A End Of This Chapter
December 17, 2011
It’s becoming a running joke on this so-called blog of mine that I will apologize to my non-audience for the lack of updates. As stunned as I am at realizing this, but the only other entry this year was in January. This update is in December. Yikes!
I’m guessing that this will pretty much be the last blog entry on this website of mine, at least, in its current form. I’ll still keep the domain and one of these days, if you stumble by, you may notice big changes. Until then, consider this blog on permanent “Under Construction”.
So, as farewell of sorts to my wonderful little diary on the internet, I guess I will end with an overview of how my year was. 2011 has been the most dramatic year in my life and I don’t expect to top it any time soon.
Enter 2011
This year started great. I had finished my first year in a new job and the momentum seemed unstoppable. My kung fu was progressing at a slow clip, but any progression was welcomed. The biggest news was that we found out in November that Eri was pregnant. 2011, the Year of the Rabbit, would see our first child!
3/11 Tohoku Earthquake
The massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami had a tremendous impact in Japan. Yes, that’s stating the obvious but for the first time in my life, a disaster like that had struck closer to home than ever before.
On March 11, I was enjoying a cup of tea in the breakroom at work when the building started swaying slightly. It was nothing surprising – quakes happen all the time in Japan. The minor swaying led me to suspect a moderate earthquake around the Kansai area. When some coworkers checked some news sites, we were all astounded by the level of the earthquake and then the terrifying footage of the tsunami as it swept inland. As close as the Tohoku area is to Kansai, we were still very far removed.
Enter the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. They would remove any isolation and put us into the (perceived) terror. Firstly, it’s pronounced FOO-KOO-SHE-MA DIE-E-CHI. I heard some media broadcasters butcher this. When the cooling systems failed and explosions were reported at Daiichi, the news jumped all over it. It instantly became a nuclear disaster. For the next six weeks or so, nothing except for footage of the reactor and the tsunami-affected cities would be aired on television. Even the commercial selection became instantly limited to things like insurance, and other risk-management services. (Sidenote: people actually got so sick of certain commercials that they called up those companies and made death threats. They were taken off air soon after.)
I just want to point out right now that nothing I went through could even begin to compare to the suffering that the people who lived in the Tohoku area went through. Many thousands lost loved ones and all their earthly possessions. They, to this very day, may not have any prospects of ever rebuilding what they lost. I’m definitely not going to complain about anything that happened to me. I’m merely recording this as the experiences I went through this year.
I didn’t really begin to worry until I started hearing about flocks of foreigners leaving Japan for fear of the radiation. One of our Saudi students in Kung Fu was flown out by his government. At work, we lost many teachers because their families worried about their safety. My own family called and asked me to come home. Hearing all this, and considering my unborn child, it was very difficult not to feel affected. I was quite stressed out by all this.
Thankfully, Kansai was not swept over by radioactive winds and no one mutated in any fancy way, at least, not in a way that we are currently aware. The following months saw a Japan trying to rebuild and return to some semblance of normalcy.
As fears subsided, attention turned to power consumption and saving energy. Daiichi supplied a big percentage of the Tokyo area’s power needs. Without it, rolling blackouts were instated – stores ran out of items like flashlights, batteries, bottled water, and any other perishable that people hoard in the face of danger. Even in Kansai, with no major power dip, corporations were asked to cut power by 15%.
All in all, this focus on saving energy will be seen as a positive start to this country heading towards being more eco-friendly.
7/31 Birth
The hot summer months only added to the anxiety of waiting for my son to be born. Finally, he was born but not in a smooth, easy fashion. We headed to the hospital early Thursday morning (2am ish) but were turned back as being a false alarm. Nary 24 hours later, we were back in the hospital. So, Friday 2am ish we were there. Neal was born on Sunday around 5am. What a looooong ordeal that was.
Thankfully, he was healthy, everything was where it should be, and the next few months were spent learning how to be a dad. It’s amazing how green we were despite all the attempts to learn as much as we could beforehand. To this day, we still panic over the smallest of things only to be reassured by more experienced parents that in fact, what we are scared of is actually fairly normal.
Neal also made my family make their way over to Japan to visit their first grandchild/nephew. What a riot that turned out to be.
And so it has come to be, that I became a father this year. Without any exaggeration, he is the greatest thing to have happened in my life and I can’t remember how things were without him.
Photography
I’ve always liked taking pictures but never got fully into it. This year, I decided to take it up a notch and learn more. My goal was to take beautiful pictures of my beautiful baby. To that end, I bought my first single lens reflex camera and am still learning and experimenting. It’s paying off in spades – I have some amazing shots that I could have not taken with my beloved point & shoot.
I’ve spent quite a chunk of money this year on equipment and I’m sure I’ll be spending even more in the future. I loving this new hobby of mine and I’m going to rebrand this blog to be more of a photo gallery. Picture = 1K words, right?
Kung Fu
My other passion in life – my fu. This year didn’t have much major news in my fu. Our school continues to trot along. We’ve gained some new faces and lost some old ones. We’ve moved out of the old building and have been practicing at a rental studio for a while then at parks.
I took “paternity” leave for a few months to get to know my baby. My schedule is still too up in the air for me to commit fully to my fu classes.
At home though, I’ve done pretty well I think. I started a more intense exercise regiment. I haven’t perfectly kept it up everyday but I’m proud to say that almost everyday, I do 200 stomach crunches, 100 push ups, technique practice, and sometimes kicking practice. I break this down and do a 100 crunches in the morning and the rest at night, after Neal goes to sleep.
Summary
And that pretty much sums up 2011. 2011 – the year that saw a lot of vast changes not just in my own life but in Japan, and pretty much around the world. I don’t think the political rumblings we saw this year, i.e. the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement will be ending anytime soon. I think we will look back at 2011 as the year it all started.
As for this blog, who knows. I think turning it into a photoblog makes more sense but I also like the idea of making it more like a travel guide for Japan for non-touristy things. Don’t stay tuned. Don’t hold your breath. Don’t come back too often. Instead, drop by after a long while and you just might be greeted with something other than, “Sorry for the lack of updates.”
Happy new year, everybody!
Soon
January 20, 2011
My poor poor blog. How I’ve neglected you.
Be a little more patient, my dear. I have big news coming soon and I will be paying more attention to you then.
Soon, my dear blog.
Goodbye Grandma
August 06, 2010
Just a couple hours ago, at around 3:00am this morning, my grandmother on my dad’s side passed away. She had been ill for a while now and had been receiving blood transfusions every few weeks for a long time. From I have heard, she got pneumonia a couple of days ago. She went to the hospital and was in a coma. I think she passed away peacefully.
I’m thinking about the HK trip that we took earlier in the year. It was only eight months ago when I was there with my mom, dad, and sis to see her. We were told she was in bad shape then and we wanted to meet her while we could. I am now very glad that we did.
I can’t say that I knew her very well. I’ve only met her a few times in my life and talked to her on the phone when my dad called home. Still, here I am sitting here at 5:24am typing this. My sister says she feels “weird”. “Weird” just doesn’t quite cut it for me right now. I would call it a sense of unknown loss. I know I’ve lost someone close but I’m just not exactly sure what I’ve lost since I didn’t know her so well.
What I do know is that every time I’ve met her, I got the sense that she unconditionally loved me. She was a big complainer (that’s probably where I got it from) but she seemed to be protective of me, as if I needed someone to look out for me. She was always asking me if I wanted anything and offered to buy me anything. That’s the opposite of what I’m about. I enjoy being individualistic and self-sufficient above all else but it was nice to have someone who would spoil me like that given the chance.
I really don’t know much about my grandmother’s past. I know her maiden name was “Wong”. She was a daughter of a fairly successful business dude who dealt in fish or something. I know she wasn’t quite from Canton because she spoke a very different (and hard to understand) dialect.
My mind is going blank now and I’ve gotten out some emotions from this. Goodbye grandma! I’ll catch you on the other side.
Vitamins
July 29, 2010
The best fortune cookie that I’ve ever received said, “You might have a vitamin deficiency.”
April
April 30, 2010
I have been found guilty of neglecting my blog again. I remember the days when I used to write just about every thought that came to mind. It either means that I didn’t have many thoughts back then or I don’t have too many thoughts now. Maybe it’s a combination of both. More likely though, is the lack of time and things that I think are worthy of writing anymore. I’m going to write a summary of some things this month rather than try to write anything more specific.
I’ve successfully completed my second month in my new job. It’s going quite well but last month was extremely busy. I’m really enjoying what I’m doing and most things are no longer “new” to me anymore. In another month or two I will be able to stop saying “I’m new” and work at a nice level of comfort. It’s a great sign that I look forward to going to work on Sunday evenings!
Yesterday was the first day of Golden Week and how golden it is. I have a full seven days off and The Wife and I will be embarking on a fun three-day trip of Hiroshima. It’s a much anticipated and long-waited trip. I’ve been wanting to go there for years now but we kept pushing it back. Until now!
D&D 4th Edition continues to be quite fun. I got in a couple of games this month and I’m looking forward to testing out a completely new character. I’m using a character that the DM created to balance out the difficulty. I was playing around with a Monk and they can get quite nasty.
Wing Chun continues to be a huge aspect of my life and this month I got in more training than I normally do. Sifu Steve gave me some encouraging words and that has pushed me to train a lot more at home. It WILL pay off.
I had a wonderful afternoon playing with my 1 year old niece yesterday. She is adorable! Yesterday was also the first time I thought that she was no longer a baby, but a child. She’s walking and communicating and just kicking my ass with her adorableness.
We had our annual hanami picnic. Photos on facebook.
I’ll leave out a lot more miniscule topics and just conclude it here. I have plans to change this website to be more of a photoblog. Hopefully this will happen not too far away in the future.
Going home
September 28, 2009
I’m off to Vancouver today for some two-week R&R!
Rain
June 10, 2009
Today welcomes the first rain fall of the rainy season this year. For me, this rain is a big marker: once the rain finishes, the humid summer comes in full blast. So, this makes it one of the last few times until the fall when I can enjoy a cool breeze and not worry about sweating out buckets.
Being a Vancouver boy, rain has always been a constant in my life and in many ways, watching the rain and hearing the rain is a kind of homecoming. As things sometimes are put into place by the invisible hand, my morning class was canceled giving me a chance to sit here alone enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to an old Art Bell show while watching the rain.
While I have a couple of class later on in the day, this moment is, for me, the most energizing and grounding time that I’ll have until I fall asleep tonight.
This is pure bliss.
Return
April 18, 2009
I’ve been back in Japan now for 4 days and I still miss the Philippines. It was such a great trip. I saw, experienced, tasted, trained, learned, and taught so much. I’ll put pictures up soon but it’s back to the grind now.
My cactus is growing boobs
February 12, 2009
My 1-year old cactus is becoming… a woman? What’s going on? I’m a bit suspicious of Osaka tap water now… just how many different kinds hormones are in it that it can cause puberty in cacti?
Here’s the large shot of it for you plant perverts.
MILF?
February 04, 2009
Since I’ll be going to the Philippines in a few months’ time, this caught my eye:
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government are trying to revive peace negotiations after a proposed deal broke down last year when the supreme court stopped the government from signing the deal.
MILF!
From Philippine rebels set peace terms – Al Jazeera.
Wait
December 29, 2008
Merry Christmas and happy new year!
I have a lot of stuff to post but have just been too busy to do so. Also, I’m going to port all my flickr images over to another gallery that’s more easily customizable with WordPress 2.7. I’ve been testing a couple galleries on Golden Harvest Wing Chun. The site is getting an updated design with Japanese and a slightly cleaner look. I also have a big picture of myself for the school in the January issue of Kansai Scene. That will be my second time in the magazine! Amazingly, the day the magazine came out, Steve got five calls about it already. I am telling myself it’s because of my picture that people are calling.
More to come very soon – lots of pictures to post.
Conjunction
December 04, 2008
I had completely forgotten about the planetary conjunction on Monday but was reminded as I was walking on a bridge near Shin-Osaka station. What a great sight. The moon was just under Venus and Jupiter and it made a happy face. I took it as a sign that things are going to look better. I finally remembered to bring my camera out the next day but by this time, the moon had already “ascended” way past the planets. Too bad.
It’s rare to see stars in Osaka but luckily planets are very visible once the sun goes down.
Weird elbow dude
August 09, 2008
While biking back from Namba today, I had to stop at a crosswalk to wait for the light to change. I see an older man beside me in a pink shirt on a bike. I couldn’t quite pin it but something was weird about the guy. Then I noticed his left arm. His elbow was bent the wrong way!
While holding onto the handlebar, my elbows point downwards, ie. my arms bend upwards towards my head. His right arm was no different but his left elbow pointed upwards! No way, I thought, maybe he just has his arm turned in a weird contorted sort of way. Nope, looking at his hand, he was holding onto the handlebar normally. He wasn’t bending his arm around as his shoulder looked quite relaxed. He was a backward-armed man!
It was rather surprising.
Cursed
August 08, 2008
I have been having the worst of luck recently when it comes to electronics I own.
The giant storm that squished Kansai a week ago destroyed my laptop. I actually opened it up and cleaned out its innards and it worked that night. I thought it was the luckiest thing to have it working again. Then, I shut it down and it wouldn’t restart again. I believe something on the motherboard is fried, perhaps maybe even the CMOS battery. I took the battery around town searching for a replacement but because Dell is such a bitch company, they did not use standard CMOS batteries and concocted something of their own design. I can’t even test out this theory and my laptop is a big ugly decoration right now.
The storm also took out my IP phone. It turns on but will begin to start ringing on its own accord almost immediately. There’s no tone neither. Yet another thing to buy/fix.
The remote control for our fan is also dead. No big deal. I never found a remote control for a fan to be a big necessity – I can still get my fat ass up and walk over there to turn it on or off. Surprisingly, the television remote works fine even though it was sitting in the same pond of water as the fan remote.
Then, two days ago, as the third storm of the month was just about to set Osaka awash, I wanted to take some pictures of the beautiful rain clouds forming outside and perhaps even get lucky and catch a lightning strike. I turn on my trusty digital camera only to be greeted by a white screen on the LCD. No matter what I did, the LCD remained white. Apparently Fujifilm installed a faulty light sensor on it as I wasn’t the only one with this problem. What I’m wondering though is why after five years of perfect operation did the stupid camera malfunction now?
I am so glad I don’t have a pacemaker because with this luck it would start pumping blood out of my ass. Anyway now I have a queue of things to repair and replace. Thanks karma, you vengeful bitch.
The Storm
July 31, 2008
I was in class on Monday when I noticed the clouds just come billowing in. The very clear sky almost suddenly became a dark blue, light gray, then finally, a very ominous dark gray. It was remarkable how fast the sky changed.
Feeling the window, the temperature must have dropped by a whole lot too because the window was cool to the touch instead of being hot as it usually is in the summertime in Japan. Looking onto the street I could see not only the trees waving around from the wind, but even the lamp posts were swaying slightly.
This was to be some storm.
At around 2pm, hail suddenly started falling. People were running into the convenience store while others jumped into their cars for cover. The hail lasted barely a couple of minutes and it actually cleared up a little. “So much for that storm,” I thought. It turned out I was a bit too early to call the end of the storm.
In a few minutes time it began to rain. Nay, it began to pour. No, water began to drench the streets. It was one of the heaviest rainfalls I’ve ever experienced in Japan. In Kyoto, one of the river banks actually rose up by a meter in 10 minutes, that’s 10cm of rain per minute! Unfortunately, four people died from being swept by this sudden rise in water level.
I was a lot safer in class. However, of all days to leave my umbrella behind, I chose this day to do so. Earlier that day at home I looked out the window and had decided that there was no way it would rain today. I decided to leave my windows open to try to keep the place as cool as possible in this 30+ humid weather. My bad.
As class ended, everyone just stood near the window. I couldn’t help but keep my face pressed against the window the whole time. I love lightning too much to miss this. I was told by Steve that this brought one of the most impressive lightning storms. I couldn’t see much other than bright flashes reflected off buildings but our building had the power knocked out for a few minutes. The thunder was most superb though. Several students screamed.
I decided that I couldn’t waste any more time waiting for this rainstorm to end. I had to go home. Some of the students downstairs watched with puzzled looks as I walked out without any sort of cover. I had to stop by the convenience store and pick up an umbrella though – the rain was really heavy. I jumped into the JR train from Shin-Osaka station and after a few minutes noticed we weren’t leaving.
Unfortunately, the lightning had knocked something out and all trains had stopped. They did not mention how long we would be stuck here so I just decided to stay and listen to my Coast To Coast on my Ipod. In the end I waited a whole hour in the train. It still didn’t move. I decided to leave the exit and take the subway home. It was a bit of a detour but getting home late was better than sitting next to grumpy people in an overheated train. There were a lot of people waiting outside the ticket gates waiting for the trains to restart too.
Finally I get home and as expected my place was soaked. Water had soaked into the tatami as far as meters from the window. My kotatsu had a nice coating of water. My laptop was unfortunately placed on the kotatsu. It is with much sadness that I have to announce that both my laptop and my phone have drowned to death due to my carelessness with the window.
I don’t feel too bad. The laptop was super old and now it gives us a reason to get a new one. The tatami mats dried quickly and everything else has been cleaned. In the end, it was one fantastic day experiencing the strongest storm I’ve seen in a long long time.
