, in the range of like a 15% temeperature drop. 1:15AM now and I'm tired after not much sleep last night and heavy hiking today. Off to bed I go!

First, Serious Stuff

2005-09-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

It seems like the atmosphere and conditions in New Orleans have, unfortunately taken a turn for the worst. I've read reports of weapons fire, dead people piling up and health dangers loom. In addition, people have been living in horrendous conditions, with little to no food or water for nearly a week now. There's still a very large amount of people trapped in the city. By their estimate of 80% evacuation, that would mean there are around 100,000 people in the city still, either dead or alive. Death tolls could rise into the thousands, which would be one of the worst tragedies in the United States in the past century. While you can read new article after news article at CBC, CNN, NBC, etc, they provide a very skewed image of what is really going on. I mean is it really important that we know that an American flag was torn to shreds by the wind? That's pure propaganda, trying to stir our emotions. I don't care about a damn flag, no matter what it represents, when people all around are dead or dieing.

Thus, I've been on the lookout for personal experiences in the area. Sure they may not be all encompassing, but they are what these people felt. Those reporters who are there now can only guess at the conditions, but these people have lived through it. These people are in their own way courageous, selfish, selfless, and angry. They are human. They provide us the true untainted view of what's really going on. I've provided a number of links here which I have been following. Some of the tales are indeed harrowing and the comments show the frustration that exists in these people. I hope the 'Big Easy' comes out of this alive.

Ars Technica Discussion
Corvette Forum Discussion
The Interdictor - Blog by group still in New Orleans
Catastrophe Preventable?
Eye Of The Storm

Take a look at citizen journals as well.

Oh Dear

2005-09-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I would've posted stuff earlier, however I was in the process of reformatting my laptop in preparation for university use. I got rid of most games and wanted to optimize the system a bit. Let's just say the reinstall didn't go as I had planned. Probably the most problematic issues I've had with computers to this date. Luckily I figured it out and I'm probably 3/4 of the way to a fully functioning machine. For now though, I must run as I'm lacking my SimCity 4 for the day. Need to install that pronto. I'll write more later. Plenty on the plate.

BTW, I hope my saved cities from my old install works. If it doesn't then F%@#^^&)&($@!!!

News Comments August 31st 2005

2005-08-31T11:52:00.000-04:00

Hmmm, got up and went through the rounds of reading my RSS feeds. I found a couple interesting articles that I'd like to comment on.

Microsoft knee jerks, buys VoIP firm

VoIP stands for Voice over IP, which basically, simplified, allows people to talk to other people over the internet. Ok, so Google release GoogleTalk a bit ago and it includes basic IM features, integration with Gmail and VoIP. So basically you can type, without any smilies, go through your emails and talk with a mic/headset. Some are seeing this as like a great revolution in the IM market or something. Hello people? There are plenty of other IMs that have come out before this that integrate those features and more. So what's Google doing new? Ummm, well nothing. So take a look at that article. It's saying Microsoft is trying to play catch up with Google in the IM department now. Last time I checked, I could do everything and more with MSN Messenger than I can with GoogleTalk. Wha? Huh? You can do voice chats on MSN Messenger?! Oh god! So I don't really see how MS is trying to catch Google's 'lead'. Pathetic. If there's one thing I dislike more than monopolies, it's the rabid fanboying towards a company or product. This is something along those lines. It's like my views towards Apple. It seems like everything they release, no matter how old or useless it is, it's accepted like a child of god among the masses. Sad. Maybe one day I'll be writing about GoogleFanatics...

Next, as you know the situation seems to be getting worse in New Orleans due to two areas of the levees protecting the city having now been breached. Widespread panic and helplessness seems to have set in on the population there. Looting has been also widespread. Just take a look at this picture.

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)[click picture for link to actual site, courtesy of Yahoo]

These are dispicable acts. When people are dieing all you can think about is stealing stuff?

Wait a minute, here's another picture of people steal... Woah, hold on. What does this caption say?

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)[click picture for link to actual site, courtesy of Yahoo]

You know, that's funny cause last time I checked taking from a store without paying, no matter how much you take, is still stealing. It's odd that the first person was 'looting' while the second two were 'finding'. Now let's delve further. The first person was a young African American male. The secons is of two Caucasian people. Hmmm. Makes you wonder if that has anything to do with it.

100th Post

2005-08-31T11:12:00.000-04:00

So, yeah this is my 100th post on this blog. Have you read them all? Am I sad for posting this much? Does the area left of your computer have a small dent in the table? Do birds really fly or are they trying to trick us?

The world wonders.

News Comments August 30th 2005

2005-08-30T20:30:00.000-04:00

I've had a new idea for topics for this blog. Since I see news that I've often wanted to comment on, I decided to start a news comments portion of this blog. So for the inaugurate edition:

Report dispels idea that Americans see Canada as safe haven for terrorists

Not really much to say here. Only that, um... it's good that they don't see us as a safe haven for terrorists. Otherwise Bush would need to send in the Marines. That wouldn't be good now would it?

Gas crisis looms

This article's beginning is justified and a good read (for those business inclined). However the second half, entitled 'Hidden benefits lurking?' really pissed me off. It's exactly what capitalism has done to our society. Everyone's trying to make a quick buck off anything. I mean sure some jobs will be created, but what kind of jobs are those going to be? Cheap labour practically. And temporary at that too. What is this, disasters help the economy? Why don't you stop thinking about your precious economy and think about the people WHO HAVE DIED OR ARE IN DANGER OF DIEING? But no, I'm sitting in a plush office running simulations on how much money I can gain from this DISASTER. You'd probably enjoy it if we just dropped nukes on cities everytime the economy goes into a downturn eh?

So what benefits are there really? You'll get some (relatively) cheap jobs that are temporary. Funds funnel through the government, poured into the area, which pulls money from other areas. Sorry, money doesn't grow on trees despite what you may have thought. Of course, when you're the largest, richest country around, you can afford to rack up close to $9 trillion in debt. To put that in perspective, Canada has an anual GDP of aroud $1 trillion. Oh, for those of you who don't know, GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product and means 'The total market value of all the goods and services produced within the borders of a nation during a specified period.' (dictionary.com) So it would only take us 9 years of putting everything we produce's value into debt reduction. Not much huh?

That's all for now. Hope you enjoy my ranting... (I need to get some real smilies for this blog. It'll greatly help me convey my feelings.)

My Thoughts Go Out to New Orleans

2005-08-28T23:31:00.000-04:00

If you've been keeping up with the news, you'll probably know that a large and powerful hurricane is headed for New Orleans, Louisiana. Being a very musical and cultured city, I feel stronger about that place than many other places in the United States. I hope the damage to the infrastructure won't harm (too badly at least) the heart and soul of New Orleans.

I've been reading a lot and following the news very closely today. It would seem as though many of the forecasters' worst nightmares are coming to bear. Conditions were almost perfect and cause Hurricane Katrina, which was just a weak hurricane a few days ago, to power up into a Category 5 hurricane. It may weaken a bit to a strong Category 4, but as one meterologist said, it'd be like getting hit by a 18-wheeler instead of a train. You wouldn't hope for either one. Plus, New Orleans is in fact 70% below sea level with the pumps and levees helping to keep the water out during the normal run of a day. Unfortunately, the levees don't seem to be high enough to deal with the huge storm surge predicted. Much of the city could be under 10-15 feet of water by the time this is through.

So my thoughts go out to those both stuck in New Orleans and the people who live there. I can only hope that by some miracle, the storm weakens extensively and spares the city of much grief.

Oh Em Gee!!!!111

2005-08-27T16:59:00.000-04:00

If you don't get the title, don't ask. You're just not |337 enough. :p

The reasoning though, I didn't get the video card. Someone must've stole it.

Ha, just kidding. It's running nicely in the basement computer now. It's quite the kicker. At stock I'm hitting around 24K in 3DMark 2001 if that means anything to you out there. I don't especially play too many graphically intensive games, but it was cheap (relatively) and it'll last me a long while. We needed a replacement anyways seeing that the other card was broken.

So we concluded our little outing. It was nice to get outside for the majority of the day for a change. I'm glad to say I spent most of the pas few days outside in the sun. I even got a nice ol' sunburn to boot. What's summer with a sunburn eh? We were lucky that the weather held up so nicely. Today it's not too good. It's cloudy and definitely looks like it's going to rain.

So I found out something that almost made me drop a load in my pants while on the trip. We were back at the hotel and I was just browsing through the University of Waterloo site, seeing what else needed to be done. To be honest, I've been woefully underprepared for university. A quick look showed that there were like 5 documents due within the next week. Yeah... So the first thing I did upon returning home was to start filling out the forms. Two of them are stupid health insurance crap that I doubt I'll get done by the due date. They're so complex and tedious. Since I'm coverd by my dad's health insurance plan, I'm supposed to be exempt from the university ones, but I have to get the insurance company to fill out stuff and whatnot. And you know what that's like. So I'll probably just pay the premium for now and then get a refund later. Supposedly you can do that.

Also, I have to pay my tuition fees. Yeah, I kind of forgot about that. Anywho, I have til Monday to do that if I pay by check/money order. Since that won't be happening, I'll have to do some internet banking stuff. Oh and they don't count the scholarship money until you send them a form proving you have the scholarship. Kinda weird since they gave the scholarship to me... Anywho it's all pretty messy right now. Poop. If I hadn't of checked when I did (albeit late) I would be in it even deeper than I am right now. They're probably like, okay, so is this kid gonna actually come to school? :-/

Since I've been listening to the Alexander soundtrack so much, I thought, hmmm it would be nice to know how the music fits in the movie, so I picked up a DVD. I haven't watched it yet, but if the music's that good, the movie better be half decent too.

Oh yeah, I'll get another City Journal update going sometime. I'm kinda busy as you can probably tell right now so I'll try my best to get it up and going sometime later today or tomorrow. I'm almost at half a million people now.

The Things You See

2005-08-25T21:58:00.000-04:00

So we're currently in the midst of a trip up the St. Laurence River. No not on the water, along it though. I'm in a hotel on my laptop typing away. What better way to waste away the evening no? Who wants to talk to parents. :p

So yeah, I saw/experienced a few things today that were interesting.

1. While passing a guy on the highway, I happened to look over and this guy was like deep in picking his nose. Like it was shoved up there solid. He must've stuck a vein or something with it up there that far. I lol'd...

2. At the waterfront in Kingston, I saw an obese man shirtless. I think I should've sued for indecent exposure. Like this was nasty stuff. All hairy too to compound the total awesomeness. Teh Pwn as I would've put it.

3. I got crapped on. Like literally defecated on. By a bird. Again at the Kingston waterfront. Guess I sat there for too long in the sun. Luckily I had multiple changes of clothes. Oops. :| Wasn't gonna put this here, but hey, what the hell. I've never been literally crapped on before. And to the seagull that did it I have this to say: I hope your seagull friends steal all your food. kthxbye

4. Visited Queen's University.

5. Had the most hugest, monstrous dinner ever tonight. We went to a restaurant called Au Vieux something or other. The place was pretty nice. I got some Grilled Chicken blah blah blah. Damn, that thing was huge. I shoved most of it down my throat though. It was awesomely good but probably twice the size of my meager stomach. I think I may have pulled a belly muscle cramming it all in. Fun stuff.

6. I think UT's getting to me.

7. Yep, definitely.

8. Tried playing UT2003 on this wireless hotel connection. Let's just say it's not made for that kind of stuff. Will and Nick'll know what I mean when you're running around and then all of a sudden you appear running up against a wall. Amen.

So we're in Cornwall right now. (No, unfortunately not Cornwall, PEI) It's a decently small place (50K or so?) and it feels quite a lot like the Cornwall of PEI actually, kinda rural, spread out but still civilized. We also visited Kingston earlier, hence the Queen's U visit.

I thought the university kinda lacked the beauty that I had in mind. Yes the architecture was pretty good, but it was in like the middle of the city with very little land. There was very little green (like nature I mean) and very busy since busy streets run through it. It doesn't really have its own private campus dealio. Out of U of T, U of Waterloo, U of Western Ontario and Queen's, I have to say I prefer the aesthetics of Western the most. The campus is very nice and landscaping wise, it's gorgeous. But then again, I doubt you're going to university to admire the scenery. Meh, every bit helps.

Oh another thing. My X800XT Platinum Edition video card was finally shipped from ATi. Thankfully it's already arrived. Unfortunately it's currently sitting outside on our front steps. Fedex apparantly doesn't need a signiture. So yeah, that expensive piece of hardware is sitting there outside our house. We won't be back for a few days so ummm, hope no one takes it. Otherwise I'm gonna open a can of whoopass on Fedex. :| Unlikely I'd find out who took it.

Good To Know It's Not Just Me

2005-08-23T22:54:00.000-04:00

Since recently I've been posting non-life related stuff, I thought I'd give you an update. You guys are probably thinking I've lost myself in the computer game fantasy world, but I haven't trust me. ;) Otherwise this post wouldn't exist.

So Sunday we went to Niagara Falls, like the actual falls. We took a walk along the parkway they've got there. It's really quite nice what they've done with the place. Then again if you get 12 million people there per year, it'd better look half nice. Then it got us thinking, wow, 12 million people. Say these tourists each spent on average $100 here. That's like over a billion dollars in tourism revenue, for the city alone. That's uhh, pretty big considering all of the PEI's anual budget is somewhere around there. Then again, $100 could be something we just pulled out of you know where. However I'd be pretty certain its that or higher based on the nice hotels, casinos and restaurants that litter the waterfront. Mind you, I say litter in the nicest way possible. Although, it is a little overcommercialized...

We also went to the flower garden thingy there in the park. For my mom. I was largely indifferent, well, kinda boring actually, but hey, it's not just about me, me me right? Pretty warm day that day so I didn't mind being out in the sun anyways.

Oh I've finally got the replacement router back. At first I thought they fubar'd up the RMA, in which case I would be very angry, but it seems to be working fine so far. And thus, I've been able to implement the little plan I've been looking forward to all summer. I'll write something up dedicated to it later. I'm liking it quite a bit so far. :D

Now onto the serious stuff. The reason behind the title for this post. You see I had a very difficult time leaving the Island and friends behind when I moved here. To be honest, I never really talked to anyone about my feelings. Kept them shoved down somewhere. Anywho, the other day I happened to see a UT buddy on XFire where he messaged me. We talked about UT for a little bit, but he obviously wanted to talk about something else. You see, he was saying his goodbyes that night to his friends as he was setting off to college the next day. His things were packed away and everything seemed pretty final. Instead of just listening, I found myself taking an active part in the conversation. After all, I had been through the same thing just a month or so earlier. It was so nice to be able to actually talk to someone who was going through the exact same steps. That was the first time I really got anything off my chest about the matter. It's somewhat ironic that we two of all people would be talking about the matter; relative strangers.

In any case, if you read this, Defy, I want you to know that you helped me out more than you could know and I hope I eased your pains a little bit too. Those farewells are merely temporary. We'll see the people we care about again.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

2005-08-21T14:26:00.000-04:00

So I’m writing this actually in Microsoft Word right now to test out this (relatively) new, aptly named, Blogger for Word. I’m also wearing my contacts for the first time in almost a month and I can’t really see too well. The prescription for the contacts and my normal glasses aren’t the same (stooopid optometrists) so my eyes need some time to adjust. I just put them in about 5 minutes ago so I can’t really tell if I’m writing okay. At least I can see red squiggles if my words are spelled incorrectly. This little application is pretty good I must say. I’ve been doing most of my writings in Word and then copy and pasting over anyways. That’s cause I tend to misspell stuff a lot and Word is special and helps me. :-\

I’m soon headed for Niagara on the Lake. I’ve actually never been there even though I’m so nearby. Supposedly it’s a wonderful place, lots of vineyards and beautiful scenery. My parents say it’s the scenery along with the golf courses there that reminds them of PEI. I’ll eager to see if that’s the case. Oh I miss the Island so much.

And it’s now D-Day minus two weeks. D-Day being move in day obviously. Two weeks, geez the summer’s flown by. I’m excited, but at the same time hesitant about what I should expect. Not to mention I still have much to do in preparation like preparing my resume and, doh, still haven’t sent them my ID photo yet. Oops…

I’ll try to get a City Journal entry up sometime either today or tomorrow. The place is growing fairly well and no cheating to make it easier. Lots of fun I must say.

So hope this Blogger for Word works!

My Excuse

2005-08-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

Well, as you can probably tell, I'm been recently infatuated with SimCity 4. For some, it's an extremely tedious and boring game. I on the other hand enjoy it immensely for its (semi) realism and challenge. The game is quite expanded on the previous iterations of the series. With it comes the difficulty of managing, what I think is one of the more difficult aspects of a city, traffic. We've all heard of the road expansions and mass transit debates that go on regularly. When you get a city of 300,000 people, it gets pretty hard to make changes to the transit system without demolishing large portions of the city. A lot of planning and funds need to be available for a transit system to be efficient. You also must convince the people to actually use the mass transit systems once you build them; most will still want to drive their own cars. Special laws must be put in place and incentives given to improve the usage of the system. All in all, it's a very delicate balancing job, one which brings frustration as well as satisfaction when you get it right.

For some reason I've always had an admiration for large cities. I joined a site call Urban Planet where people discuss different projects happening in cities around the world. There's also discussions on problems facing those cities, ranging from pollution to traffic to urban sprawl. Perhaps it's the majesty of skyscrapers towering over the streets or maybe it's the excitement that comes with the amount of people and things happening all at once. SimCity, in a way allows me to create that sort of excitement. And it's always nice to get those huge masses of steel and concrete popping up in your make-believe cities.

