One more for January
January 31, 2001
Sneeking one more in – update that is. The Cultural Assistant webpage is finally up on the UBC server and it finally works in NS4.7. Yay. It’s the first webpage that actually has a purpose. Yay. Missing a lot of content though, but my supervisor wanted it up asap.
I have 3 midterms, 1 assignment, and 1 case in the same week next next week. I’m trembling. I’m extremely behind everything.
I’m looking for something to play, but can’t think of anything to buy. I need to get drunk. I’m building up stress level again. Yay.
That’s it. I’m tired. Bye.
Food for though
January 29, 2001
First I read this:
“This process is referred to as “meeting your maker.” I wouldn’t worry too much about the experience itself. My calculations show that even if God dedicated all of his time meeting the dead, you would only get to meet him for half of one second. There are 56 million deaths occurring annually and only 32 million seconds in a year.” [source]
Then I did this:
Assignment #1
What are the implications of production (this case, the ‘unit’ you’re producing is ‘meeting your maker’) if ‘Armageddon’ were to occur?
Assumptions:
- God is real
- Every word in the bible is real
- Souls are real
- Your soul will traverse to the gates of heaven upon death and be judged
There are roughly 6 billion people in the world. Should the prophetic event entitled Armageddon occur, all 6 billion people will be dead. This triggers the spontaneous release of 6 billion souls into the Heaven to be judged. This can be likened to the christmas season shopping boom that retailers face – only on a much larger scale. ie. yearly demand for ‘meeting your maker’ is 56 million. The additional one-time demand of 6 billion is roughly a 10,700% increase in demand. Remember AOL? Their demand spiked up, i don’t know how many percentage points, but i’m sure nowhere near 10000%. Anyway, assume for the moment that God has the capacity to meet this new demand. Instead of half a second, you now get 0.005s with your creator. I’m not sure if that gives you enough time to even look at your creator. So: I assume that all souls want to see/talk/question God because of our natural inquisitive nature, so if we only get 0.005s, i’m sure all 6 billion customers will be very unsatisfied.
Now let’s assume that each person will require at least 5 mins to find out all answers to the questions that have plagued them in their lifetime. It will take 57078 years to completely answer the questions of each soul. God is a busy busy man/woman/omnipotent being.
Also think of the implications of heaven and hell occupancy. Let’s say half of the people go to Heaven, and half to Hell. I bet famous people like Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Hitler, George Washington, Ghandi, Kurt Kobain will be so annoyed by people wanting to talk to them. I’d be pissed off it I was in my eternal bliss paradise when say 1000000 people come pestering me, telling me they love my work or they want an autograph.
I know what you Godboys and Godgirls will say: God is almightly and therefore time is no constraint to his almighty power, or somethign like that. Wake up! Everytime an intelligent atheist points out a fact that denies/belittles/reduces the power of God, you churchies will do nothing but make up some ridiculous rule that is nothing but a religious loophole that makes God invincible. Anyone see Dogma? I think that was a very clever movie. The God in that movie (played by the ever so talented Alanis Morrisette) had constraints to his/her power. And who created God?
I was going to say I’m not trying to offend anyone, but i guess it would offend churchies that I just stomped on their precious religion and spat on the bible. You know, I do believe in A god, but by no way anything near the God in the bible. Remember – the bible was written by a bunch of old men about 5 zillion years ago. This means over time, and over countless translations, things get distorted. AND I’m sure the people who wrote the damn book put some of the own self-interest in it. Anyone who questions the book is deemed a sinner – for it is the word of God??? Now tell me, who actually witnesed ‘God’ speak the words of the bible?
No court in Canada will accept hearsay as legitimate evidence in a trial but here, millions of people worldwide are using hearsay to determine their actions and beliefs. That is called ignorance. Ignorance leads to downfall.
That update felt good. Anyone have a rebuttal? Send it here.