Come summer
June 22, 2008
I’ve been busy. It’s the kind of busy that I don’t like. The kind that leaves me very very little time for personal things like say updating this blog or playing video games to unwind or do some kung fu training. Still, it’s got to be done. Studying is studying and work is work. I suppose things will get better once I get used to it and find shortcuts around things.
The worst thing about this is the tired feeling I carry most days now. I think I need to start taking vitamins.
These last several weeks have been boring and not at the same time:
- I went to a crappy class trip to Kiyomizu-dera and Arashiyama
- We celebrated at a wedding
- We babysat a dog
- I had a most excellent night at a Japanese friend’s most excellent house – homegrown tomatoes are the best
Angry Nintendo Nerd – TMNT
May 16, 2008
Angry Nintendo Nerd is my new hero!
Warm Up
April 19, 2008
There’s nothing manlier than a hip shake or an ankle twist. I reaffirm my heterosexuality with each oscillation.
Don’t pee there!
April 12, 2008
We babysat mom-in-law’s new puppy again last Sunday and watching The Woman scream at the dog for peeing over the tatami mat and rug was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. The poor dog even gave the sad puppy dog look. Poor thing just did what was in its nature. He’s also in a bitey stage of life right now which is rather annoying. What is cute though is that he will turn over and expose his belly in that “you’re dominant, I give in” posture to just about anyone and anything.
He’s not used to long walks yet. In the midst of walking he’ll shut down and just lie on the concrete until you come and pick him up and carry him. Dogs are evil!
Going back to the roots
January 07, 2008
Happy new year!
Today I must feel what I use to feel, say 20 years ago. Today is the first day of school! That’s right I am going back to school. I am beginning a Japanese course today and hopefully I’ll do that for a few months, barring sudden changes in plans. The classes only run about half the day so I’ll still have time to do other things.
I have good things in sight this year. Last year really sucked ass for me and many others and I hope this year will be better. It’s already off to a great start – I’m not longer under the psychological corporate shackles and am enjoying the freedom! We have plans already this year and they’re off to a good start.
Take right now for instance. I woke up at a reasonable time: 7:30. I made fresh coffee! I have time to check my email and write in my blog for the first time this year! In that job last year, I woke up at an ungodly 5:30, was too sleepy or too rushed to have anything but rotten instant coffee, and couldn’t type a sentence because my fingers had not yet risen from slumber. Ahhh. Good times.
I recently started taking up wing chun kung fu again. It’s great! It’s been about 12 years since I actively practiced and I suck ass. It’s great and I’m back in fairly constant training and conditioning at home right now.
That’s it! I just had this sudden yearning to write here and I have. Christmas was good, New Year’s was good, it’s all good!
A new feel
November 26, 2007
Notice any changes? At long last, my website has been given a facelift. It’s not quite done yet – there are still many things that remain to be updated of fixed. I’m changing over to a Flickr photo album rather than using the old lazy-index. I’ll leave the old pictures as is since most of the original files are gone, I’ll leave these low res pictures in an old pictures directory.
Dennis and I will be starting a photo project. Details to come but I hope it becomes successful.
I bought a new webcam right after coming back from Hong Kong – a Logitech Quickcam Orbit AF – it’s beautiful and I’m very impressed with the face recognition. It comes with a built in microphone that actually works too. I accidentally bought a headset/mic but it will come in handy should the day come when I join a mmorpg.
I’m slowing down on Facebook – it’s not as fun and exciting now. It’s still a very easy way to send someone a message – the one thing I don’t have in my life is a universal address book that can keep track of my cell phone data, email contacts, mailing addresses, Skype, Messenger, etc. Facebook is as close as it gets since it’s updated by the contacts rather than by me.
Transformers
June 16, 2007
Something tells me this will be better than the movie coming out this summer.
Wow
May 06, 2007
Huge Twister – Yahoo! News
Chirpy!
March 12, 2007
It’s late afternoon on a Monday and I’m in a very good mood! The world is awesome!
My ass face in the office!
Computer back, me happy
February 27, 2007
It’s astonishing how the Internet is just so important and necessary in my life now. It hasn’t even been a week and I sure felt the loss of the constant stream of mostly useless information. I think most importantly is the ability to contact people by the press of a button, rather than the vast amount of ‘knowledge’ available that makes me want to be on the internet so much.
Anyway, less than half a year ago my 120Gb external hard drive stopped working. It wouldn’t start up and Windows couldn’t recognize it as anything. On it was a lot of my archived files. Basically all my pictures, movies, music, games, and applications were stored there. They were basically all gone. (I have some stuff backed up on CD but for the most part, my years of careful collecting and filing were gone). That was really painful.
I had some stuff stored on my laptop so I wasn’t completely lost. I put off getting a DVD writer or another hard drive just because I’m a lazy asshole.
To teach me a lesson, my laptop hard drive decided to stop working last Thursday. The night before I heard it making strange sounds and it wouldn’t boot up correctly a couple of times. I took this to mean something bad so I quickly backed up my most crucial files (mostly porn, some password protected files, some old NES ROMS, you know the drill). Sure enough, the next day the computer didn’t even recognize a hard drive being installed.
At this point, I had lost all my data now.
The lady did some checking on data recovery services. Get this – the quotes:
- The 120Gb external HD: 450,000 yen
- The 30Gb HD: 350,000 yen
Grand total: they estimated an 800,000 yen cost to recover the data. That’s $8000. I can take many great vacations and make new memories.
It was weird though, when I realized I had lost all my data, instead of most of it, I felt a surprising level of relief. It was liberating in a sense to not have to worry about all those 1s and 0s stored on a spinning magnet. Still I was denied my daily dose of news and email so the pain of being have to face Japanese TV and (gulp) talking to the wife made me yearn for the Internet.
After some careful whining and nagging I managed to get the wife to allow me to buy a new computer! So on Saturday we went down to our local Dospara and ordered a nice shiny desktop. It’s due to be here in about a week and it’s filled with all the new goodliness. I am so going to buy some cheap game that my laptop couldn’t handle and play the hell out of it.
The laptop sunset
February 21, 2007
This morning I turned on my laptop and it said hard disk not found. Last night it was making noiser sounds than normal. I think my laptop is in its final hertz of performance. With it will go all my data because my external HD died eons ago. If I drop of the face of MSN Messenger, more so, it’s because of this death. Agh.
Goodbye Ham
January 23, 2007
Our pet hamster, Ham (or That Guy as I liked to call her), died this morning. She was about two years old and had this giant growth in her right leg growing since last summer. She will be sorely missed but joining her sister, Clicky. We will bury her in the same place where we buried Clicky.
That Guy will be remembered for her super gentleness (aside from that one violent outburst that led to the demise of Clicky). From the first day we got her, she was not afraid to approach our hands and nab food right away. I fed her many things that I probably shouldn’t have but she seemed to love it – rice (cooked and uncooked), uncooked pasta, cheddar cheese, seaweed, green pepper (she didn’t like it though)…
She had this quirk as well. When we let her run around the apartment she would sometimes suddenly freeze up for about a minute. No amount of poking or prodding would make her move. She just became stuck!
Also in her early days she would run on the damn hamster wheel for long periods of time. Unfortunately the wheel was rather squeeky and I slept in the same room. I woke up many times to that damn wheel.
She had a very huge cage all to herself but I think she was quite lonely as she would always try to get our attention to escape. We will miss you a lot Hammy, you were our first pet and you will always be remembered.
2006
December 29, 2006
Since I’m on the verge of losing this year without another post, I thought I’d better slap some memories down here while I still can. It’s not everyday a year like 2006 comes by.
Aside from being one of the fastest and least memorable years I’ve ever had (in terms of daily happenings – it’s been a year of Groundhog Days), it was, as contradicting as it is, one that will hold many memories. The highlight for me happened early in the year when I got married with The Lady. I wish we could’ve had a bigger thing with more friends and family but it was what it was and it went as well as it could. I’ve finally posted two pages that I used to transmit information from the wedding and from the nijikai party – see the previous two posts.
While this was our first year as wife and manslave, it went by business as usual. I’m really glad I had the chance to live with The Lady for extended periods of time before getting married because there were no surprises, I was, to my furthest extent, used to her bad habits and she’s learning all the new ones I make up each and every day. Note to self: she hates it when I start tapping her head… with a fountain pen… leaking… blood… from a rotting carcass… of… a mountain gorilla. I really can’t wait until we celebrate our one year anniversary, coming up in slightly less than one month.
Then another highlight this year was getting promoted. I have to say, this promotion did not feel as satisfying as the first one. This may be for many reasons of which I won’t bore you with right now. It involves blurry visions in my mind and wispy opinions about my job and the company I work for.
This year I also clamped down on renegade studying habits and decided to take the JLPT. While I certainly did not study as much as I could and should have, it definitely focussed my efforts more and made me learn more than I would’ve. I hope this steam not only continues next year but grows in magnitude as I will be needing essentially a miracle to pass level 2. But hey, only the difficult stuff is worth pursuing in life.
Since the summer I’ve also gotten back into a little card game called Magic The Gathering that I used to play all those many years ago. It all started when a couple of people from the French team started playing next to us during lunch and while explaining the game to another friend, I peaked my interest and decided to join them. Since then, I’ve bought over 500,000,000 cards and wallpapered my apartment building with cards. I basically play two or three times a week after work casually with one or two friends. Now, with a disposable income, the game is much more exciting. I’ve managed to keep my sanity and kept the game purely as a pursuit of fun and entertainment. It’s not about winning, it’s all about making fun of Guillaume as much as possible. (Hi Guillaume!)
I didn’t do much hiking or traveling this year unfortunately. I mostly stayed at home and tried not to move to retain energy. Next year though, in fact, next week, I’m going to get some outdoor action going for sure. I’m currently one week into my 16 day holiday and I do intend to balance out the mental celebration with some physical exertion.
2006, thank you very much. You have been a kind time period. I hope your slightly older sibling will also be nice and kind!
The Right Writing
December 11, 2006
All you ever had were a sheet of “fool’s cap” paper, a yellow school board wooden pencil, and a flesh pink rubber eraser. That was what was given when you were to write something in school. Then as the years went by we had the marble print laser copier paper, mechanical pencils more complicated than most toaster ovens, and enough cappucino to keep sleep at bay. That was still writing.
So does this random tidbit of text typed on a 87-button keyboard backed by an LCD screen count as writing? Would it matter if I wrote a minimum 5000 words or 10 pages worth? What if I were to add a thesis, some cold hard facts, and those little superscript numbers that just look so cool?
Would what I have been stricken with lately, would that still be considered writer’s block? Because, nothing can really block electronic transfer of information, save a power outage or a really big resistor? Would how I’m going nowhere with this piece still sound just as constipated when written with a Bic pen on recycled paper?
I am thankful that I will probably never have to write academically again. I will not have to think of a thesis statement or trying to link subsequent paragraphs with the last line of the preceding paragraph. If I wanted to, I can start a new topic completely, without any warning.
I’m thinking of getting a Playstation 3, a Wii, or an Xbox 360. The lady is not keen on the XBox but I saw a video of that Earth Defence Force game and that’s just badass. Unadulterated gun-toting, alien and robot blasting action. I just had a visual overload orgasm.
See? No one will mark this off as a C or a D anymore. I am free to write what I want now and not worry about consequences (academically anyway). I won’t even proofread this to ensur that no typos were made. Or fragment sentences.
My concluding statement? I think I’m going to go without one. Seeing that I had no thesis statement to begin with, I don’t have to summarize any points here. I wrote nothing, about nothing, and for nothing. I have no attachments to this piece and neither will you.
Facelift
December 08, 2006
The simplest, fastest design ever. This took about two hours from start to finish. The hardest part was making sure the CSS still worked from before. Luckily the code essentially remained the same except I moved around the feedback form and played with the navigation. Yeah, whatever.
Here’s the view from our balcony. This shot was better but my phone mushed it around after setting the picture as wallpaper.
I think I have a sinus infection, or maybe the flu. Either way it’s giving me a headache and fever and random face aches that periodically fade in and out. Save me!
Sick again
December 07, 2006
It was almost exactly one month ago I took a sick day from work. And here I am again, not going to work today. I left work early yesterday because at first I thought the room was very hot but after asking some friends they said it was only me. I also had a pulsating headache and a shivery fever building. This morning is no different. I popped several Tylenol down now to keep the fever at bay but I still feel like a bag of tired crap. To top it off, there is nothing to eat in my house so I’ll have to crawl outside and make my way to the distant supermarkets for veggies and lean meats.
Will the world be banning trans fat? Hmm…
Still/Started
October 10, 2006
Since last month. One month exactly…
Still alive
Still feeling the ‘joys’ of my promotion
Still studying a lot / still trying to study a lot
Still here
Started enjoying my brand new bed
Started enjoying my old sofa bed as a full time sofa now
Started getting over losing 120g of data
Started my fifth year in Japan as of yesterday.
Writer’s Flow
July 27, 2006
I’ve just come home and had the urge to start writing. I have no particular message to convey nor even any particular thought. WordPress beckoned and here I am tapping away at my dusty, cookie crumb filled laptop.
Today I once again discovered how cynical I have become after spending an approaching four years at Nova. I will not degrade myself and become one of the pussies at work who incessantly complain. I have chosen to stay and regret nothing. As much bullshit I have to put up with I draw from it many benefits as well. And hey, when it comes down to it, it’s worth it for The Woman.
To reward myself for a busy week The Woman (I should begin capitalizing Her from now on) and I are about to indulge ourselves with what has become our weekly yakiniku affair. Most yakiniku restaurants in Osaka provide an inverse relationship between price and quality. Save one. This one restaurant, aptly named Yaki, has cheap prices and outstanding quality. Even their ジョッ゠oolong tea is a steal at 200 yen! This place is so good that we can go there weekly as our tab really is comparable to that of any other restaurant – 3000ish yen for a very full and content stomach. Sorry cattle but we’re going to chop you up into little pieces, divide them up by cut, and roast them on a propane fire.
Sometime ago I realized I wanted to get back into studying Japanese. I’ve since started lessons again and I realized yesterday that it’s been four months already. I’m taking lessons twice a week and will be taking the JPLT level 3 this year. It’s bank already. I wanted to pass level 2 but skimming through it I realized I’d have to be uhhhh like uhhh smart to do that. This year anyway. I intend to pass it next year. Why the hell does this test only happen once a year? You may have noticed my practicing Japanese on my blog or my practicing question marks depending on how linguistically-abled your computer is.
I just got the call from The Woman. That means in 5 minutes I should leave my apartment to meet her at Mister Donuts. Timing is everything.
Bloglets
June 13, 2006
As much as I would like to have Dennis coining the term I think it has already been in use. But it’s such a good idea I’m going to steal it and write some bloglets of my own here (and yes, in English).
I had two moles removed from the bottom of my feet on Sunday and I was in pain all day. The surgery itself was short and painless but trying to sleep/walk/take a shower with stitches on both feet is tough.
I’ve taken to studying Japanese more seriously. Reasons are plenty.
The summer heat is returning and this time, it’s personal.
I love playing darts. The bullseye is no longer a complete stranger. It’s a casual acquaintance now.
Being married is still great!
We’re going to Disneyland next next weekend. And Disneysea.
I don’t like this kind of photography
March 18, 2006
Last Wednesday was a day of firsts. It was the first time I visited a hospital for my own well being today. Before I dive in let me backtrack a bit.
For the last month or so I had been feeling a dull pain in my chest, around the breastbone area. I quick search online and along with other symptoms I had been having there were chances of it being GERD, an ulcer, or esophageal cancer. None of these are very fun things to be afflicted with, especially the last one, since my grandmother and the lady’s father succumbed to it.
So it was off to the hospital today to get a checkup. It was the checkup to end all checkups. I have never taken so many tests since my second year of university (7 finals in less than two weeks!). And because I am an attention whore and I have no shame, or maybe I want to educate the masses so my worries will not be felt by others, here are the gory details!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you:
Read it all…
Spammed
February 15, 2006
I was going to happen sooner or later. I got spammed through the feedback form a few times. I’ve included a password field now to stop that. It’s a really simple password with a big hint on the front.
Spirit Man
January 17, 2006
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You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 100% spiritual. |
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| Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com |
Happy Birthday, Jesus
December 25, 2005
And Happy Birthday to my baby too today!
I just crawled out of the abyss that has kept me from updating for a month. Have a fun and safe Christmas and I hope you get to spend it with your favorite people.
Now back to the abyss I go!
Twelve Months
October 23, 2005
I’ve been working on this for over a year!
On a random day in each month, I took a shot of the sky from my balcony at around 6pm to see differences in sky colors. Here is the end result: 12 pictures from my balcony that show an interesting gradual change in sky lighting and tones. Some of the days looked extra amazing so I opted for those pictures instead. I give you, the Twelve Months.
Secondly I’m trying to learn PHP and to present the twelve months, I’ve made a calendar that checks the server for the date and chooses the right picture. So if you’re ever stuck in a room without a calendar and your computer is unable to show you the date, you can always come over here to see the date. Well, at present it only shows the server’s date.
If you can’t wait a whole year to see all twelve pictures, I’ve also put the pictures up in the gallery.
Note: November is not ready. Last November, I just purely forgot to take a picture so I’ll have to wait a week to finish this.
Bye Grandma
August 22, 2005
My grandma passed away two days ago after being diagnosed with cancer last year. She was 84.