But the games does cost something more than just money. It has cost me a lot of time in recent days. Time that I could have, say, updated this blog. However I have discovered something that will actually benefit this blog from the game. There's something in the SimCity community called City Journals or CJ for short. Basically you take screenshots of your city in progress and you write about how the city is growing. You can be very statistical and analytical, or you can sort of make up a story to accompany your city. It makes it more life like and real in a sense to talk about the growth of your city. And that's exactly what I plan on doing. I'm going to add a City Journal section to this blog so you can see just how my cities are doing. I haven't yet decided which way I'm going to take my journal, scientific or fiction-like. The stats side is what appeals to me mostly, since well, I'm a math and sciences kind of person. However I think the fictional version could be more fun and especially more entertaining for the reader. Who wants to pore over numbers all the time. Even I don't.

So, for now, that's all. Updates from the city I just started last night will be up relatively soon. So until then, don't get wet from the rain...

No Time to Explain!

2005-08-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

I really don't but I thought I'd post something just as a filler for today. I've been on quite a roll posting on consecutive days and I didn't feel like letting it go just yet. I'll tell you why I'm unable to ramble on and spend my time writing to my heart's content.

I found SimCity 4.

Well, I won't tell you exactly why I went looking for this game, but lets just say it took me a good hour and a half of straight looking through boxes in the basement until I found it. Yeah, that's how badly I wanted to play this game. I've been playing it almost all day and the moment I finish writing I'm going to play more. It's become an instant infatuation.

I actually never played this game properly before. I tried it once and found it too different from the other SimCities so I never dived into it further. It kinda got neglected for a year or so. Well, now that I have begun to learn more about it, I'm super surprised how indepth and fun it is. If you want to, you can make it very interesting, like creating greyscale heightmaps to customize the elevations of your city. Some simply editing of a bitmap changes the whole layout of a region. There's also an extremely large community of players and modders who have added a lot to the game over the years. I've just gleaned a little off the top of the heap and already it's looking like a massive database of buildings, cities, and mods. I'm quite excited to get into the midst of it.

So off I go here to play SimCity. Perhaps tomorrow I'll tell you a bit more about how I happened on the game and why it has engulfed me to this extent. I hope my clanmates in UT don't need me for anything. I only played like 20 minutes of it today, just to make a showing. ;)

Pure Pwnage

2005-08-16T17:24:00.000-04:00

I saw this recommended, in the loosest possible use of that word. Basically good for a laugh. In any case, I didn't bother the first time around, I imagined it would just be a bunch of guys acting stupid. I was actually pretty correct in that assumption, but I started watching these videos today. They are, in a word, genius. I think it's exactly what you'd picture a hardcore gamer to be like. It's pretty interesting/funny. I hope I don't become like that in the future. I show some tendencies already though!

WARNING: Coarse language/actions involved. Proceed at your own risk. I especially recommend this for Will. =D

PurePwnage

Quest For The Perfect MP3 Player: Intro

2005-08-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, I bought on impulse an Apple 3rd Generation iPod. The iPods were all the rave and despite my fascination with technology I never did have a MP3 player. That was just a little before I was about to set off to Quebec over the summer for my job at a National Park. I decided I wanted to be able to carry my music collection with me so I could listen to it over there. I didn’t feel like taking a portable CD player (which I also did not have) with 50 CDs. Thus iPod in hand, I set off to Quebec. That was to be the commencement of my quest for the perfect MP3 player for me, not to mention also the beginning of my gadget addiction.

I spent a whole lot of time with that dear iPod over the summer. It and I went everywhere together. Ha, no I’m just kidding about that, but I did honestly have quite a bit of time to listen to it. It was great to have the ability to listen to my music outside of my home without bringing something overly cumbersome. However, I did find a few faults with it. Firstly, although it is relatively small (and Apple compares its size to a stack of CDs that it could hold) it was still too large for what I wanted. As well, the iPod was essentially devoid of features unless you bought this $50 accessory or that $70 extension. That was money I didn’t feel like spending on the iPod since it would only mean more to carry around with me. Finally, battery life wasn’t all that stellar. Even the rated 8 hours it never reached. Thus began my buying spree…

I needed something smaller than the iPod, had the features I wanted (like radio and voice recording) and could still hold my then 3-4GB music collection. It basically came down to the Creative Zen Micro and the Apple iPod Mini. I threw out the Mini since it was essentially an iPod, shrunk, no more features, and in stupid colors. The Zen Micro on the other hand had all the features I wanted and more. It was 5GB (slightly larger than the 4GB of the Minis then) and had decent battery life. It also came in even more stupid colors than the Mini (it’s as though that were a selling feature or something… /sarcasm). I stuck with the tried and true silver (also the first one available) just cause I’m boring and old fashioned. So I ordered my Zen Micro in late November, early December. I hoped to have it by Christmas.

And indeed I did have it for Christmas. In fact, I got it before Christmas. And by Christmas I was about ready to throw it in the garbage. The firmware I got it with was a total bugfest and so I was recommended to flash the firmware with a newer one available from Creative that fixed many of the previous problems. Little did I know that the new firmware would actually break the player I had. The thing would no longer turn on after updating. So back that player went for a replacement, but I was always left with a bad taste in my mouth. The replacement that was sent to me got lost the first time around and so it wasn’t until early February that I finally received a working Creative Zen Micro.

That’s all for this part of this article. I’ll have few more adjoining articles that will describe my experience with the MP3 players I purchased as well as a final one about why I have still not been completely satisfied with anything I’ve seen in the MP3 player market to date. Perhaps they’ll help any potential MP3 player buyers out there who are reading my blog. Here's a preview of what's to come.

Days Long Gone

2005-08-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

Now this could be a post about the days back on PEI. But it's not. It's about my addiction. UT that is. Today I happened to wander back to the forums of my old clan, High Performance Gamers (HPG). I looked through the memberslist and wow, did that every bring back a flood of memories from back one or two years ago. I still remember when I became the first member of that clan. It was quite the feeling as I was pretty anxious to get into a clan. I started reading some of the posts of when we first started and damn I was such a n00b to the game back then. I had posted multiple screenshots of games I had won against other people, quick to brag and boast. It's not the same anymore. I've become quite a bit more laid back, just playing to have fun. Back then it was like a competition all the time for me. I felt like I knew everyone on our team. I know that's creepy and weird since it's all over the internet, but nonetheless, the community was pretty tight.

Which is why I'm really glad some of us are getting back into it. There are a lot of people I would love to see around, but real life priorities obviously should take priority over a game. But still, it's sad to not have talked to those people in a long time. I actually still have them on my AOL instant messenger thing, but I rarely use AIM and thus haven't had a chance to speak with them. Maybe I'll have to use that more. In any case, we've got a match or sorts tonight. We're trying to start up the Bombing Run community for good this time. I hope it succeeds and perhaps some people will appear out of the woodwork. A few have already.

On a separate note, we built our second shelf today. It's a bit fancier than our first one but took substantially less time. My parents are getting ambitious now, telling me what else they want to build. I just roll my eyes.

Wish me luck in the match.

So...

2005-08-13T21:54:00.000-04:00

Well, here's my regular update and well, I haven't really done too much recently. Nothing for me to talk about really to make my life sound oh so interesting for you people out there. There are a few things of note though... Makes me feel like I'm not living in a hole completely.

We got more wood to build the second shelf, this one going down to our basement. We've improved the design somewhat. I also had a quick glance through a patio book and damn, there are some impressive designs. I'd love to try my hand at it, but I'm afraid I have neither the tools or (more importantly) the skills to accomplish such a feat.

I also received a few letters from politicians (Patt Bins, Joe Ghiz, etc) recently congratulating me on my graduation. Seems somewhat odd that they do that. Perhaps it's cause I received the GG medal or maybe they just do that for everyone. I dunno. Kinda weird nonetheless.

And uhh, we finally got our phone lines installed. Yeah, just two days ago actually. Bell workers here have been on strike for the past 8 weeks and they recently got back to work. So I have a phone. Who am I going to call though... We still haven't gotten our long distance thing switched to the new number yet.

Views of this blog are increasing. I had 20% of the entire amount of views in the past 10 days. That's compared with the remaining 80% I received over the course of May, June and July combined. Woohoo... I guess people are finding what I write interesting. Either that or they have nothing better to do than just sit around and refresh their web browser. I'd prefer to think the first actually.

Read a little about the upcoming frosh week at Waterloo. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it that much. It'll be awesome meeting new people and making some friends, but the events look... well.. interesting. Engineering students there are known for their craziness and the lineup they've got there will definitely be dignity breakers. But what the hell, I'm always up for an ego downsizing.

Yeah, so that's about it for now. Pretty boring I know, but I'm not gonna fabricate stuff out of thin air. You pays your monies and you takes your chances as Mr. Holton would say. Wha? Huh? What's that phrase got to do with anything I wrote you say? Not sure. Just though I'd stick it in there for S and Gs....

And oh yeah. George Bush said the use of military force is a possibility against Iran if they don't cease their reported nuclear development (again). So what else is new...

...

2005-08-13T13:00:00.000-04:00

I grew a beard and mustache.

And then I woke up.

One Month

2005-08-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's funny how it happens sometimes. Today is exactly one month since I left Prince Edward Island. It also marks one month from the day I start classes at the University of Waterloo (on September 12th obviously...). So basically this is the middle between the two major parts of my life so far.

So what have I learned over my one month's time here? I've learned that I can actually miss something as bad as I do. I knew it would be different without my friends and the familiar surroundings but I never knew it would be this different. I can close my eyes and imagine that I'm back there again. But I eventually have to open them to reality. I often wonder if I'll make the kind of friends I had back on PEI. Will I integrate myself into the setting at Waterloo? Or am I going to always be an Islander traveling all over the place, never really finding a true home?

So many questions; so few answers. I guess I'll find out soon enough. So here's to in between lives.

What BS

2005-08-12T18:23:00.000-04:00

So, Dell released its earnings last evening and things didn't go so well at the computer giant. Bottom line net income came in on target, however revenues were $300 million short. They also guided slightly below consensus for the next quarter, saying revenue should be between $14.1 and $14.5 billlion, below the $14.6 billion expected. In any case, the stock got punished today, falling more than 7%.

On the other hand today, Apple stock hit a new all time high amid rumours that Google will be launching an iTunes integrator into their search engine somehow. So let me get this straight, Dell's revenue missed by 2% and they guided slightly lower and thus got hit more than 7%. Apple had some rumours to float off of and gained almost 5%. You'd think people are favoring Apple a bit these days huh? Take a look:

Apple Bucks Tech Selloff

I especially enjoy the part where he says this, "Investors kind of have the attitude that Dell's weakness is Apple's strength." Now why would that be? Dell is habitually quite a bit stronger than other PC makers. So if the market's doing well, you can bet Dell's cashing in. If Dell's weak, you can bet your socks that the rest should be weak as well. If people aren't willing to spend $500 on a Dell, do you think they're more likely to spend $1500 on an Apple? I don't think so.

Also Dell and Apple, while both being in the relative same industry, are almost non-competitors. The people who buy Apple are, for the most part, Mac enthusiasts with a few entering because of iPod frenzy. Dell on the other hand aims squarely at the budget to mid range computers with some high end computers to round out its product line. The reason Dell missed its revenue targets is because their average selling prices dropped due to discounting. I hardly think Apple benefitted from Dell's revenue miss because Dell sold more PCs than ever before at 9.1 million units this past quarter. Apple is selling about 1 million Macs per quarter. It's hardly that people are switching over to the Mac Mini which was supposed to grow Apple market share exponentially. Mac Minis still cost in the range of $700USD (at least) when you add a keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers to it. Dell sells a buttload at anemic prices, many times less than $399USD for a complete package. So in terms of price, there's still no competition between Dell and Apple and that's where the problem lies. Dell is selling at too low prices hoping it would entice more people to buy. Unfortunately not as many did as they hoped. However revenue was still up 15% over the same quarter the previous year. Mid teens revenues growth for a company the size of Dell is something many CEOs would sell their souls for.

Dell's business model is unparalleled by any other computer company in the world. It is the epitome of efficiency and that's how they can make any money at all from their nosebleed-low prices. You'd think they'd make very little, but in fact Dell's operating margins (basically percent of revenue that remains after taking out all operating expenses) are the second highest in the computer industry, after Apple which enjoys gouging the eyeballs out of unsuspecting customers. Where other computer makers consolidated (IBM selling its devision to Lenovo, HP and Compaq merging and Gateway acquiring E-Machines) Dell has relied on its business model to spur growth. Quarter after quarter it has been tearing market share away from the other computer companies while growing revenues and net income.

It's sometimes befuddling how people think. If Dell can fall 7% on a slight miss, I can only imagine what will happen to Apple when its iPods go down the drain. It's inevitable as people get more educated. They'll see soon enough that adding a click-wheel isn't a world changing event and thus doesn't force you to buy a new MP3 player. And it is the iPods and speculation of growth od iPod sales that are propping the stock up.

Konfabulous!

2005-08-11T22:18:00.000-04:00

In the endless quest for higher productivity, I decided to install a program that I had come across quite a while ago. Initially, it looked like a useless gimmick and not something I'd pay for. Well, I still wouldn't pay for it, but it's no longer a useless gimmick in my books. In fact it's going to be an integral part of any Windows install I do on my computers. What is it? Konfabulator, and now it's free.

First off, I'll give you a little bit of the history behind Konfabulator. The first release of the product occured in 2003 to the Mac platform. Basically Konfabulator allows the user to run small programs, called widgets, on the desktop that allow you to do a wide variety of small, useful things. Imagine a neatly skinned clock, calendar, and system tools on your desktop that you can easily access. Since then, Konfabulator has gained a great deal of publicity and success as well as being made for Windows. Apple integrated a similar idea in the form of their Dashboard feature which is part of the Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" operating system. Konfabulator was recently purchased by Yahoo, and thus made it into a free program. Here's a neat little cartoon telling you the general timeline before being purchased by Yahoo. I jumped on the chance and installed it. This is the result:

You can get the full list of widgets here. I'll just quickly glance over what widgets I have running and what they're used for. Going in clockwise order from the top right:

Weather - This comes with the default Konfabulator installation. You can easily input your location and it gives you either a three or five day forcast for your region including the current temperature and conditions. Very handy.

POP Mail Checker - This is a useful email checker that allows you to sync with multiple email accounts. I've got it synced with both my Gmail accounts. It unfortunately doesn't allow you to go directly to the inbox, but instead just launches the default email client for that account. It allows you to set a regular refresh of your inbox so you know if you need to read your emails or not.

Stock Ticker - Also a stock (har har) part of the Konfabulator install, it allows you to track stocks you may be interested in. Or perhaps you just want to keep a feel for the heartbeat of the markets. Either way, a nifty widget for those out there interested in the business world.

What To Do - It seems like they put in all the good widgets with the normal instally doesn't it? Yep, this one comes with Konfabulator as well. It's a little personal reminder that you can use to set priorities. Good for a bit of organizing for those in need. (Me please!)

Go Fetch! - This is a pretty cool all-in-one widget that allows you to search Google, Google Images, fetch a download, or just launch your internet browser pointed to a certain site. I'm really starting to think I won't need to click on a browser button anymore with this widget here.

CPU, Memory, Wireless, and Battery Status - Cause I'm the computer nerd, I just have to have these little monitors on my desktop. The wireless and battery meters are especially useful however. Anyone with a laptop should consider getting those two specifically.

PowerXP - This is just because I'm really lazy. It integrates shutdown, restart, lock, and standby buttons. Use this if you're lazy. Don't use it if you like to spaz out and click random things on the desktop. You could inadvertently do something you'll regret.

MultiNewsReader - This is without a doubt the most useful part of Konfabulator for me. It uses RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which pulls bits of information from supporting websites. These bits of info may be article titles, intros, or whatever they choose to put there. It has made my regular browsing much easier and quicker. RSS is quickly becoming extremely popular and most larger sites and blogs will have support for it. I've added my various technology sites and economic sites to the list. After you read all the articles from each site, the list collapses to save space. Or you can just tell it to hide if you don't feel like reading the rest of the articles. The great thing is, you see the titles (if not more) and you can judge whether it's worth your time to read or not.

Recycle Bin - No change really. It's just a big ol' icon of the recycle bin that shows how many objects currently reside there. Comes with Konfabulator.

There are others that I don't use currently, but of interest could be the picture frame (you point it to your digital photo album and it cycles through the pictures in a little frame for your viewing pleasure) and a calendar and task notifier.

The widgets are all very useful and it makes the desktop look quite nice as well. However remember that the majority of these widgets are third party made and thus often contain bugs which could hamper their usage. In addition, each widget is a separate entity of Konfabulator and thus could use up quite a bit of system resources, depending on how many you have running. For example, I have 12 widgets running right now and they take up around 80MB of RAM. Of course running less will take up less resources. I'd recommend at least 512MB of RAM to use more than 5 widgets at a time. Any les and it won't really be worth the performance it'll take up.

Overall, I'm very glad I decided to try out Konfabulator. It can do wonders for how you use your computer.

New Music

2005-08-10T19:31:00.000-04:00

So since probably two years aog, I've been listening to much of the same music. I've got about 6 gigabyte's worth of music (which really isn't all that much considering how into music I am) and I probably listen to half of that. My regular listening has been composed of Coldplay, John Mayer, Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, various other soundtracks, and jazz. Now I haven't moved out of this pattern in a long time. Everytime I decide to get some new songs, I've discovered some not oft played one that I already have and I sit down to listen to that. So truthfully, I haven't deviated for a long time. My tastes seem to have become pretty stagnant.