Sometimes I just want to run away and sleep in a nice bed all day and then wake up not knowing where i am
January 26, 2001
especially after this week. I skipped 4 of the possible 11 classes this week but I’m still exhausted. Who am I to complain? Some are working their asses (or hands) off. So I shouldn’t complain. There’s something about school though that is just tiring. Maybe with the threat of midterms looming just around the corner and with a plethora of assignments not just looming, but breathing on your neck.
I installed a super old game that I got from someone; Zapitalism Deluxe. It’s some sort of education/business game where you are a manager of a store and you buy/sell products, stocks, bonds, travel, and maintain your store through labor negotiations, budgeting for overhead and all this crap. I got the game in high school and back then it wasn’t terribly fun – the graphics are miserable and the music was composed by some weird looking guy. Anyway, I thought now that I’m in accounting, learning that activity based costing runs circles around standard costing systems, I thought I could blow this game up and set some sort of record.
Wrong.
The computer cooked my ass and made me cry. I came in last place. The problem is you have to auction for building permits that allow you to expand your store (to hold higher inventories). The first permit – probably the most important one costs a lot. I don’t have the cashflows to cover it so in the beginning I’m in debt already. So I reverse strategy. I don’t buy the first permit to build up assets first, but the computer that got the permit takes off way ahead of me. A I’m screwed, B I’m screwed. I don’t like that game.
Dennis you idiot, the ‘J’ looks nothing like the ‘katana’ in Daikatana. My whole design rests on that ‘J’ style. Now I’m conscious of that. Food for thought: in japanese, the phrase ‘big knife’ would NOT be ‘daikatana’, it would be ‘oo-katana’. The notion ‘big’ is pronounced differently according to the situation. According to Eri & Co., it should be “oo-katana”, the ‘oo’ pronounced like an extended, short ‘o’ sound (not like boo). I hope someone at IONStorm got fired for that.
Much like some marketing examples courtesy of comm396; some japanese organ producer translated the instruction manual to english. They replaced every word “screw” as in “pass me the philips SCREWdriver” with the word “FUCK”. Imagine how many recalls were made.
Then in a Latin American country, Chevy had to rename their Nova line because in spanish, Nova sounds like, “no go”. In portugal, the Ford Pinto translated into “Small dick”. I hope people got fired there too.
On a side note, my supervisor asked me to locate 3 students cuz they owed money (repo-man I is). One of them is called, “Xiaoxiao Wang” – most likely from China. For all you mandarin literate, you’ll know that xiao translates into small, or little. So, the guy’s name is Little Little Wang. I hope he never finds that out. (Me and my supervisor were cracking up at that).
Another tragic anecdote. A teacher came in as we were laughing. We explained the Wang joke. She then tells us one of her colleagues from before had a student called Hung. When he/she was waiting for Hung to respond to a question, she/he would say, “Well Hung?” Ok that was more subtle.
I need a shower and a beer. Bye.
(edited: no title)
January 25, 2001
What a day. This i have to update
January 24, 2001
First some background information. Last Friday, while drinking my brains away, Brian mentioned something about Studying Aboard in Japan – a program sponsored in party by commerce (commerce has its own exchange program). He told me there was exchange to Osaka, Japan – hometown of my one and only.
I was skeptical because I only noticed posters advertising, “Study in Shanghai” or “Study in Europe”, both of which I had no interest whatsoever in doing. Then I looked at the commerce website about the exchange program and lo and behold, Osaka University (a prestigious university says Eri).
I then got all rowdy and excited but almost flatlined when I saw that the deadline to apply was Jan 12. D’oh! So this morning, I rushed to the undergrad office and practically begged for an opportunity. They, after some meeting, agreed to give me until Friday to hand in this package of application forms, profiles, and some stupid essay.
After school, I told my mom about it but she wasn’t too excited. Basically, I would have to pay my way by myself, which, even under the most thrifty spending I could maintain, I don’t think I could manage it financially, so after some stressing about, I decided to not go. It was a big bummer. She gave me valid reasons why I ‘shouldn’t’ go. For one thing, she felt I was going only to be with my gf, which, although I contested, I agreed. She also noted that it was pretty expensive and that why pay extra to learn the same stuff when I could do it at UBC, for a fraction of the cost. I guess I finally listened to reason and gave up that pipedream.