She was born a twin but lost contact with her twin and her family. She lived through Japan-occupied Hong Kong during the war. She lost a chunk of her thumb (or finger, I forgot) in a factory but most of it grew back. She was the second wife of my grandfather and bore two sons and three daughters. The eldest son ran away from home at the age of 18 or something. The eldest daughter married and stayed in Hong Kong. My grandma, along with the two other daughters and the younger son all immigrated to Canada. From her children that aren’t missing, she was given six grandsons and one granddaughter. During the time in Canada (25+ years??), I don’t think she learned a single English word, at least not one that didn’t sound too “Chinesey”.
The image I’ll remember was her taking care of me when I was a kid and both my parents were working. I remember playing this game where we’d spin those plastic eggs you get from vending machines for a quarter. We’d spin a whole bunch of them on the kitchen floor like tops and watch them spin themselves out. I don’t quite remember what happened to the contents of those eggs – the eggs were the important part. I’ll also remember her teaching me how to play mahjong. She taught me the rules and the basics but I remember exceeding and winning all the time when we used to play. I’ll remember those crazy Chinese board games where we’d bet pennies from her huge coin stash. She was the first to get me to gamble!
I’ll remember her getting really angry when my cousin Jeff and I used to mess around during lunch time and not eat. We’d literally spend hours in the kitchen not eating and laughing when she’d come in and see our lunch had nearly not been touched. She used to make us take naps which we hated. We got through them by sneaking books in and reading when she fell asleep.
When she stayed over at my house, she’d often sleep in my bed. She got me listening to this Chinese radio show about ghosts and it freaked the fucking shit out of me. Thank God she was there that night or I’d have shit myself. She witnessed my sister almost taking a piss in the closet! She used to blow saliva bubbles when she was sleeping and she got really pissed off after we made fun of her for it. Sorry grandma.
When we used to go to Chinatown together she would often buy a present for me. It was never anything huge. It was always some cheap toy I’d play for about a month and then it would break. I loved those presents.
Last year I went back home and got to see her for the last time. She was quite sick when I was there but she was able to speak and was completely coherent and conscious. I knew that that time would’ve been the last time I’d see her alive. Since then, even though she couldn’t physically eat (she ate through a tube), from what my family says, she enjoyed her time and was enthusiastic and energetic. I hope her last year was filled with good memories.
In all honesty, I am not saddened by her passing. She had a full life. I remember her as a simple woman but a woman who never lied and who never seemed to have harbored a single evil thought. She loved each of us unconditionally and gave a lot of her time looking over us grandkids. She was slightly short tempered but she was quick to forget things as well. She passed peacefully with family around her.
I’m not sad because she has lived her life well and left behind positive and wonderful memories to those around her. She has lived the way I aim to live. As I remember all these things you’ve just read, I have a smile thinking about all these times.
Thank you Grandma. I’m sure we’ll see each other again someday.
I don’t feel like telling
July 21, 2005
I haven’t been updating again. That’s alright. I don’t feel like sharing. I’ve been having a nice time. I’ve been very busy. I had a pleasant birthday without big celebrations. I’ve been hiding in air conditioners to escape this heat. I’ve been working hard. That’s all.
Protected: Ambition vs. Friends
April 19, 2005
Why?
April 14, 2005
Why is it that anytime I start an update, I write several paragraphs straight from the heart, look over them, then delete them because I don’t think I want people reading this stuff?
The Gym
April 04, 2005
Spurred by Dennis, I too will make an entry in my forsaken ‘blog’. I hate that word. I too will write about what the woman and I did together.
After many months of careful planning and deliberation, we decided to join a gym. It was a big step forward for us because neither of us had been in any exercise for years and years. It was such a couple-ly thing to do but it had been a long while since we’ve done something other than eat, watch movies, go shopping, and uh hold hands.
The closest decent gym near my apartment is a good 15 minutes by bike or a quick stop away on the Hanshin line. It’s pretty nice gym – small enough to get the attention of unwanted trainers, and big enough to allow us ample use of the equipment. There’s a pool and a studio too. Best of all, there’s a punching bag but to my disappointment, we weren’t allowed to use it. So we both worked out. I actually was able to run a fair amount on the tread – much more than I’d thought I could. Muscle-wise though, yeah, I’ll leave it at the running.
The gym is in a nice area with a Mr. Donuts right next door (in case you want to erase all your hard work at the gym), a used book/game/furniture/stuff store, a Conan department store, and some other useless stuff. The only drawback is that there’s a stupid sewage treatment plant closeby. You can really smell it. Everytime we’ve walked past this park area, I mention to the woman that, “There’s a little bit of your poo in that water.”
I am such a fucking poet.
Till the next entry!
Clicky
March 19, 2005
The week after we bought Ham, I started thinking she was feeling pretty lonely. I’m sure a part of it was just me projecting my feelings upon it but nonetheless, last Saturday we went back to the place to pick out another hamster. I wanted one from the same litter to reduce the chances of them fighting. There was a new batch of very young ones available in a different cage that day. The woman spotted a white colored one. We got her.
She was named “Star” at first because “Ham” ãƒ?ムand “Star” スターput together is ãƒ?ムスター, or “Hamster”. Star was a very young baby, I would guess only 2-3 weeks old. Even so, she seemed very small for a hamster – compare it to the size of this bottle cap:
We brought Star home and put the two of them together in a small cage we bought. They seemed to be OK together. We then washed the bigger cage to get rid of the smells and then put them in there, together. Unfortunately. Ham bit Star. We separated them right away. Star looked really messed up. She was bleeding and for the rest of the day, she didn’t eat or move much. The woman was fairly upset over this – this being her first pets. As for me, I took a pretty objective view – you know, it’s a hamster, if it dies, oh well. The funny thing though was that it kept making clicking noises – really loud clicking noises for an animal that small. I named it Clicky but the woman felt it was too mean to be making fun of its condition.
For the next few days, I nursed it back to health. Everyday it recovered a bit – it started eating and moving and climbing around! I had to wet some of its food so that it could eat – I was literally hand feeding the little thing. She was quite cute, I’ll have to admit – she grew on me because she was a lot friendlier and not as shy as Ham. I would take her out of the cage and let it eat in my hand. Often, she would fall asleep in my hand! (By far the cutest thing I’ve ever seen) By now, I had been calling her Clicky all week – even the woman was using that name. I felt it more appropriate and much cuter than Star.
Clicky was a bit of a dumbass. I put her in the big cage alone (Ham was in Clicky’s cage) so that it could play in a bigger place. She would climb up to the top of the cage, drop down on her ass and give this look of pain… then get right back up and do it again. One time, she fell, gave that pain face, and then turned over and fell asleep. This kept me laughing for a good five minutes.
Although she was on the mend, she still didn’t look great. Maybe it was the woman’s worrying and my getting used to her, but on Thursday we took it to the vet! An x-ray showed no broken bones but she did have some sort of viral infection in her lung and something went in her eye. We were supposed to give it medicine everyday. So, on top of handfeeding, now I’m administering medicine to her. Yet, the more time we spend on her, the more she grew on us. She really was so cute!
This morning, Eri woke up and wanted to give it the morning dose of medicine. She noticed Clicky was barely moving. I was still half asleep but I jumped out of bed and examined Clicky. She was only breathing in gasps and wasn’t moving. We rushed to the vet to see if he could do anything. He gave it some medicine and oxygen.
At 11:12 this morning, Clicky passed away. She was about 1 month old. While we are certainly quite sad, we’ll remember all the time spent with her. I’ll remember giving it some rice from my bento which she quickly gobbled up and also her lying against my t-shirt sleeping while I was watching TV. We only knew her for one week but she’ll remind us that life can be precious even in such a tiny tiny animal. We buried her in this flower bed beside my apartment so that everytime we walk by, we can say hello.
Thank you for everything, Clicky. We’ll miss you.
Our pet
March 07, 2005
The woman and I have advanced to the next level in relationships. We done and got ourselves a pet last Sunday. On a spur, we bought a baby Russian dwarf hamster. She’s currently residing in a green cage with a loft. The woman has named it “Ham” because it’s short of “hamster” and also it sounds like when we call each other “hun”. She’s a bit shy – I guess she’s getting used to the new surroundings.
Today I woke up and noticed most of the lettuce was eaten and the grape was half eaten too. I’m still a bit worried she doesn’t know how to use thost stupid water bottle things. Plus, she’s a damn picky eater – she’ll eat the sunflower seeds but not the mashed up corn kernel thingies. She thinks we’re still food because she’s still trying to nibble on my skin with increasing bite intensity. Bitch.
My absence
February 02, 2005
An absence that has been noticed I’m sure. My last few posts were reserves I’ve saved up for just when I don’t feel like writing yet don’t want my blog to go barren. So when I’m suddenly fiending to write, I won’t fight this addiction.
This month has been hell.
Mostly, I attribute it to work. Work has been hell. Not only has it been uncharacteristically busy, things have happened beyond our control that has made work even worse. Ever get the feeling that you’re being squeezed for every ounce of worth? Yeah, that’s work. When you’re in a position to motivate others when you’re so unmotivated, guess what, the others aren’t going to get anywhere, anytime soon. Although there have been some changes lately, it’s not just these minor changes that have made everyone feel like this. It’s a lot of pent up frustration at those holed up in the ivory tower.
I’ve also worked 10 out of 11 days straight. I didn’t get a weekend because I’m covering two friends. They’re covering me this weekend. I’m guessing a lot of what I’ve felt came from this very long stretch of all-work-no-play.
Why did I do it? Well, the woman and I are going to visit Hong Kong for a few days. I haven’t been there in a decade! It wasn’t my first choice as a travel destination but the woman really wants to see it for some reason. I’m just looking forward to NOT working and NOT thinking about work and NOT thinking about how so much stuff sucks at work.
I’m hoping in time this will all fade or else I’ll have to either deal with it or move on. Who fucking knows.
It’s 2005
January 01, 2005
Happy New Year everyone!
We’re back from Awaji Island and we even went to Tokushima in Shikoku. Only 2 more main islands to go in this country.
Off to Awaji-shima
December 30, 2004
Gonna be gone for a couple of days. We’re driving to Awaji Island and spending the night there. Depending on a number of factors, we’ll hopefully be seeing the Naruto whirlpools and some other things. Be back on the 1st. Happy New Year everyone!
tsunami
December 28, 2004
This earthquake has become something extremely destructive. Current death toll: 22,000.
The quake struck around Sunday morning. I remember reading about it online and seeing the death count to be around 300. The woman and I went out for lunch and when we came back, the death count was 3000. Then a bit later that day, 10,000. It kept climbing and climbing. Video clips from home cameras have been airing in Japan very frequently. Some people at work recognized places they had been to in Phuket to only see those places completely gone. I’d be very scared had I been in one of those places.
It has struck close to “home”. There are a few teachers from work who were in Thailand at the time. I was told to listen for names of people who were supposed to be in the region so that our foreign personnel department could be contacted… just in case. Shit.
On some news sites, it says the waves traveled at 500mph. That’s faster than airplanes.
The fearful part that I see. With global warming already taking place, sea levels will keep rising. Imagine a series of tsunamis hitting this region again, only the sea level is 1 or 2 meters higher… I’m sure the death count will be even higher.
Maybe the world will unite and start focussing on what the real problems are next year. One can dream.
Merry Christmas
December 25, 2004
The woman and I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great bucket of KFC this year.
Our automobile
December 13, 2004
Our automobile. Also the webcam is from a temple… that’s specifically… for blessing… cars. It was the worst example of blatant ripping off of money ever. Unfortunately the woman’s mother insisted that the car be… “blessed”. I had many thoughts that just shouldn’t be revealed to not piss her off.
5 Years
December 12, 2004
Sadly, I’m manually inputting the old updates I have that preceded the days of blogger. I’m too lazy to look for a way to quickly transfer them all but I’m not too lazy to copy and paste all five million entries. It gives me a good chance to read through some of my first attempts at general blogging.
It’s only been five years but in these five years I think I’ve changed quite a lot. My emotional maturity definitely increased. In 1999, I tended to ramble on about school, Quake 3, and bad weather patterns. In retrospect, 1999 was a rather turbulent year with many changes. School definitely took up a lot of my focus but at the same time, things with friends at the time also drained a lot out of me too. I think my writing then (as unfocussed and neurotic as it sounded) was an outlet to vent some of that pent up ‘anger’.
I noticed I said a lot of things that I don’t agree with anymore now. Had I known that one day I wouldn’t think the same way, I would’ve avoided it. But, at the age of 19, I thought I was invincible and that I would never change. What a little child I was. I don’t regret writing it because it was genuinely how I felt. In fact, I wish I had elaborated more on how I truly felt about certain topics. There were some details back then that would’ve helped me put ends to some issues I’m still wrestling with now. I bet I avoided them then because I was too scared.
It’s very interesting to read through your own writing, five years later.
Lost Writings
December 05, 2004
Well, because my webpage is down right now, I don’t have an outlet for my writing outbursts. Instead of losing these precious words which in a few years may be treasure to me, I’m writing them on my computer and uploading them later. From this day til the day my webpage gets back online, these updates will be known as the lost writings as no one should be reading them until way later anyway.
Today I drove again. I drove to the woman’s apartment. And back. Alone. It was quite an accomplishment for me actually. I felt much more comfortable doing everything on the other side. Parking is rather difficult from the right side though. I had to really struggle to get the big family car into the really tight “garage”. I think a few more days of practice and I’ll be ready to go somewhere far. I have a week off at the end of the year and from what I hear, traffic is very light after New Year’s. I hope this is true.
Til the next lost writing.
Send a Message
November 21, 2004
In an effort to stop trawling bots from catching my email address, I’ve created a little form for people to send messages to me. Check it out! Try to break it! Send me obsene messages! It’s in the contact section of the About page from now on.
Remember to read the third and final edition of My Strange Experiences which was posted a short while before this post.
My Strange Experiences [3 of 3]
My third and final instalment of My Strange Experiences once again is a bit weaker than the previous. This one’s gonna be a short one so save your trip to the washroom for afterwards.
I was sitting on the couch in the living room speaking to my mom. She was sitting on the loveseat. Beside both is a small table with a big lamp on it. We were watching Chinese TV and jabbering away. I remember facing the television screen and suddenly feeling someone was watching me. In my peripheral vision, I thought I saw a face hovering right above the lamp. I couldn’t make out any details but I was so damn sure. I turned and faced the lamp but of course, nothing was there.
It was probably just my imagination. I should probably stop being so interested in ghost stories. Unfortunately, nothing interesting has happened ever since coming to Japan… a land with long history, lots of war, and many deaths and a lot of superstition.
Thank you for listening to all… My Strange Experience stories.
My Strange Experiences [2 of 3]
November 20, 2004
Today’s strange experience is a bit less dramatic than the first. It’s a pretty tame story suitable for all ages but not suitable for wusses of any age.
Once again, it happened in the middle of the night. I woke up at an unknown time this time to the urges of nature calling. When nature calls, you take it, collect or not. As many of you know, the washroom in the basement is very close to my bedroom. The only difficulty is that you have to walk barefoot on the damn cold tiles of the kitchen first.
Anyway, I stroll out and turn towards the washroom. About two feet away from the washroom door, a small globe of light streaks from the top right to the bottom left. It was about the size of a ping pong ball and it wasn’t very luminescent. It was like a glow in the dark ping pong ball to be more descriptive.
I watched this thing fly across my field of vision and then disappear. For some reason, I didn’t care about it. I remember thinking (as-a-matter-of-fact), “Oh. A ball of light just streaked by.” I finished my business in the washroom and went back to bed. It wasn’t until I was lying in bed did I realize what I had just saw.
It was probably just a nothing or maybe I was dreaming again. BUT… I can’t be certain…
My Strange Experiences [1 of 3]
November 18, 2004
Today in my Japanese lesson, I was reminded of a personal experience that happened awhile ago that I never spoke about here. I mentioned it very briefly a long time ago but never got around to revealing what it was. Perhaps it was because I didn’t know what to make of it or maybe I didn’t want people to think I was insane. Since I’ve established myself as certifiably insane already, I have no more reservations about telling the story. Here it is.
That night I went to bed listening to Coast to Coast AM as I always did. I fell asleep but awoke a couple hours later. I remember looking at the radio and seeing it was 2:00am’ish. I turned the radio back on to catch some more of the show. It was the host…. what’s his name… the one who took over for Art Bell and some other guy… the guest I guess. Anyway, it was two guys on the show only. Remember this point.
I remember it was an interesting show about either vampires or spirits but I was pretty drowsy so it could’ve been about stealing underwear from midgets for all I know.
Anyway, I remember not being able to sleep so I just listened and relaxed. I have a tendency to not stay still so in my normal shifting of my body, I crossed my right leg onto my left. For some reason, I crossed them like when I’m sitting: right ankle to left knee/thigh. It was at the very moment they connected that it happened.
I froze. Literally. My whole body felt like it suddenly slammed onto the bed even though I had already been lying there all night. I couldn’t move. The radio which had been in the background all that time suddenly started fading away. All I could hear now was this strange background noise which sort of sounded like static on TV, on low volume. Then, I could hear two female voices start speaking, only, they weren’t speaking English – I could clearly hear words but it was in a language I didn’t even recognize.
You may have guessed that at this point, I’m freaking out. I had gone from listening to two guys on a radio station to hearing two women speaking jibberish and being unable to move.
What I did next though was I just concentrated and focussed my breathing and tried not to panic. I’m guessing about ten seconds later, I was free. The women’s voices started fading and the sounds from the radio came back on.