Well, I finally broke the mold a couple days ago. I downloaded (legitimately mind you, the illegal days are behind me now... :| ) a few Frank Sinatra albums as well as some stuff by a guy named Vangelis. Frank Sinatra I'd trust you all to know, however this Vangelis was a new name to me. To be honest I'm not sure how I came upon his stuff. I sure as well wasn't looking for him specifically. I was just looking for some soundtracks (I am a sucker for glorious music like the Planets, the Gladiator and Last Samurai soundtrack, etc) and I stumbled upon Vangelis. He, like Hans Zimmer of whom I'm a big fan, is a big soundtrack composer as well. I chanced upon his work on the movie Alexander and I thoroughly enjoyed some of the themes I heard. I'm still looking at what else he has to offer, but his works seem quite numerous so I'm sure I'll find something.

So, my question goes out to you guys. What are you listening to right now? Anyone know of any good soundtracks especially? Even though you'd think soundtracks would just be boring background music, the music really does make the movie in a sense and good movies thus should equal good music. (Gladiator and Last Samurai are prime examples) So yeah, point me in the direction of some good music. And uh, no, Britney Spears is not what I consider good music. That is all.

XFire

2005-08-09T15:09:00.000-04:00

So, I updated a few things to this blog. In addition to the new banner, (I'm quite a fan of calming images such as ones of nature) I've added my xfire profile to the sidebar. There you can see what game I'm playing online and just how much time I'm wasting away on there. I've only recently started so my numbers are quite low, but I'll rack up the hours, just wait and see. I'm thinking of starting a section of a sidebar dedicated to me and gaming, but I'm not yet sure how I'm going to set that up yet. Eh, it'll come soon enough.

Newfound Respect for Carpenters

2005-08-08T23:03:00.000-04:00

As you may know if you read my previous few entries, my dad and I have been at work building a shelf for our garage. We decided that since we need a bunchload of shelf space, it would be more economical and better for experience to build them ourselves. Needless to say, my first stab at carpentry was an interesting experience.

If there’s one thing I didn’t realize about woodworking is that it’s a very exacting and precise science. It’s also a sort of art in the sense than the whole (your product) is much, much more than just the sum of its parts (the wood). The reason I say it’s very exacting is due to the fact that a few millimeters off on each of the support beams could mean your shelf doesn’t stand up properly or the boards don’t actually make contact with the supports. Careful plans must be made beforehand for the project to succeed. And when they say no plan survives first contact with the enemy, they must have been talking about amateur carpentry as well. There were so many things we had to remove or at least modify from our plans. Some things worked while others plainly did not.

We started off with the utmost lowest efficiency I’ve possibly ever experienced on anything. For the most part, me + drill = destruction. For some reason or other, I could never perfectly get the screws to line up with the dots I had drawn. At times I wanted to smash my head into the wooden boards because of the tedious measurements I had to make. I just wanted to fly by the seat of my pants at times, but in reflection, I’m sure that would’ve resulted in a contraption that wouldn’t have easily passed off for a shelf. So I did make the measurements and I drew all the placement lines to get everything lined up properly.

It took us about two days (not working non-stop mind you) to make a 6 foot high, 8 foot long shelf. By the end, I had gotten the hang of measuring everything and discovered on my own a few shortcuts. Some measurements I noticed were redundant so I could cut them out of the plans for the other parts. It probably would’ve helped to actually have read something on designing and building shelves, but it was definitely an exercise in creative thinking this way. The next shelf we make will take much less time because of what I learned this time.

In the end, we ended up with a generally well built shelf. There are a few things off a millimeter here and a few millimeters there, but it stands by itself and is sturdy so I’m happy enough. I actually quite enjoyed the process. It was more the planning and epiphanies I use that word in the loosest sense) that I enjoyed most. I can’t say I’d ever make carpentry anything more than a hobby. But then again, that’s why I’m taking engineering and not carpentry/architecture (my mom’s asked me if I wanted to do architecture more than once though…).

Competitive At Heart

2005-08-07T00:14:00.000-04:00

So we had the furniture my parents bought delivered today. Indeed I was surprised. It definitely wasn't the stuff I had expected which was the nice quality wood stuff. Instead it's this like marble/granite looking material and it's a creamy colour. Looks somewhat odd considering I've never seen anyone with this kind of furniture before. It's almost what you would see in some classic European house or something. And with good reason; the stuff's Italian. Eh, I'm not going to pretend as though I have some fashion sense; I really don't. It must be nice or something as it costed something nice...

Okee, I mentioned Unreal Tournament in my last post there. However there have been some developments. I recently happened on an old bud from back in the Bombing Run days. He informed me that a few of them were going back to UT2003 to play Bombing Run and that I should hit up the servers sometime with them. Bombing Run had died in UT2004 as the game type was a bit different from UT2003 and that was the prefered one. So lately people have been going back there to play. I immediately jumped on the chance; I'm still a sucker for it. I have to say, there were some moments where I imagined I was back in the good old days when all the servers were full and the gaming intense. Of course, that was broken up by the cockiness and character of some of the resident UT2003 players. But no worries, it was really a lot of fun to play again with people I haven't played with/against in a long time.

And speaking of which; I discovered once more just how competitive I really am. Losing has never been one of the things I indulge in. And while it is just a game, it's very competitive nonetheless. To say the least, I got pretty into it just from playing today. Moods ranged anywhere from seething when things weren't going well to joy after destroying the opposing team. Frustation reigned for the most part as I was pretty rusty from not having played in a long while and my shooting was quite pathetic.

Ok enough of that, I've got a computer in the basement that's currently inoperable. I've ordered a new video card for it (got quite a bargain) but it's not going to be in stock for a while yet. The ETA's anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks, so pretty vague. A Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition on the way for anyone interested. For now I've been using the laptop for the mostly. The wireless router's due back soon as well, probably middle of next week. Then I'll finally be able to get something I've always wanted into place. You'll just have to keep a watch and find out what that thing is. =)

French Vanilla

2005-08-05T23:55:00.000-04:00

Yums, French Vanilla ice cream is good.

In other news...

It seems like we left a couple boxes of stuff when we were moving so the moving guys brought them to our house the other day. We didn't notice we were missing something. I'm glad they did. Well, the boxes contained, amoung other things, my Governor Genernal Medal and all the plaques I received at graduation. I think I would've shat myself if I realized we were missing them. But they're safely in my possession again. My precious...

I've been doing a lot more of three things recently it would seem. First, I've been perusing the tech forums in the search of people needing help. For some reason or other, I really enjoy discussing technological developements, mostly computers, with people. Also helping people is a great feeling. That's not to mention the fact that many come on the forums to ask what to buy. It's kind of funny they're entrusting their thousands of dollars to total strangers. Must say that there's still some good left in this world, apart from all the hate, killing, etc.

Second I've been hitting up Unreal Tournamen 2004. Now if you truly know me, you'll know I had a sort of, well, obssession with Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 back in the day. I played Bombing Run back then and I played competitively. Just think of it like the equivalent of, hmm... soccer, except you shoot a bomb through a hoop and you kill people to get there. =P Anyways, that game type has essentially died now. I recently hit up some random servers including deathmatch, onslaught, and invasion. I came upon a server with a RPG mod for invasion. Basically you kill monster dudes and you gain experience which leads to new levels and therefore upgraded stats. It's pretty addictive as you try to level up as much as possible. I've been playing for about a week now and I'm at level 70. To give you an idea of what that really means, each map takes about 30 minutes to play and you gain 2-3 levels per map on average. So basically I've played for like 15 hours already. Eh, it's addictive what can I say?

Lastly, I've been hitting the books decently hard. It's actually not as bad as it sounds. For some odd reason, I'm actually enjoying learning calculus right now. It's pretty challenging but it's quite a feeling when you finally understand. More so because I'm learning it on my own. Understanding, that's always been something that high school didn't really push. As long as you did the problems half right, you were good to go. You didn't need to know why or how really. Just take your formula and plug away. I don't want to start off behind so I don't mind putting in a few hours here and there to prepare myself. Anyways, I'm trying to learn some self discipline here and studying in the summer's about as hard as it gets. Haha.

Oh yeah, the furniture we (I mean my parents...) bought has finally arrived. They're coming to deliver it to our place tomorrow. I haven't even seen a picture of what it should look like so it'll be a surprise to me. The dining area does look a little empty right now, with absolutely nothing but a few plants. =P

Anyways, I've got a few articles on the go right now. I haven't been able to sit down and write even one of the three to completion so they're all have saved in Word still. I'll try to finish one up soon. But for now, that's all, as I go off to do some more calculus at nearly midnight. Doesn't seem like my brain shuts off late at night which is good.

Hrmmm, just remembered something. I still haven't submitted my photo for the ID card thing. That has like everything on it including my meal plan, student number, need it for official marks and stuff like that. Wonder what would happen if I don't get it in on time... [don't even think about trying that Charlie]

I Can't Explain

2005-08-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

I really can’t, honestly. What I feel I could never put into words properly. And now that I’m going to try, I beg you, don’t hate me for butchering it.

When I was preparing myself to leave Prince Edward Island for good, I was obsessed with the thought that I would leave so much and so many people behind. That home was the only place I knew in my memorable past. Sure there are some random events I remember from before I moved to the Island, but at less than 5 years of age, most of the occurrences were insignificant in my mind. So to think that I would leave what was essentially everything I had (aside from parents of course) was truly saddening.

In my last month or so on PEI, I decided I needed a digital camera of my own with which I could take as many pictures of my life as I could before I actually could not. I didn’t have many pictures because I had never felt the need before then. I saw my friends almost everyday then. We really do take things for granted don’t we? In any case, I’m really glad I did take those pictures. Now, every time I look at them, I feel as though a dull blade were thrust into me. At the same time however, I feel so much more complete and content. I all of a sudden feel as though I’m back there again. Even small things I’m now so fond of. I have a picture of my old neighborhood and I remember walking down that road with my heavy ass kitbag full of books or when I used to deliver newspapers there. One picture I’m particularly fond of is the one of the jazz combo. I’ve got in a frame and sitting on my desk. It brings back so many good, and sometimes not so good, memories of playing back on the Row. Maybe when we meet up again in the future, we’ll crack out the instruments and play together again. That would truly be something special to me.

Those pictures also show me something that I find takes me by surprise. I miss my friends and people I was close to greatly, but I also miss the people I never really got to know. Just looking at the pictures of the parties and gatherings, I realize that it’s also the atmosphere, the surroundings that also made me into what I am. Things that I didn’t notice at the time I’ve now started noticing through my numerous visits to my digital photo album. It couldn’t have been complete without everything. Yes, that sounds illogical how I put it. Of course something’s not complete without all the parts, but you know what I mean. The occurrences wouldn’t be what they were without the things I didn’t notice. Just because I didn’t notice initially doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Now onto something that’s sort of weird and must say something for my thoughts that still rest on PEI. I’ve been having an unparallel number of dreams recently. I can almost guarantee I’ll have a dream about something or someone I’ve seen in the pictures I’ve looked at that day. One especially vivid dream that I had probably 2 weeks ago still remains with me. I was coming home (to my old house) after band rehearsal with someone I wouldn’t say is a friend. More of an acquaintance than anything else. I had never gotten to know this person so it was somewhat weird to have a dream with them having such a large role in it. More than likely this was because I had looked at a picture that day with this person in it.

Anyways, this person was driving me home. However the problem was, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get to my house. We tried various routes but all of them were blocked by one obstacle or another. I still remembering telling the person to turn from North River to Beach Grove but they said they knew a better way. That other way happened to be under construction. We continued on where we can to an alley. We tried climbing over the wall and when that didn’t work, we tried crawling in some sort of tunnel. However we were driven out by what I could only describe as evil batmen… I woke up never having reached my home. I don’t like reading into dreams too much, but you’d think that was trying to say something huh? The connotations were so clear; I want to go back, but I can’t.

If you’ve gotten this far, you may realize how much I’ve slaved and labored over this post. I’ve looked at it over and over wondering if I should even bother or if I should just close the window without saving it. But I think it’s best that I show my gratitude to those who have been around me. I just want you to know how important you are to me, no matter if you played a huge part or one that I didn’t notice at the time but now do. If there’s one thing I regret, it would be that I didn’t get to say goodbye to so many people I would’ve liked to. And now it’s too late.

Mediocre Mouse

2005-08-04T00:05:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry, but it's so true. ;-)

That is all.

2000

2005-08-03T17:29:00.000-04:00

As I look back through the archives of this blog, I see on May 17th, I wrote a similar post to this one about my 300th page hit. Well, now I'm up to 2000. Through the wonders of StatCounter, I can see the IPs of the people who have visited and how often you have, but it would be nice to connect some names/faces with the people who do browse through my ramblings here. Feel free to leave a comment (just use the comment button beneath this post) if you've been reading. And thanks everyone. It's good to know I'm not yelling at a wall for the most part. ;-)

They're Coming Around

2005-08-02T10:31:00.000-04:00

Bang, boom! I told ya so. Apple, it seems, is starting to see the light. After many, many years of the old one button mouse, they've finally succumbed to the pressure and added more function to their mice. Of course, even a new mouse requires the whole launch festivities and that's what you've got at the Apple website. Why you ask? Because they're the marketing geniuses of the world right? If they weren't, they'd be in the toilet right now cause the products themselves are really nothing to be excited about. So I present you, Mighty Mouse! (ok, where tf did that stupid ass name come from...)

(from Apple.com)

And didn't I say their marketing is pure genius at work? They've included what I can only call a scroll wheel, which has been around for years. However, they call their version of it the 'Scroll Ball' and basically present it as though they're the inventors and everyone else's is a cheap knockoff. What can you do with it? You can scroll up/down, sideways and diagonally. Oh hello Apple? My Microsoft wireless mouse does that (except the diagonal) and I have yet to use the sideways scroll on it. Why? Because most things on the computer are designed so I don't have to scroll sideways. Sorry, another pointless gimmick for Joe Smith to be interested in. They're just so stubborn and when they finally realize they have to actually change more than the asthetics of a product to make it sell, they advertise it to death and call it their own 'innovation'.

And while I'm on the Apple-bashing topic, there's another thing I'd like to mention. After years and years of yodeling their hardware superiority over 'conventional' PCs, it would seem as though they've been mistaken. They recently announced that they would be switching their computers to run on Intel hardware as opposed to IBM PowerPC stuff. Oops, makes you wonder doesn't it, why they would switch if their hardware is so superior. Maybe it's not so good and expensive as hell hmm? Now give me a PowerBook chassis, an Intel Pentium Mobile processor, a decent video card and I'll be in computer heaven. Of course, that'll be after being in a living hell for shelling out $3-4K for that kind of system.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but that seems to be the way with Apple. They always shoot themselves in the foot.

Ahem, So Here It Is

2005-08-01T16:54:00.000-04:00

So it would seem I've gotten a little behind on my updating. I'll try not to let it happen again hmmm? ;-)

I spent most of this past Saturday outside, which I’m proud to say. My dad had to go to both the University of Waterloo and The University of Western Ontario to interview students for a co-op placement. One day I could be interviewed by my dad, which would be interesting to say the least. Anyways, we thought it would be a good chance for the whole family to get a better look at other areas of Ontario. Thus we set out early in the morning for London first. I didn’t want to get up this morning to go, but I’m glad I did.

Upon arriving in London, I was surprised to find that the city is actually quite large with around 350,000 inhabitants. We drove around and as is the custom with us in unknown areas we got somewhat lost. It didn’t help that we didn’t even have a map of the city of London, so we had to instead rely on a crappy little map of London we found on the Ontario provincial map. Only a few roads were actually shown so we tried to stay on them as much as we possibly could. After a few seemingly random turns, we found ourselves on Richmond Street which is what the university is off of. After looking out for a couple street numbers, we found the entrance to Western, at number 1151 Richmond Street.

The architecture of the school is quite different from what I saw at Waterloo. The buildings were old and looked very cultured. Sort of like what I had seen in the pictures of Queen’s which I was considering. To be honest, it puts to shame Waterloo’s campus. The Western campus is large with hills and lots of green. Waterloo in comparison is like a 50’s era Soviet factory city. Very utilitarian to say the least. Everything is built for usage and efficiency, but as I have found out, that’s not all life is about. Western seems to encompass its academics with aesthetics. The buildings were very pleasing to look at. Even the new ones were built on the model of the older buildings, with stone and classic architecture.

After spending a good portion of our day at Western, we set off to Waterloo. By now, the sun was blazing down and it was getting very warm. While waiting for my dad, I set off around the Waterloo campus. To be honest, I had never actually taken the chance to really walk around and take in what the university has to offer. Much like what I said previously, the school was obviously made for studies. Everything kind of looks a bit dull and drab. Hopefully the people will make it more exciting… In any case, it’s not so bad and beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?

Anywho, while in Kitchener, I requested that we drop into a local computer shop where I needed to pick something up. Yes, yes, I know that I resolved to not purchase anymore unnecessary things, but this is obviously necessary. Anyways, I got a new heatsink for the Athlon64 system. I’ll write something up later about the fun I had with that experiment…

So my parents are keeping me occupied. I’ve been playing more and more piano these days. The Black Key etude’s getting to be presentable and I’m still slaving away at the calculus. There’s some things I’ve never really bothered to think about and just took at face value when I was learning it in school. Questions like what exactly is a limit never even popped into my mind. We were told it’s just what something approaches, but that’s not a mathematical explanation. So I’m starting to learn things like that. You have to truly understand before you can apply right?