But for every bad news, there’s good news (I think). For one thing, my dad’s friend asked me to help him do his accounting for him – namely his income taxes. From what I hear, his won’t be the easy case of employment income X, taxes payable 0.40X, tax owing = Y. He has a shitload of stuff like business income, expenses, probably UCC and CCA (sorry non-accountants : all of you), and all that crap. I don’t feel confident enough to do it for him, but I would like to play it by ear and learn as I go (with about 10 books to help me). So I’ve decided to contact this fellow later.
Then I got home after a long day and checked my email. commerce gives out a Cavalier newsletter every month or so and this issue, for no apparent reason, I decided to read it instead of deleting it. Lo and Behold again;
APEX. Congratulations to <some bozo>, Jerry Leung, and <some screwball> who won the hat draw to attend APEX in March!
Apex is some sort of business school conference in which schools from different places and planets come and show off or something. It’s held in Toronto and as far as I remember, it’s almost all expenses paid. Sweet ass sweet. So whoever’s in Toronto – I hope to see you in March (unless I get crushed by a meteor sometime between now and march). Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about this conference so I guess I’ll do it Jerry style and just wing it by ear.
So that was my thrilling, exciting, rollercoaster day. Ups downs prizes galore.
Happy Chinese New Year everybody. May your year be fulfilling and fruitful.
Has it been 2 days already?
January 22, 2001
La la la! I skipped two classes already at this early time in the morning! Yay for me!
Here’s something I found – Explodingdog.com. What is it? It’s not what you think! It’s more amusing than that! I like it.
Then, take a look at quickfoods.dhs.org – made by Justin with db by Andrew and whoever else whose roles I don’t know, this site could be a major hit! The design is good too (good job Justin). The only thing I don’t like are the >>>’s in the header. Looks to be a fun site.
And of course, Dennis is working on the Scrape site. The only thing that pees me off is the “Made on a Mac” animated gif. Dude, that thing is gay! Haha, but everything else is uh… straight (good).
Then thank you to Dennis and Justin for replying to my wysiwyg question – insightful indeed. Thanks.
Now on a worldy, political note, USA President/blockhead Bush has just lived up to his conservative-bomb-Vietnam style by announcing he will block abortion funds! Way to go Mr. Bush! We all know that everyone wants teenage girls popping out babies they don’t want, who will inevitably end up in an orphanage, or killed by the teenage girl! Then, if the baby survives, he/she will grow up with so many self-esteem issues such as, “I wonder why my parents didn’t want me. I wonder why I’m ugly. I wonder why my foster parents always touch me there.” I’m not psychic, but I just KNOW that this presidential term will be GREAT!
(if you, the reader happens to be retarded, or if you have a baseball bat shoved into your ass, the preceding paragraph was loaded with sarcasm. You must have noticed it unless you lick homeless people’s toes).
And then I read this “Glimmer of Optimism Surfaces at Middle East Talks”. That is a joke. How can 2 sides that have bitched and fought for millenia just talk out their problems? This isn’t Saved By the Bell where some untalented blond guy does something wrong to some ugly slut brunette and then at the end he says sorry and she kisses him and it’s over. This is a serious feud. I don’t support either side because I think they’re both right and wrong. The only way out of this is if one side kills off the other. I’m sorry to say that, but that’s how I feel. Peace talks. Hah!
—-
I’m taking a deep breath right now. This update, well, just the Bush and the Middle East thing has got me worked up. I also saw on the news yesterday there were air raids over Iraq? I don’t know the details, but funny it happened a few days after Iraqi Fascist Hussein had some sort of festival or ceremony celebrating their VICTORY over the Americans during the gulf war. That got me thinking… did we win? What if american propaganda made us think ‘we’ won? What if the iraqi’s really wasted ‘us’? I don’t think we’ll ever know the truth.
And with that, I need food.