My heart was beating at 16Mhz at this point but I calmed myself down and assured myself I had fallen asleep and nothing more. The next morning I pondered about the event in full sunlight and came to the conclusion that most likely I was just dreaming.
But what if I wasn’t?
Explorer man!
November 12, 2004
Since the woman’s in Korea over the weekend painting the town red with her friends, I’m left here all alone to sulk. It seems everyone and their neighbor is busy tomorrow and therefore unable to entertain me. Looks like I’ll have to keep myself company.
Because the weather’s cooperating and because I’m still not willing to let last week’s defeat by a mountain overtake my adventurous spirit, I’ve decided to embark on a one-man journey tomorrow. I’m going to overcome a huge challenge. Two actually.
Challenge the first:
I’m going to do something on my own. Although I’ve been here for 2 years, I’ve never gone out further than I can bike or take a quick subway trip on my own. I’ve always been with the woman or a friend. I’m going to have to find my way to Kyoto and then back relying only on my sometimes unreliable intelligence and wit.
Challenge the second:
I’m going to Arashiyama – another mountain. Luckily, this is a touristy place with temples and markets and vending machines. There are monkeys there that sometimes attack people. As Dennis said last week, I may be kidnapped by monkeys and be forced to marry the monkey princess. I hope she’s hot…
Wish me luck my friends. I hope to make it back in one piece with exotic treasures and coves of pictures to post to my heart’s delight.
Block
October 21, 2004
Why is it becoming so difficult to write on my webpage? For one thing, I’ve been trying really hard lately to only write slightly more meaningful things. I’m avoiding the “Today I did this…” kind of entries because they’re boring and no one but I could care.
So? By trying to focus more on interesting things to say, I’ve sacrificed actual updating?
Maybe. Maybe it’s just that life in general now is a big repetition. It’s become a day-in, day-out routine. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disliking it. It’s just now that school days are over, changes don’t happen that often. I spend a good portion of life in the office and as such, interesting things don’t come by that frequently anymore.
Instead of waiting for interesting things to happen, perhaps I should go and seek things out to write about? Be an investigative journalist for this page? Maybe I should just search and explore the inner workings of my mind and find interesting things to write about. This update is a result of the latter – in searching for why I don’t update much, I’ve written an update.
I’m hoping to take more pictures in the next little while and put more up. Otherwise, bear with me for the future looks just as ordinary as the past little while.
Touching is Feeling
October 06, 2004
I’ve got no site to blog on for the moment (shameless plug: www.handsomemonkey.com) and since some of you are in need of some reading material, I thought I’d do a guest update here.
I’ve realized how important it is to have physical human contact. I didn’t have it for most of my life. Raised by asian parents, I was taught to be objective rather than base my actions on emotions. Emotions were for white devils. That’s why they had movies like Dirty Dancing and Kramer Vs. Kramer. We Chinese dealt with problems using cold-blooded violence, a la Enter the Dragon, and sometimes a sprinkling of humour (think Drunken Master here.)
Alas, as my parents learned, you can’t raise your children in Canada and expect them to hold on to old world ideals and values. For 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, your kid attended a white ghost school. You don’t really expect them to come home without a tinge of rebelliousness, did you? You didn’t really expect them to come home and salute you and say, “Mother, father, today I was taught to do things the white devil way, but do not worry as I will never stray from filial piety.”
Unfortunately, it’s hard to meld the old and new world values. And so, for many years, I did what most normal kids would do. I mixed them up. I approached things emotionally when I should have approached them objectively, and vice versa. It wasn’t until I was 16 or so when I realized how meaningful it was to touch someone you love. How contact, even through a few layers of cloth and fleece, could reassure yourself and those that you touch. It’s a mutual thing. Prior to that, I don’t remember ever giving my mom or dad a hug. I never shook hands with friends, or tussled with them for fun.
When I got into a long term relationship, that’s when the floodgates to physical contact opened. I’m talking about touching in purely non-sexual terms here, folks. A simple holding of hands, or a big hug, or even a tickle here and there can communicate so much. And as most relationships do, mine ended, and with that the touching ended. It was strange to go back into isolation. I might as well have been in prison, cut off from the outside world except through bulletproof glass and steel bars: Seeing, but not feeling.
I’ve come to realize that I miss it. Even worse, I’ve lost my “touch”, so to say. Touching someone is once again strange to me, kind of like dancing with that shy girl in PE 8 with the cold clammy hands. Except I’m the girl with cold clammy hands. It’s sad. It’s funny, most people miss the intimacy of relationships, the passion and/or romance, or the moments shared with a significant other. I miss the touch. Of having a warm body pressed against me, a light kiss, a playful slap on the arm.
You touch, in order to feel. I’ve come to realize that right now, I’m feeling nothing.
Is there anyone out there?
Where have all the updates gone?
I wish I had more time or something to write about. Just the usual for me. I’m still testing the limits of my management skills. I’m balancing about 20 things on my to-do list with ample opportunity for praise, feedback, reprimanding, and plain ol’ chewing the fat with people.
The Brick Testament
September 30, 2004
The Brick Testament. Bible stories, Lego, graphic depictions. What better way to use this harmless Danish toy? Oh man, this particular picture will be etched in my mind forever.
4 Years
September 10, 2004
Today is our 4 year anniversary!
We’re spending the weekend at a couple of resorts at the southern tip of Wakayama – Shirahama and Kushimoto. We may visit Adventure World but even if we don’t, I highly recommend that you visit the website and read through the English; it’s very funny.
By the way, we’re going closer to the epicenter of the earthquakes and since we’re going to be on the coastline, we’ll be prone to tsunamis too. If we don’t come back, we probably fell into a crevice that opened up. Swallowed by the Earth, we’ll explore underground civilizations while saving the surface people from impending doom.
Happy 4 years honey!
Picture; 1000 words
September 03, 2004
I’ve been hit with a lack of ideas about what to write. Everything I want to write about tends to inflame me and makes me think about making fun of people. I don’t need any more of that on my page.
Here are some pictures instead:
extreme
August 31, 2004
Well from the feedback from my previous post, I can say that the people who thought I was being too mean are all morons who don’t really know me.
Of course I don’t mean what I said. In the interest of sparking thought and discussion, I wrote that piece in a more polarized voice than normal. If I come off sounding like a dick to you, then chances are, you didn’t know me at all anyway. If you did know me, you’ll know what I am in real life: a big pussy who can’t even get rid of people who talk too much. (I’m much too polite).
Not that I really care anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are several factors involved in considering another’s opinion that conflicts with mine.
- Who are you? Are you a stranger? Are you a friend? Are you a good friend? Are you a really good close friend? Are you my lover? There’s a progression of what matters more.
- Is what you’re saying really different than what I’m saying? In that is your view even possible? I’m rarely wrong, remember. There are some fundamental truths that will never change for me, no matter who you are.
- What kind of mood am I in? I think that makes a big difference. Just today I was approached by someone who wanted to complain about doing this person’s damn job. I just snapped at her because I was in a shitty mood.
Sigh. I’m so disillusioned with so much.
Oh Dennis Where Art Thou?
August 05, 2004
I thought you were supposed to be back in Vancouver on Monday or Tuesday? What’s up? I haven’t heard from you. Look, a whole update dedicated to finding out where you are.
Under Construction
July 23, 2004
Well I’ve finally updated the webcam. This time I’ve taken a picture from ancient times and thrust it into that little box down there. It’s a picture of Dennis, myself, and Justin when we were in grade 11… circa 1997 I guess.
I’ve decided to go trek Mt. Fuji sometime soon but with whom, when, how, and why I don’t know. Perhaps it’s in faint hope of catching the Brocken Effect like these lucky asses did?
The damn photo gallery is finally fixed. Turns out the the permissions for all the files where suddenly changed. It was such a simple fix really but before I realized what it was, I went and lost all the writing that went with the pictures. Curses! I’m slowly in the process of rewriting it all. In the meantime, you dirty pervs can still enjoy the picture of me going down the waterslide since I’m topless.
I’ve neglected to mention that my little sister has started a blog! Or rather, I started it up and put a gun to her head and said, “Type… now”. So go leave nice little comments there.
And I’ve updated the links to include more people’s sites. I guess I’ll plug Mike’s travel site since it features some pretty good information about Osaka. I have a site at virtualtourist.com too but it contains nothing.
And this month is probably one of the busiest in terms of visitors. Four good friends will be visiting Osaka in these next two weekends. I’ll be having plenty of drinks and snapping lots of pictures I hope. Sign up now for bootleg copies of Dennis’ performance in Osaka!
Oh God I am 24 years old now too… I’d write about what I did on my birthday but I’d be banned from most countries since it involved naughty naughty things.
ebb and flow
July 15, 2004
My current and previous jobs have taught my a lot of things about interpersonal communication that I will take with me forever. However, the most important lesson I learned from both these places is that life isn’t static and constant, instead, it ebbs and flows as much as the tides or full moon.
In both these jobs, I’ve seen many friends come and go. That’s the nature of both these places. I shared great times with great friends only to have them say goodbye in a few months or a year. Although I don’t believe in goodbyes (I believe in “See ya later”), I know inside that I will never see most of these people again in my life.
It took a change in attitude to adjust to the situation. I remember my first month at the ELI very well. I remember meeting two Korean students whom became very good friends of mine. I remember visiting their place nearly every weekend for a homecooked dinner and as much booze and cigarettes as I wanted. I became really close to them and felt like my first love stabbed me in the ass when they returned home. After that, I developed a sort of wall so that I could never feel like that again.
Slowly through the years though, I’ve realized that friends coming and going, loved ones being born and dying, and things fading in and fading out are all part of life. The process is usually a very long drawn one but once in awhile, things happen suddenly. Most of us are at a loss on how to deal with sudden changes in our lives and become extremely depressed. While I don’t hold myself to a higher standard nor am I apathetic when something happens, I try to deal with the situation in a natural way. It was going to happen, sulking won’t benefit anything, and I have many more things to look forward to.
I’m writing this update knowing that during my visit to Canada last week, I saw my grandmother for probably the last time. I’m saddened that someone who had a big hand in raising me will be dying but I also know death is as natural as birth. Should there be an afterlife, we’ll all meet and speak of old times. Should there not be, well then I won’t have to worry when bacteria start munching on my beautiful skin.
In addition, I’ve been in Japan for nearly two years now and I’ve said “bubbye” to many people. Thankfully, most were ones whom I didn’t know very well and therefore I didn’t care. However, I’ve become “attached” to some and I know they will have to leave Japan and go onto their next thing. I don’t look forward to that day but you gotta do what you gotta do right?
Still, a true friend, I’ve noticed, will always be a true friend no matter where you are and how long you haven’t seen each other. And the ones who don’t, well, they can kiss my shining, sentimental arse.
Edit – 2005/09/22
Here are some pictures from my visit with friends and family.
Leaving on a jet plane
July 08, 2004
Well my short return home has drawn to an end. I’m on the plane in about 12 hours to return to the mundane, yet very happy little life that I have forged for myself in Japan. In these 6 days, I’ve done all that I had set out to do, save for a few things to buy. In the end, the rather expensive airplane ticket was worth it since it let me do some important things.
Primarily, I got to see my grandmother everyday while I was here. Her condition has been between bismal and upbeat. Yesterday she had a tube inserted directly into her stomach so that they can feed her. She had been on the malnutritious drips for the past week and was pretty much just wasting away. The doctor wouldn’t place a tube via esophagus because the cancer had grown too much. Anyway, with this stomach tube, she’ll have some more time. I jumped on the airplane expecting her to go at any time and I leave knowing she has a bit more time. (How much time I have no idea – the doctor is rather vague ALL the time).
Nxt, I saw some people whom I haven’t seen in a long time. I also didn’t have the time to see people I would have liked to see too. For those I saw – thank you for making this unexpected visit so much fun and I hope to see you soon again. For those I missed, I’m sorry I missed you.
did quite a lot of shopping – mostly for entertainment. I bought a couple Gamecube games, a couple PC games, and a couple of books. I will also be bringing back a few pictures that were printed and some that I took.
I’m feeling a range of emotions from happy to sad. I don’t even know how to feel now. I’m pretty damn tired from running around everyday all week so I wasn’t in a very good mood for yet another huge family dinner. For reasons I can understand, our entire extended has been seeing each other a lot more. In the past, we’d barely see one another 2 or 3 times a year. I even got to hang out with cousins whom I rarely ever see. It’s weird that I don’t really know my own relatives.
See you back in Japan.
hurry
July 02, 2004
I will be going back to Vancouver for about 5 days. Unfortunately, I return not in happy spirits because I’m returning to see my grandmother for what may very well be the last time. She has been ill for awhile as I mentioned before. Her condition does not look good so I am going to rush home. As much as I would like to meet my friends, I don’t think I’ll have the time nor the right mood to do so. They’ll all forgive me.
scary
June 22, 2004
Someone’s been putting my full name into search engines lately. Who’s out there? Secret admirer? Arch nemesis? Someone looking for another who shares my name? I wonder…
webcam down gallery up
June 07, 2004
I tried using my quickcam yesterday and for some reason it’s not being recognized by windows. I haven’t used it in awhile but I haven’t jostled or dropped it lately either. Weird. So maybe the webcam will be stuck until I get it fixed or get a new one. I spent all night last night getting a new photo gallery up. It’s up! I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures so enjoy. Don’t be surprised if the skin keeps changing because I haven’t found one I particularly love yet. I hope everything works.
Studying Pays Off
June 05, 2004
Well, first an official welcome to the new site. Welcome. Sorry about the comments that force you to either register with Blogger or post anonymously (again, just sign your comment with your name). It’s just easier for me, the point-and-click webpage dude, to have everything in one place. The dotComments fucked up too much.
I’ve been studying Japanese (sort of) for about a year now. I take a weekly lesson but I’ve missed scores of lessons due to laziness, being sick, and some other unfortunate things. A couple nights ago, I visited the BC Provincial Exams page and looked at the Japanese Provincials for the past couple of years. I was so happy when I realized I could easily pass the test and probably get a good score too. My one year of studying was equivalent to years of studying in highschool. It goes to show how shit rigid, structured learning institutes are.
Tonight the woman and I are going to watch The Day After Tomorrow. I’m sure what everyone says about the storyline is true but damn it looks cool to see New York covered in snow like that. The woman is speaking to herself while naked right now. It’s cute in a scary, let’s-send-her-to-an-asylum way.
Hot
May 31, 2004
Agh it’s been getting really hot and humid already! Yesterday I was all grumpy and pissy at the woman because of the weather. We ended up having a great hot pot lunch with the woman’s mother, getting insurance for Saipan, and doing a tad of shopping again. Only 11 more days before going… I can’t wait.
Other than that, I’ve been playing Pikmin, which Dan graciously lent me. I’m at the final boss but didn’t kill him yet due to sheer boredom. I’ll get that big ugly bulb later.
I have a new webpage design that is 95% complete. I don’t know if I’ll use it now or when I switch hosts. This host is gone by the end of June so I don’t know.
Ok. I just wanted to write something here before getting ready for work. Bye.
Eating Voyeur
May 21, 2004
I like watching the woman eat ever since our first date at Cow’s and at a shitty bubble tea place. You can tell a lot about a person from the way they eat. The woman, for example, eats quite intently but at the same time, her eyes wander all over the place and she likes to alternate when eating. A bite of this, a nibble of that, a sip of that. Her eating style is like a complicated ballet routine which looks random but in fact it’s so very coordinated. It describes her personality fairly well I think.
I on the other hand, am very focussed when eating. I will eat all the vegetables/salad first. I will then eat the glucose rich food (the rice, noodle, or bread). I will eat small bites of the main course (meat, seafood) alongside the glucose rich food but I will save the majority of it for the end. After all the food has been eaten, I will then consume the soup. It’s very structured, conservative, and it’s a pattern I’ve noticed since I was about 11. It describes me very well too.
I can’t speak for the woman but for myself – everything is black and white for me. The salad is salad. The rice is rice. I am right. I am wrong. You should do this, she should do that. There is no gray area. I am very predictable according to my friends. I’m rather conservative for a 23 year old too – I believe and uphold in many old fashioned values I guess.
Now, as I’m writing this, I’m deviating from my normal eating habits. I have in front of me half a honeydew melon. Normally, I would cut it into perfectly equal slices and consume the fruit from right to left. Today, I just pulled out a spoon and I literally told myself to “dig in”. I guess everyone’s entitled to a wild side.
The Stupid Factor
May 19, 2004
I remember chatting with Dennis not long ago about how stupid it is that companies keep putting out ancient games like pacman, galaga, tetris, dig dug, etc. and just improve the graphics or add some options? And why do people keep buying the same game?
As you all know, I have a Gamecube now and today after work, I went to Den Den Town again and bought myself some games. One game was dirt cheap. It’s called, “Space Raider” and it said on the cover, “Shooting Game”. I figure it was something like those side scrolling arcade games. The screenshots on the back don’t really show the game much. There is one screen of the actual game and the rest are all of the intro. Be warned – this is a sign that the game sucks.
I had a bad feeling on the way home that I just bought Space Invaders for Gamecube… I mean, “Space Raider”, no good screen shots of the game, the game was dirt cheap (1000 yen)…
Sure enough. It is Space Invaders. It’s slightly cooler – you play characters who side scroll and shoot wave upon wave of hideous alien crawlies. You can upgrade the weapon too. When it comes down to it though… I am so fucking stupid.