We’re also going to be building a shelf for the garage. The way I see it, the amount of stuff we’re buying (drills, table saws, etc) would cost much more than just going out and buying shelves pre-made. But no, my parents want me to develop some skills… More like I’m gonna chop my hand off with a saw or something. Oh well, it’s all for the best I’m sure.

Something escapes me and it won’t come to me no matter how hard I think. I’ll write something up later when I do.

Recent Happenings

2005-07-28T16:24:00.000-04:00

Since I haven't actually talked about what's going in my life recently, I thought I'll give you a little update.

Last evening I along with my dad went to the 100th anniversary of the Rankine hydro plant in Niagara Falls. That's the plant that was acquired by Fortis when they bought Canadian Niagara Power. It's quite mindboggling that even 100 years later, it's still working, not that efficiently mind you. There were a bunch of bigshots there at the ceremony such as the Ontario Minister of Energy, the Mayor of both Fort Erie and Niagara Falls as well as other random politicians for whom I didn't bother to remember titles. In any case, it was generally boring speeches but I did get to meet some of the people my dad works with. A pretty fun loving crew from what I saw. Generally pretty happy and not all that serious. They sure enjoyed cracking jokes. Anyways, they were all very nice to me; apparently my dad talks about me at work...

One interesting point though was the fact that Rankine Station was inducted into the North America Hydro Hall of Fame. It's one of only 18 stations in North America and one of two in Canada to have been given the honour. That was probably the most exciting part of the evening. Also, I saw something that really hit a soft spot in me. As we approached the festivities, I heard some music floating out. As we got closer, the tune sounded very familiar. I recognized it as "Girl From Ipanema", a tune that I have played with the combo back on PEI. It was definitely a nostalgic moment for me. So through the reception after the official events, I stood there listening and taking in all the music that I could. There was trumpet, keyboard and drums, which is very similar to our old group, minus the bass. Oh I longed to go play a couple standards with them, but after much deliberation, I decided that wasn't the best idea! ;-)

Anyways, here are a few more pictures I took during the event.

That's the Niagara River from the observation area of the Rankine facility. That's just before the Horseshoe falls. As you can see, the water's rushing pretty quickly at this point.

If you read my previous post about Niagara Falls, you'll know what I mean when I say appearances can be deceiving. The skyline would have you believe this is a much larger city than it really is.

And as we were leaving, I decided to grab this photo of the ever present rainbow caused by the spray coming up from the falls.

I'm also fairly proud to say that this morning (well, more like noontime) I went for a run. Yes, I stopped procrastinating and finally did it. I think I started off too quickly and as a result got tired pretty fast. Of course, I can't say I'm in shape whatsoever. However I got lost in the neighborhood a bit so I probably ran, what 2 kilometers before I found my way back to the house again. I did that route in about 10 minutes, which I guess equates to 12km/h. I have no clue how fast that actually is, but boy did I feel it afterwards. (feels ashamed) Gotta start somewhere though I guess.

Right-o, anyways as I sit here and listen to Coldplay's X & Y CD, I realized something I've always wanted to get out there. Do you ever notice that music will bring you back to a specific point in time for an instant? For example, this X & Y CD really reminds me of the last few days I spent on the Island. Fur Elise (Beethoven) always reminds of the last level in the Soviet campaign of Command and Conquer: Red Alert (yeah, yeah I know...), It's Getting Hot in Here reminds me of the Colonel Gray dances. I always envision Michael and I standing beside a tree near the back of the playground at West Kent Elementary whenever I hear Gettin' Jiggy With It and Norah Jones reminds me of the time when Ellen wanted me to play one of her tunes. There are countless other tunes that remind me of certain events. The images I see are so vivid that I think I am truly there. Then I realize I'm not and I get this pang of sadness about days long gone by.

I truly miss my life on PEI and the people who shared the experiences with me. I regret nothing though and my memories are only happy ones.

Read It And Weep People...

2005-07-28T00:26:00.000-04:00

Here's a little news article that I ran across today. To say the least, very intersting.

Here.

Essentially (for those who don't feel like clicking) it's a grandma, (85 years old) who bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for her 14 year old grandson, suing Take Two for its game because it contains sex scenes which can be unlocked through a third party hack. You may have heard the recent controversy over this game and that fact that many believe that the M (Mature) ESRB rating isn't high enough. So let's sum up and I'll put it blatantly.

This grandma willingly buys a M rated game, which is meant only for 17 year olds and up for her 14 year old grandson. Then, she turns around and sues the company, for an undisclosed sum (she wants Take Two to relinquish all profits they made on this game) because it contains sex scenes accessible through a hack. Basically since the game has now had its rating change to AO (Adults Only) she is suing on the basis of "false advertising, consumer deception and unfair business practices."

What a load of BS I say. Old granny bought a game for her 14 year old grandson, didn't look at the M-rating and now thinks she can get a crapload of money from a suit cause the rating is now AO. I'm sorry, and I'm usually very nice to people, but SHE IS A FRIGGING MORON. I hope the judge throws this case out like a pile of garbage. But knowing America, she'll win. >:-O

Just parents and relatives who are unwilling to accept the responsibility of actually having a kid to care for instead of throwing entertainment at them to keep them occupied.

It's Falling Apart [Part II]

2005-07-27T23:48:00.000-04:00

If you’ve read the first part of this series of articles, you’ll see where I think terrorism stems from and the reason why at this rate, it WILL NOT STOP. If not, that article is here. Continuing on, I’d like to discuss the recent terrorist acts in London, England.

Much like my experience with September 11, 2001, I remember my first knowledge of the bombings in London with surprising clarity. That July 7th Thursday morning I woke up and proceeded to turn on my laptop. I started browsing through my routine list of sites; this morning I decided to check out the state of the stock markets. Surprisingly, the headline article was not about an earnings report or a merger. Instead it read something like Explosions in London Sends Jitters through Markets. I could not believe my eyes. I clicked in and started reading. The first reports were of perhaps a power grid explosion in the subways system. However there was also talk of a destroyed bus. It was a very confusing article that sounded like no one really knew what was happening.

As the day wore on, it became apparent that this was no accident. It looked an awful lot like terrorist activities. Sure enough, traces of explosives were found in the various affected areas. Casualty numbers started off relatively low but quickly grew as the bombed sites were reached and inspected. In all, 56 people have lost their lives with many still missing. Over 700 have been reported injured. This was the deadliest bombing in London since World War II and the worst single terrorist act in the UK since the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

The city of London and all of the United Kingdom has been on edge ever since the bombings and with good reason. On July 21st, exactly two weeks after the original bombings, another bombing was attempted with surprising similarity to the first ones. Fortunately, there was only one injury and no fatalities. The bombs failed to go off; only the detonators did. Ever since the first bombings, police have stepped up security in the capital region. Special task groups have been on the lookout for suspicious persons as well as performing raids on possible terrorists hideouts. One of the largest investigations in British history is currently underway.

However, there are problems present that are, I believe, more dangerous than these terrorist acts. Much like what happened in the United States after the September 11th attacks, there is widespread fear in the community that there will be backlashes against the innocent, specifically against Muslims. Despite the reassuring words of Prime Minister Tony Blair and speeches issuing from Scotland Yard, there must be an awful lot of paranoid people. More than likely people who are willing to call in a person as suspicious who, well isn’t all that suspicious. Everyone is on edge for another possible attack. This is what the terrorists want. They want us to change our lifestyles, to suspect each other. We’re destroying our own society and way of life more thoroughly than any bombs could. And who are the resultant casualties? The segregated communities, like the Muslims, and people like Jean Charles de Menezes.

Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian, was shot in the London subway station on July 22nd, just one day after the attempted bombings. He was seen leaving a building that was under surveillance and was wearing a large coat. He was pursued into the subway and did not stop when ordered to by the police. He was then rammed to the ground and shot in the head five times at point blank range. Needless to say, he was killed. Sounds like the right thing to do considering the circumstances when you take it at face value no? Unfortunately, this is what the police had to say about the incident: “We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday 21st July 2005.”

Okay, well thanks for letting us know that you killed an innocent person. Now throw in a few of the things that are less known. The ‘police’ were actually plainclothes officers. When guys in normal clothes with guns follow you and pursue you, I’m not sure you want to stop and have a nice little chat. There are reports that perhaps the police did not identify themselves, other reports that he was actually shot seven times. And there is speculation that he was perhaps trying to escape because he had an expired visa. I can just see the satire about this one flying now. “We at Scotland Yard take our jobs very seriously. Obviously a person with an expired visa is in definite violation of our country’s laws and thus had to be brought to justice.” There are countless possibilities; the real reason he ran from the police we will never know.

And don’t you think there’s something wrong with this picture? A suicide bomber would probably detonate it long before police could push him to the ground. In addition, a deadman switch would more than likely be used, essentially something that would detonate the bomb when he releases the trigger (after he’s dead of course). So, shooting him wouldn’t have done the police and surrounding people much good. Pumping seven or even five bullets into someone’s head from point blank range while they are held down is not protecting the public. That’s an execution. As one man put it, “It was chaos. It was like a shooting in a Hollywood action movie.”

The new ‘shoot to kill’ policy for police officers has many in the Muslim community on edge. They are very scared of racial profiling. One person made a point that was very interesting and somewhat shocking based on how we currently bring people to justice. He basically said that people aren’t even put in jail on mere suspicion but police officers can now kill because of that. To make matters worse, Scotland Yard has said that, while it regrets the shooting of an innocent man, incidents such as this are likely to happen again due to the current circumstances. I can only imagine what it would be like to live in a city full of trigger happy policemen.

It’s policy like this that is creating more of a problem rather than solving it. Due to the nature of terrorism, you cannot fight it with more violence. That is usually the reason for terrorism. You have to understand the problem before you can resolve it. Although Tony Blair would like to think that these acts are not because of the UK’s involvement in the ‘war on terror’, he is more than likely wrong. When you go into a foreign country and invade it, you can expect that there will be unhappy people. Just like the United States was pulled into this because of their support of Israel, the UK is beginning to feel the consequences. By segregating a community, only more dissent can be created. It is truly unfortunate what is happening in this torn city and country. I can only hope that these world leaders see the error in their ways and correct it before more harm is done.

Upcoming

2005-07-27T00:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been hard at work implementing some new things for the template; hopefully the first real permanent template that I'll have. A blog just doesn't feel like my own without my own personalized design anyways. I've got the sidebar titles all done up with a nice little graphic and I'm currently trying to work out how to get a menu system in place.

It would appear that placing a navigation menu under the main header would be quite difficult within the contraints of the Blogger setup. I'm sure it can be done, but I don't think as a beginner to all this template stuff that I'm going to blaze a path through the unknown. A little out of my league to say the least. Well, for now. Anyways, I've got a trial version of Macromedia's Studio MX 2004 with Flash MX 2004 (I'm not quite ready to spill $1000+ on the full version yet) so I've been trying to create some buttons with flashy (hehe, pun) submenus in the sidebar. It's a little crowded right now and I want to clear some of that up. A nice menu system would be a great improvement. Only problem: I've gotta learn how to use Flash. I did a little project back in grade 11 with flash, but it was really only the novelty and uniquness of it that really won the class. Definitely not the quality, and I don't want this to look like some amateur job. Thus, I'll slave at it until I'm happy with the results. My willingness to do something like this and work hard at it tends to sooth my fears that I'll lose interest in computers and thus render my university major choice useless. So if I find that Flash/Dreamweaver is useful, I may consider purchasing it at the U of Waterloo. They've got some really nice educational discounts on software that would allow me to pick the whole Studio MX package up for $120 instead of over a thousand.

I'm also just finishing up the second part of the 'It's Falling Apart' series. Still somewhat of an analysis of what's going on, this time about the happenings in London. Should make for a decent read if you're interested in that kind of stuff.

In completely unrelated news, I (along with the help of D-Link Support) have confirmed that the wireless router we bought about two months ago is indeed defective and I'll be getting a RMA number for a replacement. As such, there are wires strewn all over the place in order for my laptop to reach the wired router that we're temporarily using. Not a pretty sight as I basically have to jump over the wire that's in the way here.

That's all for now as I head off to bed. Calculus in the summer hurts my head!

Yes, Yes, Another One

2005-07-26T18:17:00.000-04:00

Ok alrighty, so as you may have noticed I have, once more, changed the template for my blog. However there is one thing I'm proud of this time. This is an original template. There's still work to be done with new features I'm going to attempt to add. They may prove too difficult, but I'll try my best.

So basically, I've made this template much wider. I've found most of the generic templates to be very narrow; too narrow for what I want to do with this blog. However I kept it at 1024x768 because the majority of people have that resolution or higher set for their monitors. So for the most part (those still using 800x600 or lower, learn to up the resolution on your monitor. If you can't, then you know it's probably time to upgrade the screen =P ) there'll be no horizontal scrolling needed. I've also chosen what I believe is a nice color mix. Unfortunately, I kind of stole that off one of my favorite hardware sites, Anand Tech, so I can't say I was all that creative there.

So as I've said I'm going to try and push the limits to see what Blogger really lets you do. I've got a few things in mind, but chances are, Blogger may not like the idea. Things to look forward to are customized headers for the sidebar and a navigation system at the bottom of the header.

And I see that the comments area is still in the style of the old template. Gotta work on that and see how to change it over as well.

EDIT: It would appear as though the comments on the new posts are now using the new template while the old ones are, well, using the old template. Not sure how to fix that. :-/

EDIT #2: W00t! I figured it out. Such a stupid little thing. I just forgot to republish the whole blog. Fixies! =D But wowzers, seems like my blog's getting big. To republish the whole thing takes quite a while. =O Well either that or Blogger's just being slow today.

It's Falling Apart [Part I]

2005-07-25T22:05:00.000-04:00

The world that is. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent springing up of bombings, shootings, verbal attacks, and other endless, and mostly pointless, acts that have been happening on the world scene. It seems like there’s no consideration for the other side at all. It’s just an endless circle that keeps repeating itself over. One side acts, the other retaliates, which causes further retaliations and so on and so forth. What do I mean by all this? I will cover some of the more prevalent topics in different parts. To put them all into one post would be far too long. I have lots to say alright? =D

Let’s start at the beginning, or almost the beginning. Many people see and hear on TV or the radio about the numerous and seemingly more habitual reports of terrorist bombings or shootings. Many of us just accept this as a fact of life in recent times and rarely think about the reasons behind terrorism.

On one hand, you have President Bush ranting and raving that it’s Islamic extremists who hate America because of its freedom and prosperity. I personally think that’s a load of BS. One can probably trace the problems back to the Arab-Israel conflict that exists to this day.

I won’t get into Jewish history or anything like that here. You could do a PhD on the subject and there’d still be an infinite number of unanswered or poorly answered questions. But it would appear as though the Arabs were never satisfied that the Jewish people ‘took’ their land in the Middle East. Problem is, history tells us that these people were once inhabitants of the area long before Islam had any hold over the region. They didn’t ‘take’ the land from the Arabs, they were merely reclaiming it. But humans have short memories and things thousands of years in the past seem to have been either forgotten or misinterpreted. The Jewish state of Israel is seen as an invading force of outsiders; a group that should be removed from their ‘rightful’ territory.

And so the wars began. Several wars were fought between the Arab countries and Israel. Through determination and the more advanced weaponry of the Western Hemisphere (specifically the United States), Israel prevailed through it all and has grown to become the dominant military power of the region. Of course, this only served to anger the Arabs even more. To fight them, all out war was no longer the option. So what do they do? They use ‘terrorism’.

I recently read an article on this subject that presented the terrorism on the United States and the rest of the Western hemisphere in an interesting way. The Arabs and Israel were embroiled in a long drawn out conflict. It was their war; no one else’s. Casualties mounted on both sides with civilians being caught up in the bombing and shelling. One day as an Arab, you arrive back in your town to discover it obliterated. But something curious captures your attention. A local boy has found a part of the bomb casing that destroyed your home and family. Officials tell you that the bomb was not Israeli, but American. Throughout the land, many other people find out the same thing as the American ‘smart bombs’ are being put to use in devastating fashion. Many are angered at not only the Israelis for using these new weapons but also America for supplying these weapons.

And so if the terrorism tactic can be used against Israel, it can also be used against the United States. Cue carnage. Thus the question that was asked most prevalently after 9/11 (Why?) can be perhaps answered. Because your bombs destroyed my village; because your weapons killed many thousand Arabs; because you support our enemy. That seems like a reasonable explanation. If Canada were in a war against some country and all of a sudden your home was blown up by a bomb that said Made in America, wouldn’t you be damned pissed at the Americans?

The so called ‘war on terrorism’ isn’t exactly giving these people who hate America much reason to change their views. In addition, the war has dragged many other countries into the fray. Now it’s not only American bombs that are falling. You’ve also got British and Spanish bombs falling which have probably been the reason for the terrorist actions in those countries. Some wonder why these terrorist acts continue, but do we forget the tens of thousands of innocent Afghan and Iraqi civilians have died under the shower of bombs?

Although the United States or other coalition members do not put forth official or estimated casualty numbers for Afghan and/or Iraqi civilians killed in this conflict (more than likely because they don’t give a shit and don’t want to turn even more public support against them) independent groups have reported that the number of dead civilians in these two countries could add up to more than 30,000. Seriously injured start at 50,000 people on the low end. Who knows the real numbers?