Can it be? Another update a day after the previous one?
January 20, 2001
Our webring (is it a webring?) is becoming stale. Updates aren’t as frequent which means there’s less stuff for us to read. So I thought I would spear head the continuance of more updates. Let’s see how successful I am – I have a sinking feeling that it won’t work simply cuz everyone is so busy.
I’m also updating because I’m taking a break from the work webpage which I have been working on all night (save a quick trip to starbucks). I have 3 hours today working on that but I don’t think I’m going to write it on my time sheet. If I write all the hours I honestly worked on the webpage, it still might look fishy. So I’ve just decided to take a fraction of the hours. Weird.
I thought the page would be simple to do, but after some planning with flowcharts and page relationships, I’ve discovered there’s a lot of work. For one page, it’s a calendar with links of event information on the day they occur. For example, on Rep Meeting, clicking on the link will popup a small box with information on rep meetings. That way, I can reuse that popup link for every time Rep Meeting occurs. Still, there’s about 50 events that happen every month so that’s about 50 pages to make. I guess using wysiwyg is easier for that.
There’s 5 main sections on the page – So far I’ve kind of finished 1 section. there’s 2 more that are pretty big, the other 2 should be simple.
And yes, my future webpage has been pushed back again (assignments rolling around next week). I feel like ION Storm.
This is what I’m competing against
January 16, 2001
Here’s the current webpage for work. It’s been sitting idle for over 1 year. This is the page I’m replacing with my own. I’m not sure I can measure up to it.
Here’s what I have so far. It’s so prototypey – the borders are messed up if you’re running at 256 colors (who is?) and i get lovely gif rings around the icon. Yes I know to use jpg, but I wanted transparency and I don’t know if jpg’s can do that. Anyone know?
It’s not turning out like how I wish it would. I suck.
Why returning library books suck
January 15, 2001
For one thing, the last time I returned books was in September. I’m quite quite sure I returned them on time. To my amazement and amusement, I had a $0.30 fine last week when I took out some more books. I’m quite sure I returned them early because I make it a habit to return 5 days prior to the due date – it has been that way for all my life.
Secondly, well I guess this isn’t a big deal, siblings throw their library books atop your stack without any mention or even a ‘please’ to return them for him or her.
Finally, they suck because even though there is a library in between UBC and my house, I’d have to find parking which irritates me harshly. That is why returning library books suck.
Jesse’s has a new look
It looks really cool. Simple, but effective. His room looks sort of like a prison cell (from the look of the walls).
Things you find out about Jesse from his new design:
He drinks a lot of water
Either his head is really heavy or the pillow is really soft (check out that big dent in the pillow!)
When he rolls over while sleeping, there’s a good chance he’ll hit his head against his desk – I would know… my desk is placed identically; really close to the bed
He doesn’t fear rats because the mess of wires behind his desk make a natural death trap for anything that happens to pass there
Lastly; I’m guessing there were times when he jerked the mouse to the right too hard (possibly playing quake) and knocked his wallet into the trash can.
Ending: my stupid domain still isn’t pointing to my host because my stupid registrar claims they’re having problems getting to the database with CIRA. I don’t like them very much.
Jesse, you’re the bad guy
January 10, 2001
Haha, when I wrote the update below, i didn’t expect nor was i soliciting for a response. Certainly I wasn’t expecting a response like Jesse’s. Firstly, I wasn’t just targeting him. It wasn’t JUST your update. Second, I didn’t mean to make this into any good guy/bad guy thing. Me liking diary updates is i guess the same as you not liking them: it’s how our sites work.
So, if you’re offended somehow, I apologize. It wasn’t meant to offend.
Anyway that’s it. Let’s end it at that.
Sleep no more [22:00]
This was what I thought would be the last of the 10 days of waking up early but… doh. Eri is staying over again tonight and so I have to wake up early since she has a 9:30 class. I guess 9:30 isn’t as bad as 7:30 on tuesday (work).