News!
May 16, 2004
Ok, first, Dennis, since there’s no news, there will be no news flashes. I’m not going to create news like some network news. The biggest news today was that Eri and I saw about 5 crazy people today who inexplicably laugh or did something rather weird by themselves.
Today we bought a Nintendo Gamecube. It’s my first console purchase in years. The last console I bought was a Super Nintendo. I’m rather dismayed by Nintendo after today’s purchase. The box didn’t include an AV cable. How could you sell everything but the AV cable? I see parents buying their kids a Gamecube only to disappoint them at night because they can’t play anything without the blasted cable.
Yesterday we saw the movie to end all movies. Dawn of the Dead is undoubtedly the coolest movie I’ve ever seen. It had tonnes of guns, millions of zombies, people dying, a dog, no unnecessary plot, and a pair of tits at the end to round things up. This movie is the pinnacle of entertainment.
Next, let’s welcome to the fray, Eugenio. He’s decided to start a blog after some strong coercion by me (“Why don’t you make a webpage? Try www.blogger.com. It’s easy.”) So if any ELI people read this page for some weird reason, go see Eugene’s page.
I’m actually working on a design now. I’m trying out some pastel colors and so far I’m unpleased as it all turns out rather flaming. Maybe pastel colors aren’t right for me.
Blast It!
May 03, 2004
Well at least it took a month before I fucked up. Tonight hosted a monthly meeting with all of us and some higher ups. It was my first of these meetings and I somehow managed to be the last person to be there. They had to send someone down to make sure I was aware of where the place was. I hustle up and make a rather choked comment like, “Sorry, I’m the new guy” and got some chuckles. Ugh. I apologized afterwards and promised it wouldn’t happen again now knowing that everyone meets there and not where I was.
I guess this wasn’t that bad a fuck up. It could’ve been a lot worse.
One Month
May 01, 2004
April has been one long, challenging month. The first two weeks in my new position were marked with very little in duties. I felt people had higher expectations for me for some reason. I don’t like being treated like, “Oh he’s new so let’s take it easy on him”. I prefer, “I don’t care if he’s new, he should be doing as well as we are”. Since I and the other new people didn’t know what we were supposed to do, nothing was really done. It wasn’t until the second week until a million new people came into the company and began their training. Suddenly we found ourselves doing a million things at once. After two of the busiest weeks, I feel rather satisfied in what I’ve accomplished. In fact, I have to say job satisfaction has shot up two fold.
Anyway, how did I repay myself for a month of feeling like I actually worked? I go and have some yakiniku (bbq meat) and eat something bad and get diarrhea! Yay for diarrhea. It’s day 2.5 of diarrhea and I’m feeling like shit. Hehe. I’m trying to drink lots of water and sport drinks and I’m even eating but to no avail. I’m thinking it’s probably something more along the lines of gastroenteritis but I’m trying to fight this one out with diet and mind-over-matter control (“Don’t shit. Don’t shit. Don’t shit”).
Congratulations, jack ass.
My poor baby webpage
April 19, 2004
I’ve been neglecting my baby webby again. I’m sorry baby. You are my portal to this invisible medium of communication and pornography. For these two things, you sit on my good list.
I don’t even know what’s keeping me busy. I’ve been trying to absorb and learn as much as I can at work and sometimes I go in early to prepare for something. Out of work, I’ve been just doing filler things to keep myself busy for some reason. I watched some Jet Li movies just because I miss Chinese. I went to the zoo with Eri last weekend, hence the cool picture of the tiger up top.
And I’m out of words to say again.
It’s not writer’s block. Writer’s block implies there are words there to write. The words don’t even exist right now.
Oh, I found a free substitute to Coast to Coast AM’s paid streaming service – www.Fatemag.com. I remember snagging up a few copies of this mag a long time ago but it was too expensive.
Edit – 2005/09/22
The picture of the tiger
Long Wait Over
April 15, 2004
My grandmother has esophagial cancer, much like Eri’s father 6/7 months ago. At my grandmother’s age (83), it’s too dangerous to operate so they’re going to treat it with other means. From what my mother said, they’ll try to reduce the size of the cancer so that she can eat solid food. I guess the good news is that nothing bad will happen immediately. Seeing how things turn out, I will probably postpone going back to Vancouver until summer. We’ll see.
A bit of good news is that I finally got my Saturday and Sunday weekend. I now have a proper weekend! I will be able to spend more time with my woman.
Unfortunate News
April 11, 2004
Sadly, I do have news to write about now. 2 days ago, my family found out that my grandmother has cancer. Cancer and tumour are two words that I have heard way more than normal in the past several months. It’s also a word that causes a lot of headache and pain. The only information I know was from my sister, whom I talked to today, and apparently they’re going to take my grandmother to see another doctor for their opinion. I have no idea what’s going to happen after that. My gran is 80+ years old by the way.
Much like all unpleasantness, this has caught at a very busy time. I’m thinking of going back to Vancouver but I’m not sure when. Hopefully I can do it either very soon or very late after – ticket prices and schedules are really fucked for the month of May due to holidays that go on around here.
You’ll understand the continuing lack of updates.
LOTGD Gone
April 01, 2004
Sorry but it killed my webpage and I’m not giving up my host to play a game that died so long ago. Don’t blame my host and don’t say I should get a new host. I never asked to have it installed anyway. It was a fun month and it ended with me being number 1!
Today was my first official day in my new position but people won’t really know until tomorrow when it will be blatantly obvious… I can’t wait until “friends” treat me differently. I already had some weird vibes today. I don’t mind sarcasm and some jokes as long as it’s all in positive/friendly light. Oh well, nobody I couldn’t live without anyway.
Brain Dump
March 30, 2004
So really I have not updated because I don’t have anything to write about. I will officially begin in my new position on Thursday and I’m getting training in the meantime. I’d write more about it but I’d rather not. There are too many bitter people who would probably love to read about things like that. I am bored stiff. I need a new game. I went browsing in the stores here and all imported games have been translated into Japanese and cost 2-3 times more than what they would online. No way am I paying a hundred bucks for Warcraft III. I’ve been pondering about making a new webpage from scratch but I’m lost as to what I want. LoGD is getting boring but it’s become so routine now and I strive on routine and consistency in my life. The weather has been becoming much better – this morning was so nice that I’d just opened my balcony doors and let the sun and wind blow all morning. I have a day off tomorrow and I’m hoping I get the same weather. I think I might tote my lovely camera around and snap shots at everything and I mean everything. Wow, even in a brain dump am I having trouble thinking of things to write.
I guess I’m trying to be Organized Man lately. I’m trying to catalog and categorize and organize and detail everything in my apartment and all sorts of notes from my Japanese class and from work. Organized Man fights the dastardly Messy Man and Chicken Scratch Man.
Writing sucks.
Done
March 18, 2004
I found out I got the promotion today. Woohoo.
LORD (or LOGD)
March 08, 2004
It goes without saying that I’m the biggest geek on the game right now. I’m at level 12 while everyone is about 5-7. I just looked at the news and I’m on day 31 while others are around 18-20. That means I’ve played way more than others. I can’t help it! It just so happens that the four game days per real day sort of coincide with my schedule. Well, I had to adjust my schedule a bit to fit in all game turns on a couple of days (sleep a bit later, go to work a bit later) but for the rest of the week, I just play right before the day changes and then right after.
For some reason, the level master kept attacking me when I wasn’t ready so for three or four days, I kept going in the forest unable to level up. When I finally upgraded the weapon and armour, I kicked his ass and found I had enough experience for an additional two levels. Then the next day, after several thrill seeking, I’m ready for two more but lost the second.
So I don’t know how many of the players actually read my webpage but that’s my strategy so far. Thrillseek until I have enough experience for the level up, then slum/look to save up gold to upgrade gear. For me, it seems to be the fastest way. I am never going mining again… I’m 0/2 at the mines. Just doesn’t seem worth it.
I have killed off the ADMIN character because for some reason people were attacking the invincible player… perhaps in hopes to gain his massive holdings. In his stead, my character has superuser status but I won’t abuse this power. It’s not fun that way… yet. Superusers can pretty much edit any part of the game, including users and their stats. So, if one were really inclined to do so, one change give oneself a thousand charm and five thousand attack power. Or one can make another have two charm and one attack power. One can be very selfish and cruel. My character remains fleshy and mortal with no artificial changes, sweeteners, or colors. (I’m just 5 levels higher than the next player heh heh). Fear not for I remain a fair and just geek who intends to make fun of your spelling mistakes.
Jeez, what a geeky update today.
Dethforce kisses Violet and then slays Adonis
March 02, 2004
Justin has worked his magic and placed Legend of the Green Dragon on this here site. If you know what 9600 bauds, 14.4, or 28.8 mean, you will know LOGD. If not, then you are probably too young or had a life when you were a teenager.
Orkut
February 25, 2004
I’ve been playing with it for the past few days. It’s not exactly fun, I mean, it’s just writing about yourself, uploading pictures, and adding friends’ emails. I like it more than Friendster because it wasn’t a big fad that everyone just jumped on. I hate bandwagons. I sent out mass mail messages to friends but I realized after sadly waiting for a long time that no one got the invitation (confirmed by a few friends). So I’ve been re-sending invitations and if I happen to send you two invitations, sorry. You can rest assured I won’t send another. So far I’ve put up a few pictures over there. I think I’m neglecting this webpage now though. I really don’t know what to do here anymore. I’m thinking of yet another new look because I’m bored of how complicated it is to change small things here. We’ll see.
New webcam of the woman. There was one with the both of us together but I looked too goofy.
Oh yeah I’m still not smoking – it’ll be two weeks come Friday. I’m pretty happy because I haven’t had any strong urges to smoke. The strangest thing is the small things which make me feel like smoking. I make a cup of coffee and almost instinctively go to the balcony in preparation for a cigarette. I then realize, “Hey. I don’t have to brave the cold winds anymore, I can enjoy coffee… indoors.”
What a boring update.
Ugh
February 15, 2004
Along with some chocolates, the woman gave me her cold for this Valentine’s. I was beginning to feel like shit on Friday before sleeping and when I woke up on Saturday, I was a bag of shit. I spent the whole day sleeping, coughing, hocking multicolored discharge, and just feeling like ass. I did feel much better at night – I regained my appetite for about two hours and ate everything in sight. This morning, I woke up feeling much better but my throat is still sore and I’m still hearing the wheezy sounds when coughing.
I’m not going to work today. I guess there’s a silver lining even in being sick – I hate Sundays and will not mind not working.
Ugh.
Awaken!
February 03, 2004
I have internet once again! I’m in my new apartment now. I have to go to work now too.
Update later. Bye.
The Big Clean
January 14, 2004
So the comments haven’t been working for several days now but I’m too busy lately to even begin to wonder why. I’ll be starting to organize shit to move into my apartment but in the meantime I have to clean this old dump for the next sucker. Sucker! I just might fuck dotComments and find something else. Or it might be my host… their website has changed and it doesn’t even look like they offer any services anymore. For safety, I just backed up my shit. Go figure.
A List of Very Uncomfortable Things
January 11, 2004
- Wet socks
- Eating a great meal at a fine restaurant but then finding out something disagrees with you and you end up shitting all that food out… violently
- Washing the dishes and grabbing something squishy
- Eating cheese that looked a lot more delicious than it tastes
- Waking up to your neighbour’s horrible loogie hocking noises
- Stepping in doo doo
- Cleaning the washroom (if God had meant for me to wash washrooms, he would’ve made soapscum smell like roses)
- Dogs licking your face
- Tight underwear
- The runs
- A combination of the previous two
And more!
Happy New Year Folks
January 01, 2004
We’re a little faster ahead here in Japan but yours will be in a few hours I suppose so happy new year. It’s a fresh slate for all of you with shitty things last year and it’s a chance to do even better this year if you had a great year last year. 2003 went by so quickly and I’ve not much to show for so this year I want to improve my Japanese more, take more pictures with my cool camera, and maybe do some more travelling.
So far, I’ve got Korea planned for this month and Eri and I were talking about maybe visiting New Zealand to see her old homestay family and to see what all the fuss is about down there.
I can’t wait for doom 3 to come out- it’ll definitely be THE video game of the year for me. This I already know.
I’m hoping to visit home maybe a bit later. I wanted to go back sooner but some unfortunate unforeseen circumstances caused me to use up my holidays rather quickly. My new batch will be here in April.
Anyway today I’m doing the temple thing with the girl’s family. See you soon pretties.
Quake 3 Urban Terror?
December 28, 2003
Anyone up for it? (This mostly means you Dennis but if anyone wants to play…) I can’t play fast paced dm games since I live an ocean away but some strategic gunfire and sniping should be ok maybe. It’s a crazy 300mb download but hey, that’s why we’re on broadband right? Anyone? Hello?
Merry Boxing Day
December 26, 2003
Yeah while you’re having Christmas, I’m having my Boxing Day. Christmas for me was sort of half boring. I had to work on Christmas! Yes, they do that in this country. I had some coffee with some cohorts afterwards and then went home. Happy 23rd to my baby who shares birthdates with Jebus. We went to the Hard Rock last night and had some Christmas chicken dinner and an appy platter. That was the extent of my Christmas. Still happy though. Today is my first of 11 no work days! Woohoo! I changed the left bar a bit – it’s for my sister really who couldn’t find my email even if I tattooed it on her palm. Replace the [at] with @, of course. Check out my camera on the tripod yo. Off to the cool party tomorrow. Ah yes, Sunny got himself a domain… if he’d only update now.
Merry Christmas, fools and Happy New Year.
No Title
December 23, 2003
Last night I had my first ever kids lesson. I had been wanting some change from the normal stuff I do so I decided (in July) that I wanted to do kids lessons. After a 5 month wait (which is really fast compared to other things), I finally got “trained” and had the lesson yesterday. Most people abhor the thought of doing kids lessons because there are some “special” kids out there that really make your life a living hell for those long 40 minutes. The teachers I’ve talked to who do kids lessons seem to really love it but hate the special kids.
For my first lesson, they handpicked a student who was described in her communicative ability test as, “the model kids lesson student”. She was 11 years old and was as bright as a 200 watt bulb. She was so smart and cute that the 40 minutes went by so quickly. Not only did she laugh at all my retarded antics, she used the language that was introduced too (that being four simple prepositions of “under, in, on, beside”). We played a couple games of Pokemon Hangman (ingenious new game concocted by yours truly) and Othello. I know they give really good kids for the first two lessons but wow, this 11 year old really impressed me and alleviated a lot of fears about teaching kids. I may soon learn to enjoy kids… *shudder*.
There are two more working days this year and then I’m off for 11 days. Eleven full resting days to ponder about the myriad of happenings this year and relax. There’ll be a semi-big party on Saturday with my Japanese friends (I’ll be the token foreigner!!) and some other odds and ends.
I’m going to Korea at the end of January with a friend. I just got the holidays approved and now I’ll have to buy tickets and shit. Should be fun though.
I’m bored today and no one is online. Sorry I missed your message Dennis, I was playing Red Alert 2 and I think I saw your message right as you logged off. Rats.
Finale
December 20, 2003
So today might well be the last time I go to the girl’s company. Yesterday and the day before, I helped clear shit off the shelves and rummage through stuff for any salvageables. I found a replica Beretta and nabbed it. It’s sitting menacingly on my shelf. It looks so damn cool. Throughout my childhood, I’ve had in my posession guns but nothing as realistic as this. The closest things I had were Super Soaker 30s and some of those plastic frisbee guns. Oh, the Nintendo Zapper came pretty close too.
Today, we’re going to keep an eye on some dudes who are going to cut through the shelves and clear out garbage. The shelves are essentially metal frames bolted to the wall so there was no feasible/economical way we could’ve gotten rid of them. It’ll be cool, they’re going to use welding guns to cut through the metal. I’m hoping to get a picture from afar of the sparks and shit.
All I can say is… it’s sort of sad and happy that the place is done with.
I bought a camera bag and a cheap tripod yesterday. It’s sweet.
Did You Just Say Parakeet?
December 10, 2003
Oh man. Oh man. Strong Sad on caffeine is definitely awesome. It was one of the best sbemails ever. I totally have to set this up… I’ll buy the coffee, someone find a bag of sad over and we’ll inject caffeine into his bloodstream. Oh man that was cool.
And did anyone else think that video of Super Mario Bros. 3 being finished in 11 minutes was amazing? It was more than amazing, it was… divine!
Blechy Update
December 08, 2003
I have really been meaning to update but everytime I load up blogger, my mind draws a blank. I quickly withdraw from my original intention of writing.
I wish I had something interesting to say about what’s been happening lately but sorry, shit out of luck. Work has been slightly more interesting ever since I passed my demo lesson test. My schedule (and therefore my overall sanity) has been nicer and lighter. I’m getting “training” for other types of lessons and it’s looking to be a busy run right up until the holiday.
This year luck let me pop her cherry. I work on Christmas Day but I get the next two days off as my normal weekend. The holiday begins right
after that so I get a slight 2 day headstart. I return to work on the 6th and work 3 days until the weekend. It sure beat last year. I worked Christmas last year and got a full 8 group lessons while everyone else had a breezy 2 or 3 lesson day – the only reason I got the royal shaft was because I was still on “probation”. People on probation (during my day) got shit on pretty badly. Now the newbies get a slightly easier start. I heard it’s because the new teachers have been getting complaints and not because the company had a change of heart and decided to let the fragile, new teachers have an easier time adjusting to the place.