Of course you hear about the number of ‘terrorists’ killed in the latest shootout between American soldiers and Iraqi/Afghan insurgents. It’s funny though. I’ve always thought of people who defend their countries as ‘patriotic’ or ‘brave’ more than as terrorists. I suppose the British who defended themselves during the Battle of Britain during World War II could also be branded as terrorists then? Terrorists are people who run into a crowd and blow themselves up. I would hardly call people who shot down your INVADING helicopter or blew up your INVADING tank in their own country terrorists.

This topic has been beat over the head so many times that this article will merely be another one of the thousands that are seen and ignored. To be honest, I don’t really care who reads this article. I can only feel better that I’ve written what I think about the subject and after all, this is my blog, not yours. ;-) I’m glad to get my thoughts out there even though it’s essentially the same as a thousand others. I’m only worried that I’ve tread on too many peoples’ toes already.

And trust me, I’m not done yet. There are many more articles to follow in the near future on the violence that has befallen this planet.

Ohs Nos!!...

2005-07-23T21:17:00.000-04:00

I attended the University of Waterloo's Student Life 101 orientation program today. It was a good chance to meet some professors and students who I will be sharing the next five years of my life with. To say the least, the presenters were all extremely helpful and informative. In most ways, I feel much more at ease now that I have a better understanding of just what should happen during my time there. I'm truly looking forward to it all this September.

We departed around 8AM from Niagara Falls for Kitchener-Waterloo. On our way there, we managed to get horrendously lost in Hamilton where we were trying to switch from the 403 to highway 8. On the up side, I got a chance to have a look at another university I had been considering, McMaster. After driving seemingly aimlessly for about 10 mintues, we happened upon a sign that pointed the way. And off we went. We arrived at the University of Waterloo at around 9:45 and it took us a good 15 minutes to actually find where the first presentation was being held.

The first presentation was about making a successful transition from high school to university. We had some information about some of the different types of things that are available to do on and off campus. We were presented with some timetables of how we should build our schedules one. Finally, we got to one of my favorite topics: Procrastination. Now I'll be honest, I procrastinate almost constantly. I'm probably one of the worst peoples for that bad habit. It's not like the work doesn't get done on time or anything. It's just that I put unnecessary stress upon myself to perform under pressure. Some people say they thrive under pressure. You can probably throw me into that category as well, even though after it's all said and done, I always plan to do my work earlier next time. And of course, I never do and the cycle repeats. I learned about some ways to prevent procrastination and it would seem I'll need to break this tendency of mine to really succeed at Waterloo.

The next session we attended was one by some faculty members of the engineering department. There I got a taste of just who I was going to working with in my field. Some looked dorky, others didn't, but overall, I was shocked at the number of Asians. I mean everywhere you looked in that lecture hall, you saw Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani, etc faces. It was like I wasn't in North America anymore. Sure there were Caucasians, but I'd estimate probably only 30-40%. And despite the reports, (or maybe due to them?) there was a fair number of females partaking in the engineering program. Makes me somewhat happier to know it won't be just one huge sausage fest... Actually generally speaking, there were quite a few more females than I expected around the campus. For some reason I was led to believe that there was going to be like a 10-1 ratio of guys to girls. (shudders at thought) In reality, I'd say it's much closer to even than you'd think.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, engineering presentation. Well you see, this is where I started getting somewhat worried. The head of first year studies in engineering (this may sound like an insignificant amount of students, but you'll be surprised to note that there are over 1000 students entering engineering at Waterloo this September) mentioned that almost all the students in that lecture hall had 80%+ averages coming out of high school. At least half of them would fall below 80% at the University of Waterloo. He was saying how he believed this is one of the best, if not the best, engineering programs in the world and they achieved that by action, not by talking about it. So he said, it would be predictable that some would not be able to keep up satisfactorily. Now remember, I need to keep an 80% average in my first year for that scholarship of mine to be renewed.

I know I'm behind compared to most of the Ontario students when it comes to mathematics and sciences. I can only rely on the fact that I tend to pick things up quickly and my love of self learning. I haven't yet hit a wall in high school where I just could not understand a concept. And that scares me. High school now that I look back wasn't all that important, well the first two years at least. If I had of had that sort of difficulty in grade 10 or 11, I could've worked it through without much detriment to the overall state of things. At the university level, if that were to befall me, I'm honestly not sure what I would do. I have never encountered something that I absolutely could not understand. If I do come up to that mental obstacle, it could be very difficult for me to both accept and solve. Now don't take this as bragging I beg you. I'm merely pointing out the fact that I'm afraid to face something like this at such a crucial time. Concepts will invariably get more difficult and challenging and I will try me best to understand them. But I'm assuming there will be a time when I simply will not be able to go any further. Otherwise, why do we have only one Einstein, one Newton?

I'll tell you a little secret. Due to reasons I shall not reveal, I was able to find out some marks for random students in engineering at the University of Waterloo. The averages ranged anywhere from the high 60s to the mid to high 80s. No 90s to speak of whatsoever, much less high 90s. Most of the marks were centered around the low 70s which does not speak well for me. Calculus marks were especially abysmal, with the majority of the marks below 70 ranging down to low 50s. That my friends is a fail. No more 50% passes like we had in high school. These people were failing credits left and right. I can only shudder at the thought. Well, I can only try my best and I realize that I will have to revamp my study habits and life habits in general to succeed. It will be the biggest challenge I have ever faced, but I hope to come out of it scarred but alive.

While I have lived away from my parents for about 6 weeks on end during last summer in Quebec, I have not truly required much independence. I had a set schedule then, work, eat, relax, sleep. Rinse and repeat. I knew what I had to do and I did it. This will be different. Not only do I have to live on my own (and hopefully not die from malnutrition...) I will also have to motivate myself to study and do well. I'll need some initiative to get my ass off a chair to actually go and do something without someone telling me to. I realize I'll really need to develop my independence and some skills that I lack, such as interviews. I'll be blunt, I hate interviews. They're an accepted and widely used tool in this world I'm entering and I'll have to know how to deal with them and more. It would seem that I'm not exactly the most confident person when it comes to talking with strangers and large audiences. I'm hoping the numerous presentations I'll have to make as an engineering student will help with that. It doesn't help that I'm in Stream-4 which means I only have 4 months of studies before I go off on my first work term in co-op. Basically I'll arrive at school and two weeks in I'll have to start applying to jobs. Should be a heck of a lot of fun.

So what am I going to do to make this all a little easier for me? Well, I intend to require as little catch up as possible on the courses. I'm going to start breaking out the algebra and calculus books I've got stashed away somewhere here in the basement. It's now or never to actually start work on them. I don't want to live off of 4 hours of sleep each night trying to figure out obscene concepts.

Anyways, I had a lot to say there, but university is an important thing at this point in my life. It only seems natural that it takes its allotted space in my blog.

Ahhhh....

2005-07-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

It's getting late here and I have to get up at like 6:30 tomorrow morning to make it to Waterloo in time for the start of the Student Life 101 day. I've just realized that I haven't filled out my residence contract which I was meaning to take to Waterloo. Oops.

I was doing some research on the books that I will be needing for the coming term's classes. Well I tallied up the costs and lo and behold, I was was greeted with over $700 worth of books. That's only for this term too. Well, I knew I would be spending about that much, but it's so much more real when you actually see the number laid out in front of you, knowing you'll have to shell out that much within a month or so. Better be worth it I say. ;-)

I played the piano the other day for the first time since I moved here. I can't say I'm happy with that. I should've played more. I've forgotten how much of an enjoyment it has become. I used to despise sitting down in front of the piano plunking away at the keys. I don't know when or why it changed, but it seemed to become so much easier to sit down, open up a book and just play. To say the least, I was a little rusty around the edges, but it was kind of surprising how quickly it all came back. Sure I can no longer memorize the pieces that I haven't played in a few months but opening up the book to the right page made all the difference. Soon I was making music again. Everything was at my fingertips. Quite the feeling I tell you. It was also the first time I played some classical piano in probably two months. During my last while on PEI, I played only jazz due to the combo and all. I never really had the chance to play some classical piano because the piano was on the moving truck ever since the end of May. I'll definitely have to play more in the coming days. Maybe even learn a new tune or two. Definitely wouldn't hurt me to actually get down to work on something.

Which reminds me. I want to try something new with this blog. I've used templates I've found around the web and at most modified it a little to create a small feeling of personalization. Well, I'm going to set out to create a template for this blog from scratch with the use of Photoshop. I've found a few good tutorials for Photoshop (I was always pretty weak in digital graphics, something I want to rectify) so I'll need to do some reading. I'm going to go through the Blogger help files as well to see if I can't get a better understanding of just how they tag this whole template system and exactly how it's set up. I want to do some different things with this template. No more generic crap for me. It'll be good for my creativity too. I'll need to be more than just a brain crunching numbers in university. An upgrade to my imagination could be useful.

I've also got to give this laptop a nice formatting. It's the first install and I didn't really know what apps I really needed for proper laptop usage. Needless to say I've crammed the hard drive full of pretty useless junk that's taking up system resources. Not that I don't have any to spare. It's quite quick still, but I just hate the feeling that it's not as organized, clean, efficient as it could be. So I'll have to reformat and reinstall. I cringe at the thought though since I'll have to make a backup of the system, again. It seems like I backup my computers every time I reinstall them only to use the backup once. Then the next time I reformat again, I realize the DVDs are out of date and I've got a bunch of new things that I need. So out goes two DVDs worth of data and I burn two new DVDs of backups. Eventually my hard drives gather do much useless crap from previous backups that I need to go through file by file and clean up some of the more useless stuf. Really annoying and seems like I do it too often, which I probably do. There's really no need for me to reformat as often as I do really.

And that kind of leads me to another topic which I shall save for a post on its own. It's rather long-winded and I would prefer to keep it separate from this. But the gist of it would be something along the lines of, I think I'm obsessive-compulsive or close to it.

Oh, as well, I've got a few thoughts about university and some of my aspirations and some of my worries to go along with it. Well worries in that I do think about them on occassion, but I don't dwell on them unnecessarily. It'll be good to get them out though. Gah, so much to write about. I'm sure I'll have something to say about tomorrow's day at UWaterloo. :-/

I Just Had To...

2005-07-22T19:18:00.000-04:00

I was reading around about the problem some video games have been getting into with their sex and nudity and whatnot. Anyways, the discussion disintegrated into a part US vs Canada debate. Well, this is probably the quote of the week for me.

"I admire Canada for the health care they've provided their citizens. So many times after Bush first took office I've thought about heading north particularly when Bush opens his big dumb mouth. I cringe when he speaks; it's so embarrassing." - bupkus @ AnandTech

It's so funny to see what Americans think about their leader. It was so truthful with no sense of trying to make it sound funny. Just plain honesty but one of the funniest things I've read in a while. Hope you have a good laugh too. =D

Courses

2005-07-21T23:24:00.000-04:00

Well, to keep with my regular updating of this blog, I'll tell you my coming semester's course load. I was just recently able to log into my course selection place online only to find that I actually get to choose - get this - none of my courses first semester. Anyways, here goes.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday

MATH 115 (108) Linear Algebra (Eng) TUT - Tutorial MC - Mathematics & Computer Room 4060 8:30AM - 10:20AM
MATH 115 (108) 8:30AM - 10:20AM
MATH 115 (108) 8:30AM - 10:20AM	MATH 117 (102) Calculus 1 For Engineering TUT - Tutorial MC - Mathematics & Computer Room 4058 9:30AM - 11:20AM	PHYS 115 (108) Mechanics TUT - Tutorial MC - Mathematics & Computer Room 4058 9:30AM - 11:20AM	CHE 102 (116) Chemistry for Engineers TUT - Tutorial RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 209 9:30AM - 11:20AM	GENE 167 (101) Intro to Methods of Elec Eng'g LAB - Laboratory CPH - Carl A Pollock Hall Room 1346 9:30AM - 11:20AM
MATH 115 (108) 8:30AM - 10:20AM	MATH 117 (102) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	PHYS 115 (108) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	CHE 102 (116) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	GENE 167 (101) 9:30AM - 11:20AM
ECE 150 (202) Introduction to Computing TUT - Tutorial MC - Mathematics & Computer Room 4060 10:30AM - 11:20AM	MATH 117 (102) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	PHYS 115 (108) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	CHE 102 (116) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	GENE 167 (101) 9:30AM - 11:20AM
ECE 150 (202) 10:30AM - 11:20AM	MATH 117 (102) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	PHYS 115 (108) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	CHE 102 (116) 9:30AM - 11:20AM	GENE 167 (101) 9:30AM - 11:20AM


ECE 150 (001) Introduction to Computing LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 12:30PM - 1:20PM	ECE 150 (101) Introduction to Computing LAB - Laboratory CPH - Carl A Pollock Hall Room 1346 12:30PM - 2:20PM	ECE 150 (001) Introduction to Computing LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 12:30PM - 1:20PM	ECE 150 (001) Introduction to Computing LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 12:30PM - 1:20PM	CHE 102 (004) Chemistry for Engineers LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 12:30PM - 1:20PM
ECE 150 (001) 12:30PM - 1:20PM	ECE 150 (101) 12:30PM - 2:20PM	ECE 150 (001) 12:30PM - 1:20PM	ECE 150 (001) 12:30PM - 1:20PM	CHE 102 (004) 12:30PM - 1:20PM
MATH 117 (001) Calculus 1 For Engineering LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 1:30PM - 2:20PM	ECE 150 (101) 12:30PM - 2:20PM	MATH 117 (001) Calculus 1 For Engineering LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 1:30PM - 2:20PM	GENE 167 (001) Intro to Methods of Elec Eng'g LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 1:30PM - 2:20PM	MATH 117 (001) Calculus 1 For Engineering LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 1:30PM - 2:20PM
MATH 117 (001) 1:30PM - 2:20PM	ECE 150 (101) 12:30PM - 2:20PM	MATH 117 (001) 1:30PM - 2:20PM	GENE 167 (001) 1:30PM - 2:20PM	MATH 117 (001) 1:30PM - 2:20PM
MATH 115 (004) Linear Algebra (Eng) LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 2:30PM - 3:20PM	CHE 102 (004) Chemistry for Engineers LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 2:30PM - 3:20PM	MATH 115 (004) Linear Algebra (Eng) LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 2:30PM - 3:20PM	CHE 102 (004) Chemistry for Engineers LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 2:30PM - 3:20PM	MATH 115 (004) Linear Algebra (Eng) LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 2:30PM - 3:20PM
MATH 115 (004) 2:30PM - 3:20PM	CHE 102 (004) 2:30PM - 3:20PM	MATH 115 (004) 2:30PM - 3:20PM	CHE 102 (004) 2:30PM - 3:20PM	MATH 115 (004) 2:30PM - 3:20PM
PHYS 115 (004) Mechanics LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 3:30PM - 4:20PM		PHYS 115 (004) Mechanics LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 3:30PM - 4:20PM		PHYS 115 (004) Mechanics LEC - Lecture RCH - Rod Coutts Hall Room 110 3:30PM - 4:20PM
PHYS 115 (004) 3:30PM - 4:20PM		PHYS 115 (004) 3:30PM - 4:20PM		PHYS 115 (004) 3:30PM - 4:20PM
			GENE 10 (001) Co-op Education Orientation SEM - Seminar HH - Hagey Hall of Humanities Room 159 4:30PM - 5:20PM
			GENE 10 (001) 4:30PM - 5:20PM

Yeah, that may be a bit hard to read but I'm too lazy to actually write it down in a table. I may have a look at some actual html to make it easier but for now it'll have to do. Why don't you put some effort in reading my post hmmm? ;-)

Also just checked my rooming assignment. I'm in Village 1 with a single room, which isn't too bad. Of course, it's not as good as the ensuite type dealio that I could've gotten at Queen's but you have to sacrafice something right? Anyways, I've planned what I want to do at Waterloo thi Saturday; hopefully meet some young folks like me. It'll be nice to get to know some people before I actually arrive there ready to get down to work. I'm pretty excited to say the least. I usually wouldn't be looking forward to work, but in this case, I'm quite pumped to be finally going off to university.

That's all for now. I'm still working on a Zen Micro review. Lots of work to be done still! (plus I need a haircut...) :-/

Oi!

2005-07-20T00:44:00.000-04:00

We had a little day trip today. To say the least I'm pretty tired. We went to Toronto, stopping at various places along the way and then came back to Niagara Falls and I went to see them for the first time since getting here. Here's a more detailed rundown.

I got up around 8:30 this morning which is friggin early for me. I've been accustomed to the sloth-like laziness I've been exhibiting over the past week or so. As such, getting up at that hour was not fun. So I dragged my ass out of bed and to the shower and we eventually headed off in the direction of Toronto at about a quarter past 9. I spent the drive to St. Catherines propping my eyelids open with sharp objects. (well, okay that's a lie, but it was damn hard trying not to fall asleep again) We had a few things to do in St. Catherines including getting my driver's license and health card switched over to the new Ontario ones. Just another tie I've severed to the Island. Anyways, I was struck full force by Ontario's sometimes wacky rules. This province has a graduated driver's license system. That basically means there are multiple steps to acquiring your 'full' license. At the age of 16 you can get your G1 license which is comparable to the Island's beginner's license. Then after a year you can take your G1 road test which gets you your G2 license. That's more like the first year of your actual driver's license on the Island. Basically it says you cannot have any blood alcohol level and only as many people as seatbelts. That's reasonable. But to get your full G license you need to wait another year to take another road test. I'm beginning to think they do this to squeeze more money out of you. ;)

In any case I only got a G2 license since I'm supposed to hold a driver's license for at least 2 years before I can get my full G license. In a way I'm ahead of the curve since in Ontario I'd still only have my G1. Hooray for shortcuts! I'm not sure how much I'll be driving in the near future since I'll be living on campus at Waterloo. Then to get around the city of Kitchener/Waterloo, I can always use the buses, so that's not too big of a deal. The problem will be to actually take that test two years from now because I probably won't have had too much practice on Ontario roads. To say the least, I think driving on the 401 would be suicide for me at this point. I'll cross that bridge when it comes though.