Anyways, there appears to be this thing that diary updates are bad. 99% of my updates are diary updates so I guess by default, my updates are bad. You know what? I don’t really care. If my updates are bad, then people won’t read it. That’s fine too because I write this for me and if anyone does happen to read it, then it’s just added bonus.
I got an email from my host that they got my payment and have my account set up and all that nice stuff. Now I’m just waiting for CIRA to get the changes I made from my domain register people. So as slow as they work, maybe by tomorrow or the day after the domain will be ready. The design is non-existent right now.
I found out my friend at the ELI has a webpage. It has pictures. Lots of pictures. A few of which I am in. That’s cool, I enjoy visiting webpages of people I know. It’s like peeking at their photo albums or diaries.
I’m too zonk-out-on-contact-with-a-pillow tired right now so I’m going to leave this update with one note: diary updates kick ass.
I just noticed that my last two updates were written in the year 2000
January 07, 2001
Vacuum Cleaner Saves Man Chokes on Rice Cake
TOKYO (Reuters) – A vacuum cleaner saved the life of a 70-year-old man when it was used to suck out a rice cake on which he was choking, local officials said on Saturday.“His daughter used the vacuum cleaner to suck out the mochi,” a local official in the northern island of Hokkaido said.
The sticky mochi, made of glutinous rice, is traditionally served during New Year’s in Japan, but it can be lethal to elderly people. Every year the Japanese press has reports of elderly people dying from eating mochi during the holidays.
The government this year issued a special warning on the dangers of mochi for the elderly and very young.
While the vacuum cleaner successfully sucked out the mass of mochi, the official cautioned that it is not an accepted way to dislodge such items.
“Although he is all right, you have to be careful since such actions can harm your intestines,” he said.
If you or anyone you know is suffering from anorexia, consider buying a leaf blower and stuffing the barrel with a potato or other high energy food products. Aim into throat and turn on blower at full power. Keep blower on at half power after potato has left the barrel at high velocities. Should the anorexic want to vomit the food, the leaf blower will just blow anything back inside. True cure. I’ll sell you this anorexia cure for $399.95 (includes blower, 1 bag of potatoes, and instructional booklet). Order today.
Pooped Poop
January 06, 2001
I just finished a 10 hour work day! Yay for me! I was stuck at the airport from 9 till 2:30, then UBC I was until 7:00 I was. I is tired I is.
I’m worried about my girlfriend. She’s in Banff right now, on a tour that she was supposed to be enjoying with her parents and weren’t supposed to be back until 2 tomorrow. Sadly, an unfortunate family emergency occurred in Japan and her mom and a friend have to rush back to Osaka. So Eri, her mom, and her mom’s friend are taking a flight to Calgary at 4:30 Sunday morning and then from Calgary, a flight back to Vancouver at 7:00. Then, the earliest flight to Osaka is at 1:30 so I’ll be with them for a few hours.
Consequence: that will be 7 days in a row now where I got less than or equal to about 6 hours of sleep. The day after that, I have an 8:30 class so that’s 8 days. The day after that, I have to work at 7:30 so that makes 9 days. And the day after that, I have another 8:30 class so the grand total will be 10 days without much sleep. I guess I could go to sleep earlier, but my body is locked to fall asleep between 2 and 2:30am. It’s been like for awhile. Sucks to be me.
I’m not complaining that because of Eri I get less sleep. No way. I’d do anything for her, even if it drains.
Apologies to Andrew who asked me to go to some movie tonight. I’m much too fatigued to watch yet another Tom Hanks movie (I hate his movies now).
Apologies to that guy who came from China today. His flight was delayed from 12:45 to 4:45. That messed up my schedule and it’s the reason why I got a 10 hour shift. When he finally came, it took me half an hour to figure out how to call China for him. He wrote down a fucking number that is something like 00861362942724962. I’m not exaggerating at all. That’s seriously how long the number he wrote down was. The 0086 is the country code I know that.