I’ve only had a couple of chances to use my new camera and I have one complaint about it already. It’s too damn hard to use! I’m not talking about the controls or button layouts, I’m talking about getting a nice clear shot. Many of my shots are slightly out of focus or blurred because I can’t hold the damn thing still for the 1/10th of a second. For the life of me, my hands shake more than Tokyo during an earthquake. I think I’ll have to get a tripod or else have anyone who views my photos suspect me of being a Parkinsons sufferer. The very few pictures that aren’t blurry though, really rule.
I’m hoping for more practice during this holiday break. If we’re lucky, I want to travel somewhere close with the girl and take some pictures of some sort of traditional Japanese thing.
I hope to update before Christmas but if I keep up my pace lately, then I’ll have to wish y’all a Merry Christmas. Did anyone other than the girl notice the cute ass Santa hat on my webpage?
Growing Up
November 28, 2003
One update. That’s it.
Anyway. Do you remember the day you changed from being a child to, dare I say, a man? There are basically four stages in a life: kid, awkward kid-adult, adult, old fart. Life as a kid was sweet. You go to stupid elementary school where you’re heads over everyone else because they were just stupid. All that fun reading you did at home at night really paid off – you knew more about everything than everyone else. Best of all, you were cute because you were a kid – there are no such things as ugly kids.
Then one day, you grew up into an awkward kid-adult. You know the phase – you’re too smart and ugly to remain a kid and yet you’re too short, stupid, and rash to be an adult. You went through highschool hating every single minute of it. You guaged the stress and happiness meter by the number of zits on your face at any given point of time. You gawked at every human that did not carry a penis and wish you could have intercourse with them. You wonder why everyone got girlfriends while you’re stuck at home playing stupid video games and listening to your mother bitch about you not vacuuming the living room or something. Life sucked ass.
Thankfully, that phase ended and even though it ended painfully, well, who gives a fuck. The worst was over and now begins the living. You’re an adult. You’re legal. You’re kosher. You’re cool. Whatever you’re doing, it’s cool. By now you’re grown up, filled in, cleared up, a little wiser, a little more handsome. You might even have had some action or done some pretty cool shit. It’s all good. This is when you just do something you don’t like for a very long time, get some money, and hope the damn neighbor’s dog doesn’t shit again on your lawn. Look out world!
Old fart entry is empty because I don’t know my shit yet about this era.
—
I can pinpoint the exact moment of my life when I ceased being a kid-adult and became an adult. I remember it felt as if the delicate chemical balance in my brain had suddenly shifted and the tides had turned for rationale and maturity. I hated my teen years, there were so many things I did and did not do that I would love to change. There were so many people I liked and disliked, talked to and ignored, respected and looked down on, and all that. Looking back now, 99% of all that didn’t make any difference in the long run. The long run for me only ended with about 2 paragraphs of real lessons learned.
As an adult, I suddenly found myself a fountain of wisdom that I could tap into and also share with loved ones. Wisdom comes from experience and I think I’ve had my fair share of experience. I’ve seen a lot of shit that I wouldn’t hope on my worst enemy. I remember also noticing how even though I had become an adult, not many people around me had done so… early bloomer maybe? It’s been a few years down the road now and a lot of the people have caught up but there are still a couple who were left behind. You can easily tell who passed or not – it’s in their actions and words, in fact, it reaks from their body.
As and adult, I learned how to love, how to learn, how to grow, and how to let go. A lot of extra layers like caring what other people thought of me, or trying to keep up with others on something, or imitating the successes of others were suddenly shed, like the dried out exoskeleton of a tarantula. A lot of wild and untamed energy suddenly became subservient to my will. It was a matter of control I guess.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then my friend, you were left behind.
Friday
1 day weekends suck.
I stare at this empty space at blogger and I’m trying to fill it with wonderful words to entertain my visitors but I’m sorry: you get nothing!
It’s catch up time soon and I’m just pooped.
Journal
November 24, 2003
Well this will be part one of my update and I’d like to get this off my mind first. Saw the third Matrix. It had nice eye candy… guns and dragonball-esque fight scenes. Storyline? Simpler than the second, lacked the originality of the first. Predictable ending and fates of the main characters.
This week was your basic work and then more work at another place.
The weekend saw another ELI survivor coming into Osaka. Kyle, whom has been in Japan for the past three months, came way over to Osaka and visited us kansai peeps for a few days. We had a great dinner and rounds of drinks and good laughs on Friday and Sunday (today) saw more drinks and a very patriotic rendition of Oh Canada on the karaoke thing in our room. I also met some new friends who live around here – our Osaka family is growing once again. Today we saw a room of 13 people including me and that was without a few too.
I got to use my camera over the weekend too. Most were just point and shoot shots and I just left the settings on AUTO. It was just easier that way. I also intelligently used the flash to get rid of horrid facial shadows and ridges. I still haven’t got around to practicing but it will come soon. The first thing will be to practice holding still. The shutter speeds are too slow sometimes on AUTO and after having a few beers, it’s fucking hard to hold the camera still. I’m choked that some of the pictures are so blurred because of this. The video files are awesome but once again I hate hearing my voice… I sound so fucking annoying.
Ok anyway – that’s finished. I’m on the verge of writing down another big brain dump but I’m still grinding some gears about some things.
The Meatrix
November 17, 2003
Oh man! This was fun – Orwell’s Animal farm meets The Matrix, what do you get? The Meatrix. What a great way to spread ideas. I swear, the piggy was way better than Keanu Reeves will ever be.
Telephoto
November 15, 2003
Today I finally bought the the camera. It’s sweet. It’s nearing exactly what I want in a camera and no more will I suffer the horrible tendencies of my old digital camera. Today marks my entry into a world where point and click no longer apply. Today marks the step into a world where more logical thought must be given when taking a picture. A world where light, fill flashes, aperatures, shutter speeds, and photometry must be considered before every click.
This camera, while not as expensive as professional cameras, was a bit more than what I would’ve paid for a camera a while ago. It gives so much more control and also allows use of filters and other lenses. I’m still trying to learn everything but today I practiced taking pictures with long shutter speeds – basically for night shots. The shots look great except I can’t keep my hands still enough to capture a crisp, sharp picture. 2 seconds is a long time when you have to hold perfectly still.
I also bought a 128mb card today so now I’ll never have to worry about space anymore. It can also record AVIs but at 30fps and 320×240 res, it really eats up storage quickly. I can only get a bit over 4 minutes of video (with full audio) on an empty 128mb card. I only get 24s on the 16mb that came with the camera. Sure is fun to record video though.
Once I get some time and find some good subjects, I’m definitely going to post some pics. In the meantime, I’m trying to find any subtle differences between settings and reading a lot about digital shooting.
Remembrance
November 11, 2003
November 11 for me is not only Remembrance Day. I duly respect all the war veterans who fought for freedom in all wars. However, honestly, the wars we read about were a long time ago and don’t mean very much to me.
November 11 for me brings me back to 1999 because that was the day my best friend had a car accident that changed I think everyone’s lives. You see, this friend and I were extremely close. I couldn’t have thought of another person to, among other things, be my best man, be my son’s godfather, bring me home when I’m drunk, laugh at my when I get shot down by girls. His girlfriend was also another very close friend. The three of us were together hanging out and making fun of lesser people all the time.
That accident completely twisted the situation not so much because of the accident itself but more because of the aftermath that followed. He was in a coma for a week or two and during this time, there was utter hell as friends and family were found fighting over the pettiest of things. That really pissed me off. All I cared about was the welfare of my friend (at that point, his family didn’t tell any one of us his condition so we assumed the worst). While I was scared that I would be losing a friend, the assholes around me were fighting over, among other things, who was allowed to see him and who wasn’t, what she said and what he said, what to do with his money and things, finding new boyfriends, who disrespected whom. It was ridiculous. Had I had the emotional maturity and independence that I do now, I would’ve told them to shove things into places they shouldn’t speak of. After all, my priority was seeing my friend recover. Everything and everyone else was irrelevant at that point. (Read my Nov 15, 1999 update for some ideas of how I felt).
Now, being barely an adult, I was not exactly the most dependable person yet. I was completely distraught about my friend and I was tired of the bickering and fighting of those around me. Whenever I feel trapped in these situations, I close myself off – I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to go out, I don’t want to even see you. I just want to stay home and think my way out of things. During this time, the other friend and I had a falling out because while I wanted isolation, she wanted me to give emotional support. While I understand what she wanted, I could not do it because being there would be being subject to all the fighting and bitching that tired me out in the first place. She was in the center of many of the arguments.
One night, I remember talking to her on the phone and she was pretty much threatening me that if I don’t provide the care, the attention, and the energy (by “being a friend”), our friendship would be over. Now, at that point, I hated everyone who wasn’t the friend in the accident – but I didn’t feel it was warrant to end a very good friendship. So I said I would try my best to be there.
However, the next day, I find out she broke up with my friend. You see, he had awakened from the coma but had not regained full rational control – he was persistently calling her and I guess just being a big pain in the ass. She couldn’t take it so she had to break up. In my fragile little mind, I took this as her giving up on him. I thought this to be entirely hypocritical because just the night before, she was telling me something about me giving up on her. That was the last straw, I decided never to speak to her again. I would focus my attention on my friend whom was the one I cared about the most anyway.
I stuck by the friend for I think several more months. He had recovered miraculously and was adapting to a very different life (everything had changed). Unfortunately, somehow, he took a turn for the worse – he had always been a very smart, level headed individual but for reasons I don’t know – he turned to chemical substances. I remember getting some calls late at night asking me to drive him home because he was on some sort of substance and could not get himself home. I also remember getting a call saying I should go to his house because there were some guys who might want to start a fight with him over some ridiculous fight about cell phones or something. By this time, our friendship was strained, at best. We didn’t hang out much anymore.
I blame myself partly for this – he was, physically, still my friend. However, I noticed a lot of subtle changes in him mentally – I used to look up to him and thought of him as my big brother. At this time, I found the situation had reversed – he was a lot more immature and didn’t seem to know of behavior/consequence, action/reaction.
One of the last times we talked was when he called me and asked me to be at his house that day around evening. I had a midterm that night and would not miss it unless it was an emergency. I asked him what it was about and he said something along the lines, “You’ll know when you get here”. I told him I would not go unless he told me what it was about and I told him I had an exam that night. The reaction I got? As far as I can remember, he said, “You want to know what it’s about? I’m on heroin.” (or was it crack? It was something along those lines). The phone went dead after that.
Apparently (a friend relayed this to me), he had announced to family and friends that he had a serious drug problem that also brought along a financial problem. Yada yada yada. It really didn’t surprise me at this point.
I’m not the world’s cleanest boy scout, I smoke myself silly, I drink myself silly sometimes, I’ve tried a small selection of things I shouldn’t have, but I have never, nor will ever, touch anything as heavy as coke, heroin, or crack. I don’t blame him… he must’ve had his reasons. It easily could’ve been me had I been in that situation.
The last time I talked to this friend was at a new year’s party in my house. I got a call suddenly that night and he said he needed a place to “crash”. I said sure and in comes half a dozen people. It was not a fun night as many people were too piss drunk to realize their own actions. I will never host another big drinking party at my place because I never get drunk enough to enjoy it. I always worry about what people will do.
Anyway, that was a big brain dump. It is possibly the first time many of you read about this because I don’t remember talking to many of you about it. The reason I suddenly thought of this was because I’m comparing myself to this story and have I changed. The parallels are certainly here but my actions are completely different. I’ve given my girlfriend and her family everything that I could. In a way, I think I wanted to make up for the lack of giving those many years ago.
Raining
November 10, 2003
Finally a bit of time to relax. It’s been a very busy and tiring week no doubt. The funeral and other ceremonial dealings were quite draining. I helped as much as I could but I couldn’t fully participate in them since I was not a relative. The first few days, none of us slept very well. I got maybe 3 or 4 hours a day. The days after that were spent in their store cleaning and dealing with headaches about what to do. It has been an exhaustive week. Luckily I took a week off work because I knew it would tax me this much. I go back to work in two days which means I’ll have tonight and tomorrow to not do anything. Well actually, I have neglected my apartment for a couple months now – it needs a big big scrub down and I have a behemoth laundry pile that needs washing.
So it looks like they’re going to close their company soon. It’s a pity – a fully operational, profitable, fairly easy business and it’s going to be closed. I seriously considered taking over (the operational side anyway) had the father been well enough to teach me everything.
The new picture up top was taken by Eri’s dad while he was in Nagoya in August. We found his digital camera and two CF cards with pics in them. I made CD and today the pictures were printed. Some of them were very nicely taken! Here’s just one of them. I believe it’s a pic of Nagoya Castle.
The camera that I’ve been wanting to buy might have dropped in price slightly… I think I’ve decided to buy it even though it costs so frickin much. It’s much more than a nice consumer camera but not quite professional yet. I think it’s a good start. The best thing about it is the 10x optical zoom and pretty nice SLR lens. There is much more manual control than average consumer cameras but there’s only preset white balance and not much aperture settings to choose from… F2.8 to 3.5 I think… I don’t know, I might (probably will) buy it this week.
I’m sorry to all you folks who IM’d me only to not get any replies. I leave my computer on a lot and I forget to set those damn programs to Away sometimes. There were a few times when I was there but I just really did not feel like talking.
Anyway, I’m out of things to say now. More later.
Small Stories
I don’t know how he does it, but Derek Kirk Kim from Smallstories.com has done it again with his latest small story The Ten Commandments of Simon.
Outcome
November 05, 2003
At about 8:07 last night (Tuesday), Eri’s father passed away. He fought the infection that followed the surgery but his condition deteriorated fairly quickly. He died while in an unconscious slumber.
His heart stopped at about 4pm but the doctor gave an injection of some sort and got his heart to beat again but then the doctor told the rest of the family that he was going to die in 2-3 hours.
I came to the hospital literally 8 minutes late. The traffic was horrible. Eri and her mother were with the father as he slipped away.
The surgeon who operated sincerely apologized to the family and he was also in tears. I think he must feel responsible when really no one could’ve controlled the infection. Sometimes it’s just the right time to go I guess.
Eri and I stayed at the hospital last night to accompany her father’s body. While it is my belief that the body is just a shell and that a person is defined by their spirit or soul, I respect the belief of other cultures. There was a ceremony today and they will cremate the body tomorrow.
I firmly believe he is in a better place now where he can rest after fighting this for the past while.
Once again, thank you ever so kindly for all the well wishes and prayers. In due time we can all put this trying time behind us and begin to remember the good times from before.
Just When Things Were Looking Up
November 01, 2003
They fall right back down.
Yesterday was Friday and I spent the day where I usually spend my day offs now, helping out at my girlfriend’s store. They got a call from the hospital. It appears that the surgery, even though went well, had some complications. As I mentioned before, they had connected the esophagus to the intestines and had removed the stomach. However, it turned out that the connection didn’t heal over too well. Fluids such as saliva and were spilling out of the esophagus into the chest cavity. An infection occurred and it didn’t look good. He had a fever and had fallen unconscious. Also, he lapsed in and out of consciousness sometimes and was hallucinating and pulling out tubes and stuff. Not fun.
So I think last night everyone pretty much had thought the worst had come and we all went to the hospital at 2am. Eri and I stayed the night at the hospital and didn’t leave until 1pm today. Nothing worse happened – they had given antibiotics and also put him on the respirator. I have no idea how bad things are.
Anyway, I’m exhausted beyond exhaustion. I’m pretty sure I can say confidently that I have spent more nights in hospitals than the most of you and let me tell you out of experience – it’s very very not nice. We fell in and out of naps all night and all the while nurses and the doctors were walking in and out checking up on the dad. Hospitals at nights are also very creepy too.
I was asked if I wanted to continue working in their family business – if I would, they’d keep it open. The place makes a nifty profit and it’s just a shame to close a profitable company. Anyway, it hinged on the dad being able to teach us everything about the place. From where it stands now, they may have to close the place and I’ll have to keep to my teaching job (oh that will be great). I hate this feeling that everything in my life is out of my control – everything as it stands depends on the father.
I am one stressed out cheese bagel.
Quick Update
October 27, 2003
I only have 6 minutes before I leave to finish the second half of my split shift but this morning, Eri’s dad went into surgery at 9am. At around 1:30pm, Eri called and said that the surgery was successful. Funny thing though was that they removed the cancer and the ENTIRE stomach. That’s right. He is now less a stomach. They connected the esophagus directly to the small intestines. What this means is that he will have to eat more often in small amounts than before. I think something like 6 times a day at the least. Interesting stuff.
It’s great news that they were able to remove the cancer but now we have to wait and see if any cancer cells remained and if they will spread to other parts of the body. Thanks everyone for the happy thoughts – I am certain they made a difference in the greater scheme of things. Keep them coming!
Malloween!
October 22, 2003
Dennis didn’t like the teal on the left nor the boxy look so I says to him I says, “I’ll change the colors”. He says something about Halloween colors so blam! The ghost pic up top will take you to the ghost pic page. It’s in a week but Happy Halloween boys and girls. Halloween doesn’t exist here so that’s too bad.
A Better Change
October 21, 2003
Hit F5 a few times just in case but if you’re reading this then you’ll have noticed the difference.