Driving along the QEW (Queen Elisabeth Way, a highway linking Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Toronto and many destinations in between) along the south of Lake Ontario, I was greeted by a very spectacular sight. Just past St. Catherines, there is a stretch of the QEW that runs almost right along the shore. I happened to glance over at the lake and I saw a bunch of sailboats; however that's not what astounded me. My parents and I were discussing the fact that the lake was still a lake and not the ocean like what it was on PEI. However I pointed out that you couldn't see the other side, so it felt like the ocean. And that's when I noticed it. As I looked across Lake Ontario, I saw the city of Toronto appear out of the haze. You could only see a few of the taller buildings, but the CN Tower was unmistakable. It was truly remarkable to not even see the coast due to the curvature of the Earth but see the top parts of the buildings 60 kilometers away.

Next stop was in a place called Burlington, really just an extension of Hamilton and Toronto creating a 150K population city in between. I was pretty excited by this stop because I was going to go have my very first IKEA experience. Yes, it was an experience. It truly is different from any store I've ever been in. The way they have their store set up is very unique. I'll also mention now that the store was absolutely massive! The top floor was set up as a showroom. They had mock home interiors where they set up their furniture and other things to mimic how it would be in a real house. It was definitely interesting to see how they designed the layout for all the furniture. There was a seemingly endless number of things sold there. Almost anything you could want in a home aside from electronics could be found. To be honest though, I had expected something different. I pictured a store that sold only high-end stuff. But in reality, they're like the Walmart for homes. They sell anything from the lowest priced magazine to very expensive, modern/weird looking items. There's even a restaurant included in the store that made things like Swedish meatballs available for the eating. The store is not laid out like your ordinary store with aisles. Instead it's kind of like a journey where you follow the arrows and make your way through areas that sell different things for different parts of the home. Sort of annoying if you're just there to buy one thing and end up walking through the whole store, but it's great for people like us who just felt like browsing and taking it all in. Anyways, there are shortcuts you can take if you absolutely don't feel like navigating the store. I got disoriented several times because you can't really get a sense of where the exit is if you left the predetermined path due to the lack of aisles/etc.

After wandering through there, we started the grueling process of looking for home furnishings, again I might add. After spending multiple hours on that, we had the smart idea to make a trip into Toronto right during rush hour, around 4:30PM. To say the least, crawling around on the 401 at 10km/h isn't exactly the best way to get anywhere. After about an hour and a half of driving (which should only take probably 15 mins when it's not congested) and a few wrong turns, we ended up at our destination. We needed to buy some Chinese groceries for the coming while. That was where I was thrust into the middle of another interesting experience.

In the Markham area north of Toronto itself, it actually feels like China. The only difference is that the people, especially the younger ones, have been seriously affected by the culture here. Back on the Island, there was a young Chinese male (who I won't reveal at this time) who I thought was perhaps the exception, not the rule. He was fairly gangsta'd up and whatnot. It seems like that is perhaps the rule here in Toronto. At every turn I'd see the male teenagers with big hats turned sideways with big, baggy shorts and shirts. If I didn't know better, I would've thought there were like 500 Nelly lookalikes in that area alone (well lookalike aside from the fact they're, well you know, Chinese and all...). I felt seriously out of place with my polo shirt and well fitting shorts. I may as well have been the white man in 'Da Hood or something... (no offence meant by that at all to any party) The girls weren't much better off. The older ones (20+) were fairly conservative, but the teenage ones have obviously been watching too many music videos and reading too many magazines. They looked 3/4 fake with the amount of makeup on them. I probably could've dragged my fingernails across their faces and only dent the nearly impenetrable layer of it. It was quite the sight up there in Chinatown... It was less Chinese than anything in my opinion. I'm probably being too old fashioned, but don't expect me to start thuggin' it up anytime soon. ;-)

On the way back to Niagara Falls, I saw the most beautiful moonrise ever. At first I thought it was the sun setting because there was a haze and you could see a huge reddish/yellowish orb right near the horizon, but as I watched, I realized it was rising, not sinking. It was an absolutely sight. We decided that it would be a good time to visit the Falls as well. I hadn't seen them yet since I arrived here. Oh, and you thought the Island gets a lot of tourists.

It was around 10PM when we arrived in Niagara Falls so the sky was pretty dark. They had the multicolored lights shining on falls and you could see the crowds of people lining the railings for their own look at the falls. The night life there I'd say rivals anything I have ever seen, including Montreal. The fallsfront area has to be one of the most commercial places I have ever seen outside of Las Vegas. I've only seen Las Vegas in photos but if you took one of the Niagara Falls downtown region, I could definitely mistake it for Las Vegas in a cursory glance. Of course the actual waterfalls gives it away quickly, but the high-rise hotels and bars that line the falls are rediculous for a city this size. You'd think a million people instead of about 80K lived here. Just goes to show just how much we sell ourselves out for money... We decided to just drive along the road that runs along the river (or whatever it is you call that area) because we didn't feel like navigating the huge amount of people. Along our probably 2 or 3 kilometer run by the falls, I did not once see the crowds thin out on either side of the road. There was a constant flow of people from the bars and restaurants on the land side of the road and the rails were completely filled by aghast tourists and sightseekers. Let's just put it this way. The Island gets slightly over 1 million visitors during the tourism season. Niagara Falls gets over 14 million. In recent years, two casinos have sprung up in the area along with several very large, very expensive hotels. This is all so we can shaft as many tourists as we can. Our course, these tourists really want to get gouged. After all, what fun would it be if they came here worrying about every penny they spent. So they give us money and we gladly take it. And then the area expands even more, making it more extravagant and awe-inspiring, drawing more tourists. For godsakes, they have fireworks over the falls every Saturday night in the summer. Talk about waste. Hehe...

Anywho, that's just some of the things I wanted to share with you about my day today. It was pretty filled with interesting experiences to say the least. I have the Waterloo Student Life Day to look forward to this Saturday. I'm hoping to meet some people my age for the first time in Ontario. Wish me luck. And its off to bed I go; I'm thinking about getting up relatively early tomorrow as well to see if I can't plot a course for my (hopefully) daily run. We'll see how that goes.

Take Your Capitalism and Shove It

2005-07-19T22:15:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I am extremely angered and frustrated by the wonderful invention we call capitalism. We all recognize capitalism, but do you really know what it means? It's essentially the type of economic system in which the means of production/distribution are privately/corporately owned. Thus everyone wants some benefit to their investment and therefore we have self-interest. We compete for business which results in money. In the end, it's that money that drives the whole system. The acquisition of more money means more control, which in turn, means more ways to acquire more money. It's a never ending cycle that favors the strong and makes the weak weaker. That's why you see the ever-widening gulf between the poor and the rich. It is what we have decided more or less as a society is the best way to run our lives; the endless quest for money.

So obviously competition and power comes with this system. You win as a competitor and you grow stronger which means you have more resources with which to compete and thus makes winning easier and so forth. As a result you get companies like Microsoft, AT&T and Xerox. AT&T was forced to split into seven 'baby bell' companies while Xerox was forced to license its copier patents. These two companies were affected long ago while Microsoft is still a topic of much grief these days. I won't bore you with the intricacies of that one, but a quick stroll to your favorite search engine will net you thousands if not millions of articles. So it would appear that you can't actually 'beat' your competitors or there would be none. Getting interesting already? We have a system that stresses the art of competing and usually we compete to win, but nope, sorry, you're not allowed to in this instance. You have to compete but never actually beat the competition. You have to compete to keep the other guy in the market. Seems somewhat self defeating no?

So what do we define as a monopoly? In the truest sense of the word, it means a market or commodity is 100% controlled by one group. Of course, we rarely have that happen nowadays so we move on to the very vague term of 'monopolistic practices'. That basically means you're not a monopoly but you're close and you act like one. You use 'unfair' competitive practices to force smaller firms out and you retain your iron fist rule over your domain.

So where am I going with all this?

There's a large lawsuit brewing right now between two companies right. You're 98% guaranteed to be using either one of their products right this instant. They make the 'brains' of our computers, the Central Processing Unit (CPU for short). The companies are Intel and AMD. Now you've probably heard of Intel before. After all, the Intel brand is the 5th most valuable in the world coming in above McDonald's, Nike, Disney or Mercedes. On the other hand is AMD which makes CPUs that are arguably more technologically advanced than Intel's Pentium line. You can read more here: AMD vs. Intel

So what's up with the lawsuit you ask?

Well, AMD has files the suit citing Intel "...has unlawfully maintained its monopoly by engaging in a relentless, worldwide campaign to coerce customers to refrain from dealing with AMD." Ok so first off, Intel doesn't actually maintain a monopoly. It's close at 80%+ of the microprocessor market, but not a monopoly by any means. The main backing for this case is that Intel has used practices that are anti-competitive which have kept AMD's success in check. Allow me to give you a bit of a background:

AMD could never break above the low 20% market share it held back in the heydays of the K7 processor in 2001. Now it's sitting fairly stably at around 17%. And they’re getting frustrated.

"We deserve to have a significantly larger share of the market than we currently have. By any measure we should be participating at a significantly higher number, and the only thing that is keeping us from achieving those numbers are the illegal, monopolistic practices of our competitor." Those are the words from Hector Ruiz's mouth, chairman, president, and chief executive of AMD. To me that sounds like the complaining of a 5 year old kid who isn't getting that toy he wants. May as well throw in phrases like 'the evil monopolistic entity' or 'scheming forces led by the dark Intel masters'... It would add more drama to the already over exaggerated images AMD is trying to create. I mean, the reason AMD doesn't have a larger market share wouldn't have anything to do with that fact that your competitor [Intel] spends hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising? Not even a little bit? While you spent how much?... Oops, that’s right, almost nothing... Sorry but you lose. Here, it's even in their own document. They even admit Intel has much more advertising power...

"33. Through its economic muscle and relentless marketing – principally its “Intel
Inside” and “Centrino” programs which financially reward OEMs for branding their PCs as Intel machines – Intel has transformed the OEM world."

What has Intel been accused of doing? They're giving rebates to customers who buy the large majority of their chips from Intel and brand their computers as Intel powered. OoOoOoO... Ever heard of volume discounts, or of competition for that matter? A company like Dell requires a very constant and large supply of CPUs to avoid supply shortages and related issues. Intel with its 11 fabs (factories for producing CPUs) has the capacity to satisfy the large volume customers. AMD with its 1 (that’s one) fab does not. So if Dell needs a large number of chips and AMD says 'Well we can supply about 50% of your computers but we can't guarantee which chips you'll get depending on our defect rate for that time period.' It just doesn’t sound very reassuring. Intel on the other hand says, 'We'll provide 100% of your chips and we'll give you a rebate for it, will you go for us?' I don't think Dell has much grief or option for that matter. Plus Dell would then have to develop two platforms for their PCs. That would cut into the efficient system they have built over the years. That system has allowed Dell to essentially beat the crap out of the other PC makers. Dell has hinted that it would use AMD chips on occasion; however it is heavily speculated that they merely do this to get a better bargaining position against Intel. Even if Dell wanted to switch to AMD, they probably couldn't efficiently.

Rebates for exclusivity are not uncommon in the technology market. Many companies such as IBM have been known to give out better deals for customers who are willing to purchase from them solely. I'd view it as more of a competitive than an anti-competitive practice. Technically bribing and other forms of payoffs are illegal in the system. However it will be a matter for AMD to prove that these are indeed payoffs Intel is giving to customers as opposed to very legal discounts. In addition, bribing and that sort of corruption is so rampant in the industry that it's enforced about as strictly as jaywalking.

So what is AMD trying to get from all of this? To many, this is a marketing technique. AMD doesn't have the money to advertise like Intel does. With this lawsuit, it gets a great deal of basically free advertising as well as making Intel out to be the 'big, bad bully'. The whole legal document they're putting in front of the court is strewn with self back-patting and technological mumbo-jumbo. It sounds more like a product launch platform than a law case. I hope the judge has a nice degree on the background of computer history and architecture... To give you a few examples, the lawsuit is filled to the brim with PR gems such as:

"6. Consumers ultimately foot this bill, in the form of inflated PC prices and the loss
of freedom to purchase computer products that best fit their needs. Society is worse off for lack of innovation that only a truly competitive market can drive."

"19. The computing industry hailed AMD’s introduction of 64-bit computing as an engineering triumph. Said Infoworld in its August 27, 2004, issue,

'You just gotta love a Cinderella story. . . . AMD’s rapid rise
from startup to $5 billion semiconductor powerhouse is, as
Humphrey Bogart’s English teacher once said, the stuff of
which dreams are made. . . . In the process, AMD has
become known as the company that kept Intel honest, the
Linux of the semiconductor world. . . . After decades of
aping Intel architectures, the AMD64 architecture, rooted in
Opteron and Athlon 64 processors, has actually been
imitated by Intel in the form of Nocona, Intel’s 64-bit
version of Xeon. In a stunning reversal of fortune, Intel was
forced to build that chip because Opteron was invading a
server market that the Intel Itanium was supposed to
dominate.'

In what represented a paradigm shift in the microprocessor world, Microsoft endorsed AMD’s 64-bit instruction set and announced that Windows would support it. As noted by Infoworld, Intel then copied AMD’s technology for its own 64-bit offerings – an event that poignantly marked AMD’s technological emergence. Intel still has yet to catch up."

"20. AMD has since extended its AMD64 technology to the balance of AMD’s
microprocessor line-up (which now includes AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64 FX, Mobile AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron, and AMD Turion64 products). Owing also to AMD’s pioneering developments in dual-core processors and its introduction of an improved architecture that speeds up microprocessor communications with memory and input/output devices, AMD has seized technological leadership in the microprocessor industry. Its innovation has won for it over 70 technology leadership and industry awards and, in April 2005, the achievement of being named “Processor Company of 2005” at, to Intel’s embarrassment, an Intel-sponsored industry awards show."

I mean honestly, what's with that kind of BS in a court document? It's pretty clear what AMD's trying to do here. They're trying to promote themselves and their products...

I'll tell you the truth. I don't mindlessly think Intel is all good and all giving. It definitely has done things that in the grey zone or even in the black zone in terms of competition. It has done some strong-arming. But that is the result of our capitalistic world. AMD is blowing everything extraordinarily out of proportion and many of their claims will more than likely be slammed down in the courts. But they will have their publicity. In the end we seek money. That is the basis of this AMD suit. They have not named any monetary sum they're seeking, but numbers like 2, 3 and 4 billion dollars have popped up. While not too large of a sum for Intel (who has $16+ BILLION stashed away) it is a huge amount of money for AMD which is valued as a company at slightly over $8 billion. In addition AMD has chosen a prime time for the lawsuit. It has just recently inked several deals which will provide it more manufacturing capacity. Also their second fabrication facility is due to come online in 2006. This means it will suddenly have the ability to produce more CPUs. Thus they will at least be able to supply the growth in customers they hope to get from this case.

It may sound as though I'm biased towards Intel and I won't shit you, I am. I believe that, while they haven't been 100% legal in their practices, Intel has not even been the main, much less the only reason behind AMD's lack of success, which it claims. I think AMD is genuinely frustrated by their lack of success even though they (and even I) believe their technology is superior. I mean I friggin bought an Athlon64 system. But I got it because I do my research and analysis beforehand. Average Joe out there isn't going to know the benefits of the HyperTransport Link or an Integrated Memory Controller. The guys trying to sell you those computers out at FutureShop, BestBuy, Circuit City, etc, don't even know wtf they're selling usually. But we have to remember that in the days of the consumer, things don't necessarily sell if they're 'technologically' superior. Compared to Intel, their marketing and advertising is absolutely pathetic. That is their main problem. AMD has the right to be frustrated. I would be too if I couldn't gain a bigger toehold in the market. But to resort to a lawsuit I'm sure isn’t the most moral way out. But who said morality has any part in capitalism. ;-)

Mid Year's Resolutions

2005-07-18T20:27:00.000-04:00

Well, seems like it's been an ongoing trend without my friends' blogs, so I thought I may as well put my hopes and aspirations down on 'paper' as well. I know I tend to not make resolutions even at New Years because I will more than likely neglect them after a week or two, but I guess I'll just have to try harder or something. No order of importance, just the order in which they come to mind (which could be a judge of importance I guess).

I will try my hardest to meet at least one new person everyday during my time at the University of Waterloo.
I will try to keep up the regular postings here on my blog.
Try to increase my physical activities. I've been doing pushups and crunches everyday now, but I intend to start running. It's been slightly warm these days but it doesn't seem to be cooling down so I may just have to bite the bullet.
I will not spend money on technology unless it is absolutely required (ok, required by my standards...).
I will keep in touch with the friends I have back on the Island and around the world. I will try to find ways to make this as convenient as possible.
I will take more pictures. I have a camera; I may as well use it to its full extent. I don't have enough photos from my life on the Island. I don't intend for that to happen again.
I will lead instead of be lead. Independence will be a large part in this and hopefully living away from home will help me in this regard.
Keep my mind open to new things. Don't be afraid to try things I've not done before. Eat foods I haven't tasted and listen to things I've never heard.
I will always remember to have fun. Yes I am going to university, but that's exactly it. I'm not going to a jail or something.