Anyway, He wrote the 2 and 9 really shittily and I read it as a 4. That was the first problem. The second was when using a fucking calling card, you’re suppose to drop the 00′s in the front of the country codes. I didn’t know that. How is any fucking rational person supposed to know that when the recording tells you to input the country code. It doesn’t mention it at all. Anyway, by the time I fucking finally got the call to go through, I was too tired to give him a tour to the sub and village to show him where to get dinner. So? I just helped him to his room (he had 3 fucking luggage bags) and gave him a map and pointed out to where food can be bought. On the way out, I asked a korean guy to help that fellow out later. I hope he does.
That’s my day. My night will now be resting and doing homework. Goody Bye.
High Priority
January 04, 2001
I have good news. I have great news. I have what could be the most prominent news update that jvision will have this year (this is a sad webpage). The news: Coast To Coast AM’s revered, retired host Art Bell is returning to the program! It is the greatest thing since… he first started the program!
This is taken from the Coast to Coast webpage:
ART BELL BACK ON AIR FEB. 5, 2001
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2001 – Art Bell, the radio personality famous for his spontaneous and compelling conversations about all things unexplained, has announced his return to radio. Bell resumes his reign as host of the most listened to live overnight radio program, Coast to Coast AM on Feb. 5 from 1am to 6am ET.
Bell states, “The negotiation was brutal and bloody! The result… fewer commercials and back to five hours.”
Bell resigned last April because of family and legal issues that required his full attention. These have been resolved. His passion for radio and his audience has propelled him back with a renewed commitment to the unique show he created in 1993. Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 430 stations nationwide.
“I am ecstatic to welcome Art Bell back to his program,” said Kraig T. Kitchin, president/COO of Premiere Radio Networks. “It was a bloody negotiation pulling someone out of retirement always is. I am wildly enthusiastic to bring the news to affiliates and listeners nationwide… imagine their reaction! I also want to add my thanks to Mike Siegel.”
Premiere Radio Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications (NYSE:CCU), syndicates more than 60 radio programs to more than 7,800 radio affiliations and reaches over 180 million listeners weekly. Premiere is the number one radio network in the country and features the following personalities: Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Jim Rome, Rick Dees, Casey Kasem, Dr. Dean Edell, Bob (Kevoian) & Tom (Griswold), Phil Hendrie, Leeza Gibbons, Michael Reagan, Dave Koz, Blair Garner, Lionel, and others. Premiere is based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., with eleven offices nationwide.
This is great great news. You won’t understand if you don’t listen to the program, but Art Bell is a really great radio host and person in general. I feel shitty for Mike Siegel, the current host though. He came in with really really big shoes to fill and got slack because he wasn’t Art Bell. Now, 10 months later, he’s gone. Maybe he’ll be the weekend host. He’s not bad too.
So starting 02/06, the show will be awesome again.
Second Day First Day
January 02, 2001
Second day of the year, first day of school and work for my coop friends. Greets to Andrew and Dennis and to Dennis’ mainlander coworkers. Well, I just did it, I just got a host for my webpage. I’m waiting for some sales rep to call to finalize details so probably by the end of this week something will be up. I have nothing made for the redesign though so doh to that.
As for my day today, I had 2 classes. The first I have a friend in there that I can make fun of so it’s awesome. The second, I met some girl who I don’t think I’ll ever talk to again and there’s another person I know who sat across the room but I don’t really want to sit with her too. This means this class I’ll pay attention. Tomorrow I have 2 again and get off at 11:30, making Wednesdays the best day of my week – save the fact the first class is at 8:30.
I slept 4 hours last night because of jet lag or alcohol lag or maybe i just slept late for the past 2 weeks. Yay. I’m bored, I’m tired, I’m on my way upstairs to watch tv now. I’m hungry. This was a shitty update, sorry.
Since the new host will have more space, I’ve decided to archive my updates, beginning with this month. That’s all folks.
Happy Birthday
Tis my sister’s birthday today. She’s 17 now. Can you believe it? The little girl who was laughed at by my classmates in grade 1 is now 17. That’s old enough to see a rated R movie! That’s old enough in some countries to already have 6 kids.