I was planning a change in design for awhile now. The previous look made me dizzy. Now it’s a bit cleaner and easier to maintain and I can change sections quite easily. I always wanted to change pictures and colors to reflect new moods or maybe in celebration of holidays and what not. Now it’s much easier to do but whether I’ll do it remains to be seen. The picture at the top is nothing right now but if I find interesting pictures then it’ll link up to an enlargement. The webcam thumb also enlarges. By the way, those penguins are from the Osaka Aquarium I visited in March.
Now the three main parts of my webpage are not uniform anymore. That’s ok, my original intent was that those three parts were entirely different areas.
I’m dead tired. Nothing much – been helping out Eri’s family business. It’s too hard to explain what I do but there’s some physical labor involved. So basically after work I go and do some more work. It’ll all be worth it when I look back and think to myself, “I did the right thing by helping them out even though it drained me of energy during that time.” I think I’m getting some sort of monetary compensation too. Of course I refused because I was helping them for the sake of helping them but apparently they feel bad if I don’t take it. I don’t know though… don’t get me wrong I’d love to take it because, well, money CAN buy happiness (especially in this very consumeristic country).
Also, apparently I’m wrong about the tumor being benign. I think it’s cancer. The whole thing doesn’t look too good right now but I don’t know what to think. In less than a week he’ll go through the operation. Fingers crossed, prayers prayed, good thoughts sent, please.
Ack. Too tired to sound coherent anymore.
Here’s a fun link – Americakokki.com – I haven’t explored the whole site but the English lessons are awesome. It makes me feel proud to be teaching English. The comics were the kid dies for no reason is alright but got repetitive after the 11th one for me.
Update
October 17, 2003
So it’s been awhile.
First an update about Eri’s dad. Yesterday she told me they were going to operate at the end of this month. I’m no oncologist, I’m not even a lowly GP but I’m guessing since they are willing to operate, the tumor is probably benign or at least malignant but in early stages. Eri saw some pictures of the growth and it scared her into quitting smoking. She’s doing much better than I am. Well she smoked way less than I did. I’ll have to admit that I’ve had cigarettes these days. I’m very tired lately and haven’t relaxed nor slept very well – smoking helps. Luckily I’m smoking about 40% of what I used to. It’s a start.
Anyway, things might be looking up! Thanks for all the well wishes everybody.
In other news I’ve succeeded in singing my first Japanese song at the karaoke. What an accomplishment! I’m rather proud although I had cheated by reading Englishized lyric on the internet before so I knew what Japanese to expect.
Last night I had some well deserved and welcomed rest. I did nothing but stay at home, listen to Coast to Coast, eat some convenience store food, and watched some Dragonball Z and MST3k. I also deleted my Palm Desktop and ported everything over to Outlook. I hate Outlook, it’s so user unfriendly. There are so many more buttons and different navigation styles than other Office programs. The reason I switched over was because I was sick of having two different address books. Now, Outlook and my Palm synch and make contact information easier.
I haven’t gone to my Japanese lessons in two weeks. I haven’t had time to study so it would’ve been a moot point to show up and not be able to speak anyway. I’m off today too to help and something tells me I’ll be quite exhausted when I’m back. Still, I want to look back later and say to myself that even though I was exhausted, I helped someone out instead of turning my back (which I may have done in a past life).
And Dennis, I couldn’t find that video clip. Too many porn hits came up and I feared for my sanity if I dared entering one of those links.
Emotion
October 10, 2003
I don’t know if this is the best place to say because it probably isn’t. My girlfriend’s family was struck with terrible news yesterday. My girl’s father has a tumor in his esophagus. Whether it’s benign or malignant is yet to be determined in the upcoming weeks. Rightly so, the rest of the family is distraught and coping with the situation as best as they can.
His health has been deteriorating quite quickly over the past, oh, six months. Also, he’s more elderly than not which just complicates matters. I’m in no position to offer advice but I’m trying to give emotional support where I can. I’m also helping their family business fairly often lately. As a result, I’m a bit drained lately too. Still, my situation is nothing compared to theirs.
Updates may become scarce. Good thoughts, well wishes, and prayers are more than welcome.
The Gender Genie
October 08, 2003
Haha this thing is funny. I put in the latest blog entry for Dennis, Sunny, and myself and I got “MALE”. I put in the latest for Michelle and Justin and got “FEMALE”. Justin, you write like a girl. Actually that ain’t fair. Justin was bitching about fat people and we all know people of the female persuasion bitch more than others. The analysis must’ve been skewed. Hate male (mail) welcome!
I just copy n pasted the newest, long blog entry, without titles, from the first to last word, clicked the Blog Entry radio and submitted. Clean and easy testing.
Oh man what a night
October 05, 2003
Now nothing bad happened. An ELI survivor came to Osaka from Tokyo for the weekend and a bunch of us got together. We had one of those dinners that aren’t really dinners but more of an assortment of different foods served in small portions. The main course really is the endless supply of alcohol that just keeps coming. I may have been a strong drinker during my early university years but after going dry for so long, my tolerance was as low as my tolerance for ugly girls.
Eri came along at first but she had to leave early to meet with some of her elementary school friends or some other people she hadn’t seen in decades. I was left to fend for myself. As usual, I was the one with the weakest Japanese level (re: all the others spoke at a native or near native level… at least before the drinks).
It was my first drink since June or July, I forgot. As per my usual schedule, I started with a couple or a few beers (I forgot) followed by a couple of cocktails. I think I had a cassis orange and a screwdriver but Taka, one of the guys there, spiked everything with the bottles of vodka available. It was cool. I also had an oolong cha somewhere in between.
I must confess, I DID smoke today but it just doesn’t feel right to drink and not smoke… it’s like eating a steak without HP sauce… something just felt missing. So, I had three cigarettes today. I feel bad about it but I’m not gonna kick myself in the ass. I know I won’t smoke tomorrow or perhaps until the next time I drink.
I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in eons and I just wanna mention everyone as a sort of hail.
First, there was Sakura and Hiro. Sak and I worked at the ELI together and left around the same time I think. Hiro was one of the Komazawa survivors from August. I haven’t seen them since my trip to Tokyo last May. Both Sak and Hiro were dead drunk. Hiro went straight to sleep and Sak began a very uncoordinated speech pattern that was definitely something new to me. Hiro brought his good friend from Kyoto – good to meet you Shimizu – you look kinda like Tetsu from Tetsu and Tomo! I hope I’ll get to meet you again. Then there was Mihoko, Miho, and Shiki – these three are the Osaka residents that I see every so often. I got to see Mihoko drunk today – very interesting as well (we’ll talk about your secret soon enough). I also saw Eiji whom I paddled along with during my dragonboat run in 2001. I also met Taka – I met him during my first summer at the ELI (2000) and then I saw him last December when another friend came. There was Yoshimi and Chizu, whom I haven’t seen in a good three years! I remember very well our Whistler trip together. It was one of my most memorable trips to Whistler. I sure damn hope that’s everyone. I wasn’t drunk at all, I think I held my own very well considering I don’t ever drink. Still, I have a slight pounding in my head as I’m typing this. I want to type this on the same night because I gave my URL out tonight so I don’t want to disappoint when people visit here. Konban wa tanoshikata desu!!
That’s it. My cough is still persistent and I’m sort of hungry in a slight drunken kinda way. Blech!
Great Blog!
October 03, 2003
Gangstories is a blog written by someone who knows what he’s talking about. It sounds real. It features a look into the life of something glamourized by today’s movies and musicians. I read through all two months worth of writing in one sitting. Sadly, the blogger has decided to not continue writing. Pity too.
On another note, soft boiled eggs and tomato sauce totally go well together.
5ive
Fifth day of cold turkey no smoking and still going strong. Yesterday was tough. I was in the same cafe for three hours studying Japanese and talking with my language exchange gal. During these three hours, scores of people sat beside me, in front of me, diagonally across, under, above, in, on, against, and even inversely of me. All these people were lighting up and blowing in my face the whole time.
I told you I had a cough and I think I made one girl feel bad. Everytime she was smoking a cigarette, I simultaneously had coughing fits. The two were unrelated, my coughs are caused by mucus in the trachea. It just so happened the mucus was annoying me right as she had her cigarettes. Everytime I coughed, she would tilt her body away and try to wave the smoke away from me. It’s a smoking fact that smoke will head the to person who hates it the most so all her efforts were in vain. Even though she may have been feeling bad, she still had I think four cigarettes with her one small cup of coffee. What a bitch huh?
There are three situations which will trigger my smoking urges:
- Work – most of the people I talk to are smokers
- Restaurants/Establishments – many people liberally smoke and I have sit and watch them
- Being with my girlfriend – she smokes but luckily not a lot
I’ve shown to myself that I can refrain from smoking in situations 1 and 2 (1 being the hardest as I spend most of my time there and I have 8 chances to smoke in one work day). Situation 3 will be the hardest I think. I see myself being the weakest while sitting at the dinner table with a cigarette vending machine right beside me and Eri lights one up.
Agh. Must be strong for… world peace. I do believe that if I quit smoking, starving children around the world will never be hungry and become well educated and literate. Gotta do it for the children…
Deliverance
October 01, 2003
So FedEx pulled through and delivered my new pda keyboard 26 hours ahead of its estimated delivery time. It’s great. The company also sent me a Handheld Computing magazine. Not only is it chock full of writeups about cool gadgets and toys, it’s also in English. Although English literature isn’t uncommon by far in this country, interesting literature is. So I’m thankful for that too.
I’m coughing a lot. The coughing is caused by postnasal drip which is probably caused by dust or mold or some other bacterial substance in my apartment. Even after very tough cleaning, my nose is still clogged and perpetually running. I didn’t want to aggravate my coughy lungs so I decided to stop smoking. I’m on day 3. At first, I thought I’ll just stop temporarily, at least until my cough goes over but I’ve decided to go for the full blown QUIT SMOKING. Day 3. I’ve had many tough moments. None of you non-smokers will ever understand that temptation, nor should you get all preachy either. Every smoker knows the consequences of smoking. People who preach about smoking should be rounded up with preachy vegetarians and put into big boiling cauldrons of oil or something.
Anyway, I’m hoping I won’t cave in and have one cigarette anytime soon because 1 leads to 2, and so on. I’m going strong though. If I can stop smoking at work, then I’m pretty much in the clear as I smoked about 90% at work anyway. Eri also said if I can quit for a month, then she’ll quit too. So, I’m also doing this for her too. I rule.
Wish me luck.
Back To Basics?
September 27, 2003
Just a thought. I like my webpage but I think maybe it should look simpler. What do you think? Also, what do you think about more than one blog, this will be my day to day blog but what about another or more blogs that are dedicated to other things?
Proud
Wow for the first time ever, I bought something off Ebay!
I was scoping around for keyboards for my pda because I notice I do a lot of writing on it and the stupid graffiti system they have on it is ridiculously slow to use. I find myself writing a letter ahead of the display and most of the time, it reads my writing wrong and gives me an F instead of an E and a whole lot more stupid mistakes. I looked around the biggest gadget stores here but couldn’t find anything cool. I don’t like those fold-away keyboards because they require a flat surface to lay everything down. I wanted those clip on keyboards that you type with your thumbs. They’re not the best solution but will save me a lot of agony and backspace/deletes. Info on the net showed three flavours. The official Palm one was the most expensive (go figure) and I was going to buy one when I realize palmone.com does not send overseas and they were out of stock anyway. The next best things according to forums was one from Seiko. It was about half the cost.
I suddenly decided to go check out Ebay for no reason. I registered an account there two years ago but never bought or sold anything. I did a quick search and wow… $3.99 for the same keyboard. I bid and an hour later, I won!
So, I just bought a $30 item for $4.24 but the shipping will prop it up to about $25. Even after currency rates, I still win big time. I’m so proud!
Another reason to be proud.
Yesterday I bought a small bookcase. It’s about a foot high and a foot and a half wide. I’m not putting books in it but instead I need it to put this new clock I just bought and some other stuff. Right now I see my phone charger, Eri’s eye drops, some condoms, some magazines, the a/c remote, and some other crap. Before this, all that shit was just strewn across the floor.
Anyway I’m proud because I talked to the old lady who sold it entirely in Japanese and understood everything she asked of me. It wasn’t just a simple transaction too because this old lady liked to gab. We started to talk about the weather, the Hanshin Tigers, and how far away I lived (she was worried the bookcase would be too heavy – it only weights about 3 lbs or so). My unofficial goal since starting this language was that people would mistaken me as one of them, that is, I’m not an evil foreigner out to take their daughters and pillage their towns. At long last, it happened. The best thing though was that it cost me 750 yen. That’s like 8 bucks or something! A bargain in any country.
My next step is to get a haircut in complete Japanese. It’s not as easy as it sounds as the place I go to has 60+ y.o. men who speak very unclearly and gab as well. I feel so stupid everytime I get a haircut because I end up saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand” often.
Check the cam for a snap! My futon is being washed so hence the barren room.
helllllllo??????
September 26, 2003
hey dude, there was an earthquake in japan today. freaked me and mom out until we heard it was some other place. but anyways, i freaken didnt have that quiz in comp app. today! The computers froze! but I’m screwed for next week, I have an assignment due on Monday, a presentation worth 20% on Tuesday, apparently no school for me on Wednesday, TWO quizzes in comp app. on Thursday, and a math exam on Friday!
Oh, i just love it…
btw, do u get to watch the FRIENDS premiere? it was good. very good.
blah blah blah
September 24, 2003
jerry is blah
Woohoo! I Found A Reason To Return!
September 17, 2003
Art Bell Returns to Radio as Weekend Host of Coast to Coast AM
I always knew he would return because each of his retirements have been externally forced. He will never truly cease until he REALLY wants to retire. Boy am I glad I suddenly visited the site a week ago. I wouldn’t have caught that show if I didn’t. If I didn’t catch that show, I wouldn’t have visited again and discover this piece of juicy news. Woohoos for all!
I feel bad for Barbara Simpson, whom Art will replace, but I never liked her anyway. She was so bland.
You’re all commanded to listen to the show and enjoy it. Your stereotype of the show will evaporate quickly as you discover ALL the interesting things they touch on.
Guest Update for the Guest Updater
September 13, 2003
I’m too lazy to write another guest update. But instead of leaving you folks hanging, I found some suitable writers to entertain you before Jerry gets back. So here you are, guest updates for the guest updater. I’m out to enjoy some sun.
Hello, readers of JVision. Hello… Jerry. You might recognize me. Then again, you might not. Because I sure don’t recognize this place. Everything has changed. For the worse, I might add. Jerry, your sense of decor has always been lacking. Blue? And what is this “spoken” nonsense? I sometimes wonder about you, Jerry.
Only sometimes. I don’t think much about you anymore, Jerry. Why should I? I bet you don’t even remember that I existed on JVision, way back in the version 1.x days. Back when I was mascot, we were buddies, and we ran rampant on the page. But then what happened? “One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more / And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.”
Cry me a river! I shed no tears for you. And this is my last hurrah. Since you never even gave me a chance to say my goodbyes on this page, and to my dear devotees. Shame on you Jerry! Shame on you! I’m out.
“So, Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave, oh”
Hello friends. You might remember me as Pokemon borne of Jerry’s feverish imagination. The name’s Wangmon. I don’t have as much of a grudge as the fellow above me, but I would like to express my disappointment at having been ditched as a recurring concept faster than the Pokemon craze could phase out. I felt I had plenty to offer, such as wang-related jokes, potty humour, and political insights. I’m sorry it never happened. Now I languish in my hole in the ground. That warm, moist hole where Wangmons reside. I’m perfectly happy, to be honest. But I thought I’d pull out for a minute or two to say hi and to impart a few words of wisdom:
Jerry, don’t adopt mascots again if you’re not going to keep us. We aren’t puppies. There is no SPCA for web mascots. We are thrown into the recycle bin of history. We aren’t even put down humanely. Our bits are erased, written over with the sweaty groins of Internet porn. Have a heart, Jerry. Don’t adopt any more mascots. They don’t deserve our fate.
Disconnection
September 12, 2003
I’m taking a course in ethics in computing science this term. It’s a mandatory course for all com sci majors, and I’ve saved it for my last (or next-to-last, depending on how well I do) semester. I think I should have taken this course earlier, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
One article in particular got me thinking about how we live our lives. The article claimed that we as humans were so inclined to accept technology that we do so without debating its social implications. We just accept it because it’s new and we expect it to be needed. This is the wrong way for society to go, the article claimed.
What has the Internet done for us? I’ve had the creeping suspicion for years, but it never crystallized in my mind until I read the article. It has made us lazy to communicate on a basic human level. Yes, when the Internet first rolled around into mainstream acceptance, it was heralded as the information superhighway, and it would supposedly make communication easier. We’d be connected to everyone else more often and more intimately than with previous archaic methods of communication.
It backfired. What it has made us is complacent. When was the last time I called up a friend just to talk? Instead, I load up my favourite instant messaging service and wait for them to come online. When was the last time I wrote a letter to someone? I can’t even remember when. We live in the “now”, we don’t wait anymore. We need communication and response instantly. But you know what? For the past two years, I’ve actually loathed checking my email for the very reason that it’s too fast. It seemed that as soon as I had sent an email, its reply was already sitting in my mailbox. Did I really want to reply that fast? In the days of snail mail, we’d have at least two weeks before getting a reply; Time to collect and reflect on our thoughts.