That's all I've got for now. I can always update this as time goes on. Hopefully it'll be more meaningful than the ritualistic New Year's resolutions.

Shameless Plug

2005-07-18T19:58:00.000-04:00

Now don't get the wrong idea from this post. I am in no way affiliated with any part of blogger.com or Google for that matter. This is seriously my personal opinion; no outside influences.

I <3 blogging. It's probably good for your personal health and sanity it's so good. Everyone should blog and write what they think. It's such a good outlet for me. It would probably help those people who tend to keep things bottled inside. Vent a little, it feels awfully nice to be able to do so. Don't know what to write about? I had much the same feeling when I first started. To be honest it was peer pressure that got me into blogging. And to be honest, I don't regret that I got into it. I debated what I would write about, but in the end that didn't help in choosing my topics. Instead I just wrote about whatever I had on my mind at the time. I've found this to be the best way of choosing topics. Don't try to think up topics. That'll cause your postings to be forced. And we don't want that! After all blogs are online journals essentially; you write what you feel like, not what you're forced to.

This is mostly directed at friends and acquaintances. It's a great way to keep in touch actually. An online community is pretty easy to create these days with the relatively easy access to the internet. So if you haven't started a blog yet, I'd suggest you at least try it out. It can be great for your sanity sometimes and it's improved my writing skills for sure.

Funnay...

2005-07-18T16:07:00.000-04:00

So, in my regular browsing of the internet, I stumbled upon this site linked from SharkyForums:

BBspot

To say the least it's a pretty funny read, at least for the geeks out there I guess. So you see, geeks can have fun! Aha! XD No seriously now, even if you don't consider yourself into computer or technology, it's still pretty entertaining. Most of the stuff they satirize is pretty accessible to most out there.

I did one of their quizes named 'Which File Extension Are You?'. Here's my result.

Definitely entertaining overall. Have fun!

Into Uncharted Territories

2005-07-18T00:26:00.000-04:00

For the most part this blog has been a place for me to post about the random events and thoughts I have through the course of my days with a few tech articles sprinkled throughout. However, as of late, I've found myself itching to express my feelings and opinions about politics and world issues. Even though I'm just another person with little-to-no influence in these matters, I feel that I require a vent to the outside world just to see if perhaps somebody out there feels the same way. As you may have guessed, this is really inspired (inspired seems like the wrong word to use here however...) by the recent London bombings as well as the flare-up in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians.

I wanted to keep myself from writing about things such as this as they're usually very touchy subjects. You can tread on many peoples' toes without meaning to or knowing. Any views expressed are, of course, my own and I mean no offence to anyone who may take such from my postings. I would merely like to express myself which I believe I have the right to do.

Just a forewarning for those who may notice in my posting patterns. :-)

New Experiences

2005-07-17T22:36:00.000-04:00

There's always something you are assured of when you move to a new place. You'll see and experience new things. I can say even though I haven't been out and about in this area, I've already got quite a taste of the things that are different here.

As we were driving home to Niagara Falls from Pearson International Airport, I noticed a often talked about store in our economics class. The sign was unmistakable as the one of furniture superstore IKEA. I had never been inside an IKEA store so I told my parents and we'll go someday to see what it's really like. From the outside, it looks absolutely huge.

You know on PEI there's the black and green garbage can thingies and how you have to separate everything before it's chucked into the garbage. Well, there's none of that here and while I cringe at the thought of the amount of waste we're producing, it's also quite a relief to not have to think before throwing something in the garbage. I guess it's that kind of mentality that'll kill us. The Island's great for having implemented a great system but I wonder what good it's really doing if a place like Ontario with its relatively massive population isn't doing that to conserve. On the other hand, there are some grocery stores here where you actually have to pay to use bags. They want to reduce the amount of plastic used. Also they throw their boxes into a tray type thing at the end of the cashier line so you can put all your food into them. This way you help them recycle the boxes and you use less plastic. There are some weird, innovative ways they conserve.

Everything's so BIG here! No I don't mean everyone's fat or anything. I mean I know it's due to the fact that there are quite a few more people here than on the Island. (St. Catherines has the same population as the whole Island for example) But even a place like Niagara Falls with its 70-80K population has several very large malls. We went shopping today (I know, it's Sunday and all the stores are open) for like 4 hours. I think my feet almost feel off walking through those malls. And there's so many stores no where to be found on the Island. When Walmart, Futureshop, Old Navy (well soon) and Home Depot came to the Island, I began thinking there's no reason to go to say Moncton to shop anymore. For the most part, that would be true. But now that I'm here, I realize there's so much more than what even Moncton or Halifax has to offer.

Oh and there's a buttload of Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, [insert name of fancy car maker] vehicles here. I saw a BMW retailer in St. Catherines that I'll just have to go to.

There's something else that I wanted to write about in this post, but I've forgotten for now. I'll definitely write it up when I remember again.

Steam Is...

2005-07-17T01:36:00.000-04:00

A steaming pile of crap. Ok, not everyone knows what Steam is. It's an internet delivery/syncing type tool that allows you to play the Half Life games, find server and friends online and update the games you have. You can also pay to download games so you lazy people don't even have to drive to your local tech store to pick up the game. Yes, I was actually very strongly considering getting Half Life 2 in order to play the supposedly awesome single player and the definitely awesome CounterStrike: Source. However, I had the bright idea today to get the Half Life 2 demo to test out the new video card I got.

What a mistake that was.

I downloaded this ~800MB program and proceded to install it. After that was done, I was getting pretty excited to play this very hyped game. So I load it up. Oops, Steam is updating. Ok in the idle time while I waited, I went to have a look at how much space this demo takes up. I'm thinking maybe a gigabyte or so. Right click on folder. Click on properties. Bend down to peel my bottom jaw off the floor. The friggin demo takes up ~3.4GB. I can only imagine what the real game would take up...

In any case, by this time, I'm getting really excited cause I'm thinking that the demo may be quite extensive. Ok so go back to Steam. Oh oops again, Steam is now updating its platform... Ok so I'm thinking to myself, wow this is taking damn long. But I guess it's still working; I'll give it some time. OH crap! The program errored out. Ok, I'm still interested in the game. I'll give it another shot. Updates platform again from the beginning. Finally! I'm into the screen where I can choose to start the game. So I go to Play Game, and I select Half Life 2 Demo. W00T! Intense graphics and gameplay here I come.

Ohs nos.... Again. I have to update the demo now. Fortunately it at least shows me an estimated time. Oh, excuse me I meant, unfortunately it shows me an estimated time. I was greeted by a picture that looked something like this:

Ok, that's about the best imitation I could do with Photoshop. Pretty good huh? But seriously, it wanted me to wait for 90+ minutes to update the demo. Well to tell you the truth, as much as I had wanted to play the demo at one point, I no longer did. Steam has seriously turned off quite a few gamers to the Half-Life (and surrounding) games. Just open up Google or your favorite search engine and type in Steam sucks. I'll guarantee you'll find a load of people complaining about it.

To say the least, I will not be buying Half Life 2 as I had previously planned. I couldn't possibly imagine the agony of trying to meet up with some buds online only to find out that Steam feels like taking a dump on me at that moment. (Steam must eat too much; it takes way too many dumps) Maybe someday, this article will be listed in a search engine under Steam sucks, cause you know what; it really is a steaming pile of crap.

Small Town Boy In Not So Small Town

2005-07-16T22:23:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm this sounds like the opposite of that show, the one with Paris Hilton at the farm or whatever. (A quick check on Google reveals that it's called Simple Life, The) It's funny, even though I'm still fairly new here, I've picked up on several things you can and can't do that I could or couldn't on the Island.

First, no more running out into the street without really looking. That's a sure way to lose some limbs out here. I know it's illegal (right?) to jaywalk, but it seemed like everyone did it on the Island and the drivers were courteous enough to let people cross. Yes, as a driver, it sure was annoying waiting for old grandma to cross the street with her walker when you were blazing down North River Rd. However, you still did it just the same. It didn't feel right to make the pedestrian wait even though there was no crosswalk.

Here's it's different. You damn well better wait at that crosswalk until the light beckons you with the walk symbol or the car stops at the stop sign. Well, that is if your value your life.

Now one thing that I'm still not sure is just an Island thing or not is a FutureShop dilemma. Now back on PEI, if you paid for something at a register aside from the actual ones at the door, you could always just skip the line to get the cashier wave it over the demagnetizing device (or whatever, you know what I mean, the sensor thing) to let you through the security alarm. Well we were in St. Catherines and we did that same thing we've always done on the Island. In hindsight, I don't know if we should have. The first clue I got as to that was the fact that I noticed a nice little scowl directed our way by a lady further down the line. The next one came from the cashier who looked a little confused as to why we were up there when she was still ringing someone else through. We silently pleaded ignorance and walked out of the store. I probably won't be doing that again. Next time I'll wait the few extra minutes and save my self the discomfort of directed stares.

There is very little interaction between strangers. Yeah, kind of like what mommy always said, 'Don't talk to strangers...' It's a very mind your own business kind of manner around here. I've spoken with one neighbor so far and I think that amounted to something like, 'hey, the weather's pretty warm huh?'. Then I got the pretty habitual response you'd expect to that sort of question and off I went for a little walk. No one says hi to each other really as they pass. I guess in a way that's good too; otherwise you'd spend your time walking constantly saying hi to keep up with the flow of people. I just feels weird to have come from a place where everyone acted like they were everyone else's friend to a place where I know absolutely no one. I've really got to meet some people...

I guess the general gist of things is that people here aren't as tight knit as they are back on PEI. Everyone at least a little bit cared for others there. Here, it's probably too hard to care for everyone else. There'd be very little time left for yourself. That's what I'll attribute this to.

In other news, a person I met and got to know a bit at DiscoveryQuest in Acadia is going to Waterloo as well. It was very weird and coincidental as I hadn't spoken to him in a long while and he messaged me last night asking me where I was going to university. It was like he already knew...

;-D

Sometimes Parents Are Just...

2005-07-16T15:17:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is going be me ranting and raving about the my parents. As much as I love them, they're sometimes so annoying and non-understanding (is that a word...). So a couple friends decided that it would be a good idea to create a website so that we can stay at least somewhat connected in the year(s) to come. Since we're going to quite spread out around the world, it would be nice to have a central location we can still go to to see what we're all up to. So we decided on a web host and name. All seemed well.

I just got to Niagara Falls a couple days ago and I had been busy so I had left the website business on the backburner. However things are quieting down now so I pulled the website out of the to-do list. I casually popped the question of spending $200 collectively to host the website, thinking it'd be no problem. After all, $75 or whatever is small change for what value I put on our friendship of many years. Unexpectedly, I got shut down pretty quick. The reasoning? We could do just as well with our blogs and whatnot. They think I'd be wasting money on something we don't need/can simulate for free. I really don't think so. A blog is still that, a blog. Not really something you can expand and grow to what I wanted at least. Now they told me it's not about the money really; it's more about the fact that I'm willing to spend money on things such as this. And I say, what is this?? $75 for great friends? I honestly don't know what to do. For the guys who this really applies to, I'll try my best to figure out something. I just don't think they really understand what we want for our website. Sometimes I just don't get how they think these things through.

Ah well.

The Things You Take For Granted

2005-07-15T16:11:00.000-04:00

Now I know the title would give you the impression that this is going to be a long rambling post, but no. I merely have one thing to point out. Back on the Island, I wouldn't think twice about drinking the tap water as is. I mean I didn't (we always drank bottled water which now when I look back seems a waste) but I wouldn't worry about doing that. Fast forward to today and all of a sudden, I don't feel so comfortable with drinking the water that comes pouring out the faucets. Actually, let me be honest, I won't drink that water. Even to brush my teeth with it feels/tastes funny. I'd much rather that it not go into my system without being boiled or something beforehand. In any case, I just thought I'd point that little observation out to you all. On the Island, if I were really thirsty, I could just turn on the tap and grab a glass of water. Now when I'm thirsty it's more like, hmmm hope there's some bottled water/pop in the fridge.

Maybe I'm being unfair here. I'm sure it's safe to drink. I mean those Walkerton inhabitants'll tell you so. (Ok, that was a mean poke at them, I mean absolutely no disrespect) If I moved to, say, Shanghai or something, then I'd probably think the water here's like heaven or something. Oh well, it's all relative.

Meanwhile, I did more cleaning today. We got rid of like 10 of the 250 boxes we have lying around here. I also worked a bit more on the blog layout. I just noticed that there's a major problem with the sidebar in M$ Internet Explorer, but then again who uses that crappy browser right? (Oh yes, I just remembered, only about 90% of users do... I guess the Firefox's 6%'s kind of the minority.) Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go...

New Template

2005-07-15T01:05:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, there's a new template in place now that I've customized slightly. I've got more things on the way, but for now it's getting late and this'll have to do. Check out the Shoutbox on the sidebar. Should be a cool little gimmick to play with for a while.

A Couple Things

2005-07-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

Just a little update here. I'm about to update my blog template to something different. I like to change things up and I've got a few templates I like the look of and may take as the basis for a new look. We'll see how that goes. I'll try not to mess things up to badly I promise.

On another note, have any of you had a chance to take a look at GoogleEarth? It's a pretty cool program that lets you go around the world and zoom in and out of cities and so forth. There's a lot of features. Unfortunately, its level of detail still isn't very good for most places. I could get a good look at my old house though so I mean it's not terrible or anything. Just look up GoogleEarth in any search engine and it should come up. It's about a 10MB download. Supposedly it's actually pretty computer-intensive so if your computer isn't half decent, it could be chunky. I'd suggest broadband as well to use it since it streams images from a central database. Pretty cool little app in general. But then again I'm pretty easily amused too...

First Thoughts

2005-07-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

Well this is now my second full day at my new home in Niagara Falls. First off I'd like to say, DAMN WHY IS IT SO HOT?!!?!?! I came from Charlottetown that day from rainy, crappy 18C or 19C to a hazy, sunny 33C with a humidex of 43C. So to say the least, it was blisttering. And even now, it's still balzing warm outside. It hasn't let off one bit. If anything, it's probably gotten hotter. I thought I enjoyed the heat, but this kind of it is making think twice before I say something like that again.

I actually just went out for a walk around the neighborhood. I wanted to see where I'm living and the surrounding area. It was the first time (I'm kind of shamed to say) that I've been outside here for more than 10 minutes in one go. I think I almost passed out. I think I could feel my flesh actually cooking. I must have got an instasunburn or something. Anyways, I discovered there's a school inthe very near vicinity as well as two parks. Our subdivision is even called '[insert random pretentious name here] Estates'. Makes it sound all high class or something.

I also (obviously) got a good look around the new house and it is pretty nice. I like my little area of the house because I get two bedrooms (one is a study with a bed really) and the little balcony thingy. There's an interconnecting bathroom between the two bedrooms which has become mine since the parents have their own bathroom. There's even a Jacuzzi in their bathroom which I will definitely have to test out sometime. All that's missing here now is a pool in the backyard. There's no grass yet since it's too hot/dry to put the sodding down. There's also no driveway since there's some bylaw here that you can't put down a driveway in the first year. Apparantly the ground requires time to settle or something like that. They don't want people repaving their driveway after a year. Bad for the environment and all you know?

The house still isn't completely finished yet. There's some quirks to be ironed out around the house and there's a crapload of boxes in the basement. I have yet to find some things I've been looking for. I'm sure they'll pop up soon enough and I'm being pretty lazy so it'll most likely be later rather than sooner that I actually stumble upon them. There's no rush really. I don't really have anything to do and I can't really go walk about too much either. I don't know the area and I don't feel like getting lost just yet. I'll have to go visit the falls soon. It just seems like the stereotypical thing to do around here. To be honest though, I haven't done many of the things to actually get a good view of the Falls like going on that boat and walking in the caves behind the Falls. It will definitely be something I'll have to do. I've got plenty of time I guess.

There was an intense thinderstorm last night, way worse than anything I've ever seen on the Island. It was super bright and as I was there sleeping, it was like my room's lights were on and brighter. The noise was deafening. And unlike the lightning you usually see on the Island, the type where you don't see individual bolts only the sky light up, I could actually see lightning bolts reach for the ground. Scary at points. I finally got a firsthand experience of real 'instantenous lightning-thunder combo'. Must've been very close by at some points!

So far, things definitely looking pretty up. The air conditioning is a godsend. I couldn't imagine living here without it. Even upstairs (since heat rises) is pretty wam still with the AC on. It's not bad though; I can live with it.

Now, unfortunately, it would seem like my computer stuff isn't going to well. One of the power connectors on my video card broke. That's right. It broke clean off. Well I can see why. The box I put it in was kind of too small for it and I had burnt a nearby pin previously as well. All in the name of computer enthusiasts I guess. In any case, it was partly my stupidity (small box) and partly the fact that you shouldn't ship fragile stuff like that without special shipping methods. Ah well. Can't do anything about that now. So I pull the crappy old video card out of the Dell box that's sitting unused in the basement and I plugged that in. Fortunately for me, that doesn't work either. Everytime anything graphical opens up (such as Windows) the card takes a fit and the computer screen signal dies. How lucky huh? *sigh* So it looks like I'll need to pick up a new video card. This time, it's good that I'm living very close to Toronto where there is a large number of oomputer stores. I've got one picked out and it'll just be a matter of going there and picking it up.

So here I am sitting in the living room area watching Galidator, typing on my laptop. What a life eh? I should be interesting as I didn't bother applying for any jobs this summer. I figure I'll be working enough with the next 5 years completely filled by my co-op without summers. I think it's only fair I get this one off to be lazy.

I miss the Island and the people already. It shall be difficult being here knowing no one really. Excuse the typing errors; Gladiator is siphoning most of my attention and I'm no good at multitasking.

It's Not The End

2005-07-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I can now say it's my last night on the Island. It's a sad occassion and something that comes once in a lifetime. I got to see my friends one last time and generally had a good time. It'll be something I'll hopefully remember for a long while. So here I am sitting up in Nick's room with my laptop on my knee writing to my heart's content. I just ripped the Killers' new CD here too. The joys of a laptop eh? ;-)

I don't know, it's kind of weird to think that I actually won't see these people, the people I've been around and have seen almost every day, for a long, long time. I'll be doing a co-op program which means I won't even have summer breaks. That means I'll have very litte opportunity to visit my friends and places back here on the Island. Not nearly as much as I'd like to for sure. But change is inevitable and I'll have to embrace it one way or another for me to move ahead in life. I can't honestly expect to stay in one place and do the same things forever. That just isn't the way I want it to be. I mean who really knows, I'll probably enjoy my time at Waterloo and make a bunch of new friends, but as always, uncertainty is the mother of all worries.

It's funny the things you remember from your younger days. I've been with many of my friends since my days at West Kent Elementary. Those were the days I tell you. No hard work, no problems and nothing to worry about. We'd go about our days innocent as hell and lived as we wanted. We were so unassuming and young. I didn't even know English for godsakes. I still remember the times when I'd try to find my bus with the help of Emily and Kayla. They'd guide me like a blind dog or something and help me around all day. I can't believe they did that when we were in like grade 1. And I still think back to that day when I learned my first swear word: Shit. Oh, I felt like a badass... Pretty pathetic huh? We'd sit on the swings and one person would say "sh" and the other would say "it" just so that we couldn't get in trouble for swearing. Of course, I really didn't know what it meant at all. But it was pretty damn cool to know how to swear. All I can do is laugh now that I think back.

Then came the later elementary stage. That's when we had the Millenium Group, when we decided to make our devious plans to take over the world. We even made maps with pretend armies spread throughout the globe and our organized world domination ideas. That kept us occupied for a good several months, maybe even a year. That god old when we realized that world domination just simply wasn't in the cards. Who knows, it may still happen... (hehe)

Junior and senio high school was when the real strong friendships formed. I met the group that I'm still with today which is pretty amazing. I mean six years is a long time. Our crew was basically all in band which helped bring us closer together. We went on band trips together and were in classes with each other. That guaranteed that very little time would pass without us seeing each other and socializing. I didn't realize that I would become such close friends with a specific few of that group though. Those friendships are different from anything that I think you'll ever find again. High school friendships just seem like something special. When I think of my parents for example, they have friends, but they don't share the same kind of connection. It's probably cause we're young and have time to those kinds of relations while working adults don't really. I don't know. It could be different for me. I haven't been through their life so I can't really say yet.

Through all of the friends and good times, I pursued several activities on my own that have really charted the course which I have taken through my years. The first being music (piano in particular) and the second being computers.

Music, music, music. I started off with classical piano when I was about 8. I have some videos of when I was younger and practicing with my dad at my side. Every time I made a mistake I would cringe as I prepared myself for the criticism. At the time I hated it, but now that I look back, I thoroughly glad that I went through it all. I ended become faily proficient at the piano and I won my fair share of awards. You can't understand the pride you get when you're up on stage getting presented with awards. It's an amazing feeling and it's not because you get a "I'm better than you" feeling. It's because you understand that all that crappy hard work you put in and slaved over really paid off in the end and you're motivated to do it again and again. You realize that people actually do enjoy your music making and you realize that you enjoy it quite a bit yourself.

Then in junior high, I was exposed to jazz piano. We started up a combo at the end of grade 9 and played on Victoria Row. That was the defining moment in my music 'career'. It was when I decided that I enjoyed jazz much more than classical piano. It seemed to me that jazz came much more from my soul that classical. I read notes off a page for classical while jazz was truly what I felt. I, for the first time, really enjoyed the music I was playing. I looked forward to playing on Victoria Row with the group. It's probably one of the things I'll always regret in life though, the fact that I never continued something that I've really loved. Who knows, maybe I could have become a master jazz artist (yeah right, who am I kidding) if I really applied myself to it. But something else got in the way.

Ah computers. I'm probably going to sound like the biggest geek here in a minute, but I really don't mind. I enjoy it thoroughly and I have no qualms with sharing my love of it. I started up with computers when I was about 12. It all began when I installed that Radeon All-in-Wonder in that old Dell box. That was truly a sight. I did my research at some tech hardware sites and decided on that video card for it's TV tuner and video input abilities. Of course, I rarely used either function but the install was a sucess. I had never played games in that kind of glory until then. Pretty sad considering my dad and I played stuff like Simcity and the sort back then. Of course, my next project was much more ambitious. I did my research and decided to assemble my own computer from scratch. No more Dell boxes for our family. I was going to pick out the parts and get exactly what I wanted. After an initial stumbling block (I plugged the wires into the wrong pins) we were off and running. Each project after that was more intense than the last until I became a pretty knowledgable computer enthusiast. Even now I constantly read about the latest trends in the computer industry. As of late, I've been focusing more on computer software, although I just built a laptop for university.

So here I sit about to leave this place I've called home for the past 12 years of my life and just about all of my memorable life. I mean I don't really remember too much from my first 5 years or living. I still remember arriving here at the small Charlottetown airport, seeing my parents for the first time and wondering just what life would be like in a small 'city' after living in a large one for the early part of my life. I can say I have absolutely no regrets. I've met so many people I've grown attached to and it'll definitely be hard to say goodbye to a place I've grown accustomed to. It will be sad, but I look forward to my next phase as I hope it will be as fruitful as these past years have been here in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. As one of my good friends said tonight, it's not the end.

Licensed.

2005-07-11T00:36:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I feel like writing two posts tonight. Doesn't happen much, but I feel as though I've been neglecting my blog as of late so I'll try to make it up now.

There was a point during this wonderful week of music that I was extremely displeased. Ok enough with that, I was friggin mad as hell. I was just about to tear somebody a new one. And why might that be you ask? Just read the title to this post and you may get a good idea. You see someone had the great idea that 95% of the performances during the PEI Jazz and Blues Festival should be either fully licensed or extremely discriminating to minors.

Let me explain in detail. In the tent, they set up a "barrier" or crappy metal bar fence things that fenced the minors off to the side where we sat and could see the performers through a maze of tent poles. I mean it's not like I've never seen people order/drink alcohol before. And what that measely little fence thing's going to stop me from seeing them do this? And if I really wanted to drink I wouldn't do it there. I didn't understand the half drunk-ass people at the back who WEREN'T EVEN LISTENING to these world class musicians. Instead they interrupted the rest of the people who actually were there to listen to music. All I wanted to do was sit hear the middle so I could friggin see the whole group without looking around the poles. Of course, I didn't see any of the guys actually play the piano. At best I could try to look at the reflection of their hands in the lid of the grand piano cause we were so off to the side. When we tried to get to the 'wet' section, we were immediately ID'd. I was very tempted to give them a piece of my mind. Why don't they make all the drinking sectioned off at the back where the drinking people were anyways? Leave the rest of the tent to people who would actually like to listen and see. God, and you wonder why people use fake IDs...

Not to mention that fact that after the performance on Saturday was over, we strolled into the main section to ask a Charlottetown Jazz band member for the time we needed to meet for our performance. We were boxed off by two rent-a-cops who informed us that there was still alcohol being served. Suck it people, but I don't care. Do you honestly think that with them watching I'm going to walk to the back and order up a few Alpines? I think not. I'm semi-competent even though the people who decided on the rules are semi-not...

So at least we were allowed into the tent for the performances. The performances at the other venues didn't even allow minors in. And to think that these musicians that are world-renowned are playing under our noses and we can't even go hear them. I truly wouldn't want drink while listening. I mean if I actually wanted to drink, I still don't want to pay 4 bucks for a beer. Not at this point in my life anyways; I'm sure that'll change. I'm not poor or anything but I'm not exactly rolling in it either. Luckily, there are still some understanding people in this town, actually one of the people I'd least expect it from. Because of him, we were able to attend these after hours functions after much jumping through hoops.

Anyways, I may be bashing people I don't actually mean to. I mean I know law is law, it's just how they implemented it for this festival wasn't exactly prime. To be honest though, I really don't think they care about what I would like to see happen. After all the attendees were 99% over the legal drinking age anyways. The few younger students that were there were either performers or volunteers who got their passes for free. They want money after all and it's the paying general audience they want to attract. I just hope they don't piss off some kid in the future who actually does something about it.

Enough ranting for one day. I'm off to bed. Lots of packing to be done tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how it is I'm going to fit everything back into that lone suitcase. It seems like I can't fold my clothes properly or something. In any case, It's going to be one tough cramming job. Which also reminds me, I really have to figure out exactly what's going on with my plane and all I'm not sure when it departs and what gate I'm supposed to go to in Montreal It should be interesting to say the least; it'll be my first plane ride alone ever.

What A Show!

2005-07-10T23:50:00.000-04:00

Wowzers, it was pretty intense in that tent today. Charlottetown has just finished hosting its first ever Jazz and Blues Festival and it was a great boon for the musicians at least here. We all went and enjoyed the world-class performances. Too bad the attendance was pretty dismal. We had a huge tent set up here and barely half of it was filled for most of the festival. As Rob McConnell said while he was on stage, hope we don't lose more than 50 or 60 grand on this whole affair. It's truly mind-boggling how much talent was here; it's sad that the common Islander didn't realize it. I hope it's not too late and the Island'll get another one next year.

Oh did I mention the Nick Howard Band played? Well from that name you'd think we were some pop group or something, but no it's just our regular combo that plays down at Victoria Row. However this time we played in front of about 1000 people. It's funny because people like Rob McConnell's group didn't even have that many people attending. Well, to be honest the only reason we had that many was because we were opening for the Jive Kings Reunion (which I have to say was very good actually!). In any case, the crowd was amazing and we were pumped as hell to play.

I was personally a little nervous just before getting up on stage to play. I had taken a little peek around the stage at the crowd and I could see it was pretty large. But when we all got up there, it just felt so natural. We had a ton of fun and after all, that's what it should be all about. We played extremely well and I'd even go as far to say that it may have been our best performance in all of our 3 year history of playing together. The crowd really energized me and I was happy to play my heart out.

Of course afterwards, we were treated by the audience as though we were famous or something. I was saying thanks and thank you to everyone and their grandma. It was crazy but a good feeling to know that you've been appreciated. As I said in a previous posting, it was only appropriate that we went out with such a bang. The whole combo thing over the years has been a source of fun and enjoyment. What more could you ask for than to just simply play? Sometimes I ask myself if I maybe should have pursued this thing that call music in university. It's going to be pretty tought to continue any sort of music while studying co-op computer engineering at Waterloo. Anyways, enough regretting that. I've made my decision and I can only hope it's a good one. It was sad to be done of playing in that group, but all good things come to an end and I'll only remember the great times when we've rocked out under Nick's solo or pedalled for 4 lines in row with Paul or watched Danny do his Conan O'Brien drummer impersonation. Oh what fun we've had.

And after, we had to go to my old house because they had something from Waterloo. I guess the address change didn't catch in time and something still got sent to that place I used to call home. It was definitely weird to see what they had changed when I remember everything in that house so clearly still as though it were yesterday that we had packed everything away and moved out. Shows just how some things stick with you.

*** Brief Interruption 12:44AM ***

- I just decided to open up that letter from Waterloo to see exactly what was in it. Well I almost did something nasty in my pants. Apparantly they've upgraded my scholarship due to my marks and extracurricular activities in the second term. I've now got a $10,000 scholarship. Heh, why not? I like money -

*** End Interruption 12:46AM ***

So where was I now? Ah yes, I went to my old house. Right, anywho I saw all the changes they made and it really made me nostalgic about the good old days of growing up there. I am truly going to miss my time in this place. Charlottetown may not seem like the most happening place, but it was (well is still my home for the next two days at least) my home and in my heart will always be my true place in Canada. It's almost as though I'm leaving in body, but I'll forever remember this homely city. I've been presented so many opportunities that I've both taken and declined and it's those decisions that have shaped my life to make it what it is today.

So enough about my life here. I plan to write about that before I leave here so you'll be able to read basically my life's story soon.

Holy Crap

2005-07-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

Good gosh, I haven't posted in what seems likes ages to me. Maybe to you if you read this thing at all... So maybe I should update you with what's going on around here.

You may or may not know but I'm staying here at Nick's place. It's surprising that many people didn't know that. Maybe I neglected to tell them. In any case, it's been relatively busy these days. Many practices for our jazz combo and the Charlottetown Jazz Ensemble. The PEI Jazz and Blues Festival's fast approaching and I'm playing at three venues. Two of them are with the Charlottetown Jazz and I'm fairly well concealed in a mass of about 20 players. Not too much to worry about there. We're actually playing starting at midnight on Saturday so that should be fun. Playing for a bunch of a drunk people is always entertaining and the tune's we're playing are all pretty kickass. Not to mention the fact that there's gonna be some world class musicians playing with us. Pretty awesome in general.

Now the tough one is our combo. We're opening for the Jive Kings reunion concert on Sunday. If you're not from the area, you'll have no clue who the Jive Kings are. It's a local band whose players actually switch from time to time. They had stopped playing as the group quite a few years ago, but I'm guessing due to popular request, they've decided to get back together for one most show. To say the least, they're pretty well known here and there should be quite a lot of people there. So how does this involve me or the combo? We're opening for them. Yes, that's right, we're opening for the Jive Kings. I think the most people we've ever played in front of would have been at some music festival in front of maybe 100 of our fellow band members. This performance will be in front of more like 1000+ people we don't know. Should provide entertainment for the people who enjoy watching people crap themselves on stage at least. We're practicing and pulling out all the stops to provide something more than the cocktail music we usually play on the Row in front of the restaurants. This time they'll be focused on us instead of how to start their chicken fajita..

In anycase, we've actually had a first for the combo. Nick and I arranged an arranged version of the Beatles' "And I Love Her" for our performance. It sounds pretty good and we'll hopefully use it for the opening show. Now that I think of it, it'll probably be the last arrangement we do as well for our group. Sunday will be the last time our combo will play with its original members. It's kind of coincidental that it will probably be the biggest gig we'll ever have as a combo. Should make for an exciting ending to something I've really enjoyed doing over the past 3 years.

Aside from that, I've actually been getting quite a bit of excercise recently. I've played some tennis and had an intense (well, sort of...) game of Ultimate Frisbee. I could definitely feel some soreness of the muscles, which really tells you how little I excercise or something like that. Now, I'm not a fat slob or anything, in fact I'm quite skinny, but I just don't lend well to excercise. I actually enjoy physical activity; it's just I hate excercising for the sake of excercising.

I've also been playing a ton of Rome Total War. Damn, those creators knew what they were doing when they made the game. It's addictive as hell and its replayability is like no other. Every campaign is different depending on who you feel like decimating first. Anyways, world domination is something every guy enjoys. =P

I see that I was going to write a review for the Creative Zen Micro there on the sidebar. Well, it's just my luck that I seemed to have run into some troubles with it. It seems like it doesn't want to connect and be recognized by my computer very much. Maybe it's scared to know that it's going to be filled with music downloaded off that Russian site. Hehe... Either way, it works sporadically which is a piss off and I can't really even say what the problem is. I've contacted the Creative support team and while they've been quick to help, their tips are kind of useless. They're asking me to install random programs and firmware that I've already got. Anyways, I've kind of given up on it as I know the Zen Micro in general are pretty buggy. This being the second one I've had, the first having crapped out totally (froze and I couldn't do ANYTHING with it no matter how many times I reset). I can see why Apple has such a damn large following. Their stuff just plain works which is sort of useful when you buy something. Too bad they're relatively featureless comparatively. As much as I'd hate to spend any more money on MP3 players (already have a Zen Micro 5GB, 3G IPod 15GB and a MPIO 512MB FL350) I do need a working one for university. The IRiver H10 5GB looks pretty enticing so far. I kind of wish there was an IPod Mini that incorporated the features of the Creative/Iriver and used iTunes. Now that would be the perfect combination between reliability and usability.

Now several of you have asked me why I haven't written anything about my new laptop on here. Well to tell you the truth, I've just been lazy plain and simple. I've actually written a long ass review at Notebook Forums. It's here for you geeks who actually want to know every nook and cranny. I'll be sure to write some random non-technical musings later on, but for now, this'll have to do. I don't want to write anything too specific in this post of general going-ons.

And here I am in my last days of being on the Island, the Island I've lived on and become part of over the last 12 years of my life (that's friggin 3/4 of my entire life...). It's definitely going to be extremely difficult to leave the people and the surroundings I'm so familiar with. I've been trying to live these remaining days (sounds like I'm about to die or something doesn't it?) here in total indulgance. I've thought about the money I've been spending away at Victoria Row eating at Fishbones almost daily and listening to great jazz, but in the end, why not enjoy what you have while you have it. It's too easy for those things to be taken away from you.

Here I sit in the grotesque heat listening to John Mayer's Split Screen Sadness thinking how appropriate this really is. I'll soon be far, far away from this place looking back upon the days with some sadness in my heart but also with joy that I have spent many great times here. This place holds something special for me and although I don't know when or under what circumstances it'll be, I will definitely return here to the Island at least to visit bygone friends and bygone places. I hope I'll still remember where the house I lived in is, if it's still there.

So here's to the end of one journey and beginning of another, hopefully as fruitful.