Sure, electronic means of communications are great for our “global village”. I can talk to my best friends more often, even though they live halfway across the globe. But it has hurt my relationships with friends who live in my own country, and even in my own city. I didn’t bother calling anyone, and I loathed physical contact.
No more. I’ve been deprived of it for too long. This Internet, this instant communication, has ended up hurting my friendships and ultimately myself. It’s not the medium itself, but rather the reliance on the medium that is the problem. It should have never been more than a convenient tool, but it became a necessity. It’s time that changed. Turn off the computer and call a friend: It shouldn’t be that hard to do, but for some reason, it has become foreign to me. Perhaps it’s time to change that.
He Can’t Deliver
Yes, I make a big hoo-hah about guest updating and I don’t even write anything yet. I will. Later tonight. When I get back from bubble tea. Until then, why not visit some other blogs? Groovy. Jerry’s back in a few days anyway so I’d better try and write what I have planned before he’s back and sees what I’ve done.
I Am Your Lovely Guest Host, Damien Storm
September 11, 2003
Do you remember back when Art Bell was still the host of Coast to Coast AM, and you’d tune into his show one night hoping to hear his cryptic yet reassuring voice, only to find out that there was a guest host that week? The host was inferior in every sense to Art, but you still listened, because if Art thought he was good enough for the big show, then he was good enough for you. I’m that guest host, and welcome to JVision.
The name is Dennis, and some of you might know who I am already. If not, allow me to introduce myself. Jerry has been one of my best friends for who knows how long. We went to school together, played guitar together, played Doom and Quake together, the list goes on. My own site is handsomemonkey.com. For the duration of Jerry’s vacation to Hokkaido, he has left this site in my care. I will try to do him proud.
One thing I will focus on is to make sure JVision remains the same. Jerry’s vision. Jerry has his own style, his own wit, and I will do my best to present that here. I’ve always found JVision to be a great haven for discussing some heavy issues which can affect the world. At other times, it can have a light-hearted tone that makes us sit back and chuckle. It all depends on Jerry’s moods, I guess.
I’ve got a few days to work with this site, so let’s give Jerry something worthwhile to come back to. Into glory… we ride!
Hokkaido Haiku
Hokkaido, Japan
Is a cool island up north
Where we will go now
While we are gone
A Special Guest will update
So this page goes on
I must say sorry
For the page won’t be controlled
Sorry for the swears
We leave on Thursday
And enjoy seafood and beer
Be back Saturday
Welcome Special Guest
And of course, welcome Sister
Hope you write good blogs
Blast It Blogger!
September 07, 2003
Having an unexpected urge to blog, I click on my blogger shortcut only to see the all too annoying “The page cannot be displayed” white page. Not to be undone, here I am writing in notepad so that my flash of creativity will not be lost due to a technical problem.
So? What’s up? I just finished a six day week because of a shift swap for someone else. I got last Sunday off so I had to pay for it this week by working yesterday. One day weekends suck but the silver lining is that I only have a four day work week starting tomorrow. On Thursday, I’ll be holding hands with my girlfriend and boarding a plane to Hokkaido. To clear up any confusion, I work Sunday through Thursday. Right now she is sleeping and I am listening to Art Bell. I haven’t listened to the show since January (when Art retired). Unexpectedly, I decided to listen yesterday for no reason only to find Art Bell special-guesthosting the show for two days. That is synchronicity in its purest form. I missed Art Bell’s deep, comforting voice and his straight shooting, intellectual thinking. Anyway, I’m listening to the show as I am typing now. Yay.
Something that has been annoying as of late – a lot more people are using MSN Messenger now – my list is soon to overtake my ICQ list in terms of number of people. Unlike ICQ though, I can’t overwrite people’s names. I don’t give a shit what you call yourself, be it “Jerry” or “604_Sweetz_NSX_Gangsta_Pimp” – I’m just going to rename it to your full name. So, without this feature, I’m seeing a bunch of handles and messages that don’t mean anything to me and I’m wondering who the hell it is. I have to right click and try to recognize the email address. Now that’s annoying. I don’t mind if you write messages AFTER your name, like, “Matthew – I am feeling my aunt up right now”. At least I know it’s you.
I saw Animatrix yesterday and it was awesome. The CG chick in the first short was just hot. If she existed in real life… it’s like… damn yo. Damn fine piece of ass. Actually my favorites were the first two stories. The rest were all nice and all but the stories sort of sucked. The one placed in Japan was cool because the song they have at the crosswalk was exactly the same as the one they have in Osaka.
What else? A couple more people coming and going. I’m looking at ticket prices so I’ll probably be visiting Vancouver within six months. Yada yada yada.
—
Jeez, Blogger was down all night. This update is actually a day old already.
September Blues
September 03, 2003
I never like the month of September for a variety of reasons.
When I was a kid, September brought about the beginning of elementary school. I hated elementary school because I never fitted in and I was shamed for my intellectual prowess.
When I was a teenager, September brought about the beginning of highschool. I hated highschool because I never fitted in and I was ashamed about my intellectual shortcomings.
When I was an adult, September brought about the beginning of university. I didn’t hate university but I didn’t like it either. At least I fitted in with more people and I learned what I was good at and what I wasn’t.
This year will be the first September that does not bring about the beginning of an education semester and I’m damn happy. Furthermore, while biking to work today, something very startling startled me… it was dead quiet. Remember my incessant bitching about the noise? Well, it looks like the cicadas have finally all died out and will leave me in peace to enjoy my sleep for a year. I thought there would be millions of dead cicada carcasses lying under trees but I haven’t noticed many. I almost felt sad that so many of those ugly critters died but then I remind myself of the horror they inflicted and my prejudice rages on.
Also in September is our anniversary. Next week will be three years! 3 Years!!! Looking back, I wonder how did we ever go through those 7 months of not seeing each other. My advice for any of you – webcam + mic + broadband. Saved me a lot on phonecards and was much more fun. So yay for us. Next week, we’re going to Hokkaido for a few days. I need a break from this job and this city and I haven’t done much quality time stuff with her. So, off we go! Wheeee!!
Morning
September 01, 2003
Pardon the lack of coherence today. I just woke up four minutes ago.
What would compel me to update right after I woke up? I don’t know, maybe I just wanted to see what my writing would be like in the quasi-conscious state I call Monday Morning. I also wanted to write because my updates have been sporadic at best lately. A combination of social obligations, Baldurs Gate, and lack of anything interesting to say I guess.
Well, it’s Monday Morning but unlike most people, today is not the first day of work for me, yesterday is. So really, Monday is my Tuesday which makes Thursdays my Fridays. Go figure that one.
It seems the whole world hath broken up. It’s very very strange but couples seem to get together at roughly the same time and split up roughly the same time. Funny thing though, the three people who have broken up recently that I’ve talked to all broke up for very rational, level-headed reasons. Kudos to them for straight thinking in a time of emotional bedlam. On a happier note, a couple friends who met at th ELI a few years ago are getting married now. Actually, they got married yesterday. Unfortunately, they didn’t invite to their wedding. Well, seeing how I haven’t seen them or talked to them in about three years, I don’t blame them.
So what else? I’m surprised, I’m not spilling deep secrets or insecurities at this point. I’m just scratching my eyes and XXXXX and trying to stop all the mucus from running. Oh gotta love Mondays.
And I’m Bored Again
August 13, 2003
It’s 9:21pm and there is no one on the internet at this moment. Everyone on my ICQ is N/A and sleeping soundly because only Vancouver people are on my list. There’s no one online on my MSN because a lot of my Japanese friends don’t go online or maybe they’ve put me on their block list. I’ve re-revisited everyone’s webpages to be thoroughly disappointed that no one has updated. I was |< --THIS-->| close to signing into Friendster because Dennis has done so and maybe I’d go and reach for fake friendships. There’s nothing on television (that I would understand). I’m kinda bored of the Battlezone II mod. Eri is out with some friends. I am bored.
I was tinkering with some pages for the last hour – made a couple minute changes that probably no one will notice. I’ve put up that picture dump but there are only four pictures there right now anyway. I’m bored!
Someone better wake up right now and chat with me.
Flash Does Good
August 11, 2003
An ingenious puzzle game creation using flash. Help guide our loveable hero through puzzles so that he can save his (ugly) little home planet. Very strange, very cute, very nice pictures.
Perhaps one of the best uses of flash since HSR!!!
Another Dream
August 01, 2003
Once inawhile I will have these really cool dreams. In the past I’ve written such classics as the XCom battle where I was stuck and my bastard friends didn’t do anything to help me as the aliens were about to break through the door. I think I was holding a weapon but couldn’t use it. Another one, while vising a museum featuring H.R. Giger’s Aliens, some of the xenomorphs came to life and were terrorizing the visitors. Sadly I didn’t have any weapons and was just running away, running away really scared.
Last night, in what became an instant classic, another dream was had.
First I started at work. Yet, this office was damn cool. The terminals we used were much more hi tech and the people seemed cool. All of a sudden, a blackout shut the place down. Everything went dark – never a good sign. I was happy though because whenever things are shut down it means we don’t have to work. I don’t really remember what happened next.
Then I found myself roaming a really big department store. Something inside told me I had to kill people and all of a sudden I found an assault rifle in my hand. Armed and with a motive, I was ready to commit heinous crimes. I roamed the aisles of this department store and opened fire on whoever happened to be there. I knew there were security cards as once in awhile I had to hide behind things to avoid them. I have no idea how many people were killed but I remember at least four or five.
I remember the last thing I did in this dream was something really bad… it involved a girl that was there.
Then I woke up.
It was a cool, disturbing dream and from now on, please make sure i never buy a gun.
Webcam
July 30, 2003
Today I have created the Perfect Omelete.
It has 3 eggs and cheese.
It did not burn nor spill nor have its cheesy innards explode.
It has reached nirvana.
Edit – 2005/09/22
Here’s what the omelete looked like.
Awesome Ping Pong
July 18, 2003
This ping pong game may be the most exciting thing since bullet time from the Matrix – heh heh, I just spoiled it. Quicktime required.
It Is Up – Almost Four Years of Writing
July 16, 2003
It took almost 3 hours today after work to finish it up but at long last, it’s all done. All the internal links have been killed but the externals have been left untouched. Most of them probably don’t work. Reading so much of the past really brought me back. One update in particular really struck me and so I’d like to write about it in terms of my current state. Reading back about my life also slightly reflects other people’s lives so if you’re someone I talk about and you’re not ready to read about something that may be different now, beware.
My Life In A Nutshell II
This update is a follow up of the May 30, 2000 update titled, “My Life In A Nutshell”. In this update more than three years ago, I confessed my unhappiness at the world and at myself. I talked about a redesign of my life and of myself, the lack of love, and also the lack of motivation.
Looking at myself today, three years, two months, and 15 days later, I’m glad to say that all the things I lacked at the time are now filled with great things. =)
I truly believe that I am at my happiest time ever and I’ve had some pretty damn good times.
I am happy about myself and my achievements. I look at my failures and underperformances now as opportunities (like this slight excess of fat around my Spartan waist).
I think the redesign of my life was complete a long time ago and now I am collecting the fruits of the changes.
I now am filled with love thanks to a special woman whom I’d follow to the darkest reaches of hell (much less a foreign country).
I am now motivated by a sense of purpose that extends far past monetary gain, power, or fame. These empty goals once drove me. Now I am more.
One thing that’s still the same though is the last part – I still don’t think I’m an normal, average person. I’m still beyond.
An Autobiography In The Making
July 15, 2003
In my June 20th update, I talked about my old updates that were stored on my computer. I wanted to post up the old updates but because I have 10 different designs each with different ways text was formatted, it would’ve taken forever to extract the text out of each and compile it nicely. Well, I started on it last night and after working about 3 hours in total, I’m still not finished.
So far, I’ve tried to set all my dates and headlines uniformly but in these four years, I’ve only used a uniform system for the past one year or so. Also, there are tonnes of pictures and links that have long been dead that I’m editing out (mostly just putting nice #’s instead). In my early days for some forgotten reason, I split my webpage into news and main writing areas. News was where I wrote insignificant things like, “Today the Quake 3 page was updated” and Main was where I wrote more personal rants and opinions. I’ve amalgamated the two now. There are also some dateless entries and the best I could do was figure out the month it was written in. A lot of colors had to be removed because they appeared too faint on white background now (I used to exclusively use black backgrounds). I’m leaving in all typos and grammatical errors for the sake of humour. There will be so many references to different webpages that used to exist on my site but have long been baleeted. Sadly, there are big gaps all over the place – I’ve only regularly archived stuff in the past few designs. The biggest gap is a five month hole. If you remember my design that consisted of a whole bunch of cool glowing orbs on the left and writing on the right, well, I didn’t archive any of that stuff at all so there’s a good half a year missing.
I might have everything done in another day or two and they’ll just be posted in the archives where they belong. It’ll be pure text.
I’m still a little ashamed at my writing in my early days of blogging. I was quite irrational and twitchy in my writing. I sincerely hope that my writing style now has matured a bit. I hope my long road growing up has seasoned and spiced me. A lot of unpleasant memories long repressed have been uncovered by going through these archives but sadly, I never wrote too deeply about what happened or how it affected me. Most of the writing basically scraped the surface of my feelings. I think now I’m more open and willing to talk about my true feelings. I remembered a lot of the people I knew and how they affected me for better or worse. Strangely enough, most of them are out of my life. The ones left are the ones I’ve known the longest – the ones I went to highschool with.
I think the most memorable and worst years of my life are those between the last year of highschool and second year of University. In these two bumpy years I grew up and morphed from a Rugrat into a Power Ranger. These years made me, in my humble little opinion, much wiser and more mature than many people in my age bracket. I’ve met many great people after the turbulent years but I haven’t shared much about those years. A part of me wants to write down all those things and send it to everyone I know but the other part of me knows I’ve long let those events rest and have moved on.
Webcam
Thanks Dennis!
Edit – 2005/09/22
I was referring to the Homestar Runner T-Shirt that Dennis gave me for my birthday.
Baby
July 14, 2003
I’m not afraid to admit it. I cry in movies.
That revelation isn’t entirely true. In the soon to be 23 years of my existence, I have seen perhaps hundreds of movies. I have seen beautiful actors and actresses, devilish villains and villainesses, and experienced what I call second-hand emotions through sharing the moments on the silver screen. After about the age of 4 I stopped crying when watching movies or television shows. It wasn’t masculine. Guys were supposed to laugh during kissy scenes and dismiss the title as a chick flick. Guys were supposed to love the bombs and guns and monsters and the bountiful boobies in legendary movies like Die Hard or Wayne’s World or to a lesser extent Jurassic Park. Somewhere along the line, any intentions to express emotions were suppressed at closeted, never to be revealed, not even to your significant other.
Sometimes you can’t cage something so beautiful.
I saw What Dreams May Come again. Actually, this is only the second time I’ve seen it ever but I knew the first time around that it made “the list” of my all time favorite movies. It’s simply a beautiful story. Also, it is the only movie that can make me cry. It’s something about emotions of love so deep that it transcends concepts we call life and death. It’s something about finding your soul mate and bringing them back from hell, or connecting with your lost children in mysterious, yet wonderful environments that scrape my tear ducts and let loose the floods. I’ve been known to get a touch of water in the eyes in movies, but deserts see more liquid. This movie however, makes it obvious that I’m tear jerking. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my uncertainty of the afterlife that makes me want to enter this movie so much. No matter what the magic is, I will always remember this movie as the one that broke me. And even though it rates so highly on my “list”, I can’t watch it too often – it’ll ruin it.
Sad thing is, this movie never rated very high with anybody. Do I suggest that you watch it? Probably not because this felt like something more personal to me than it was an appealing movie. If you’re in the video store, I hear Die Hard is an excellent movie.
Taikutsu!!!
July 11, 2003
That means “bored” in Japanese and it also represents what I’m feeling right now!
It’s 8:40pm on Friday and I’m bored! That’s so sad. Eri is usually with me at this time but she has this coworker thing or friend thing or something to attend to right now and won’t show up for a couple more hours. I’m bored! I had my Japanese lesson today but I was in no mood to practice. For some reason I felt all tired and sleepy even though I had a full night’s sleep. I think it’s the heat and humidity that’s affecting my mood. It’s only 28 or so degrees but it’s supposed to peak around 35, 36 degrees later. That’s fucking insane. I’m already pissy and sweaty now so I don’t want to imagine what another seven or eight degrees will do to me. I think I’ll sweat my intestines out.
I did a bit of cleaning, played a bit of Moo3, and listened to a bit of music. Moo3 is pissing me off. I was stuck in the game about a week ago because everyone had become too strong for me to defeat. Then a few days ago, I found a weak spot and broke through and wiped out another two races. Now it’s down to three left. I was on good terms with all of them so I decided to scrap my entire star fleet and redesign all my ships. This left my empire ALL undefended while I was churning out new killer ships. In the midst of all this, all three of these cowards declared war on my and started laying waste to my border worlds. I churned out about an armada (18 full fledged Leviathon-class long range killers) but they were bringing hundreds of ships. I was able to defend a few systems and attack about two but they had way too many ships. I was being attacked on probably 6 or 7 fronts. I wasn’t churning out enough ships to defend all of it. So, I know I’m doomed. I downloaded a save game editor and made my ships even more powerful. They were wiping the floors with whoever was on the receiving side of my beams but they still had way too many ships (something I can’t fix in the editor). I died (not yet, but soon enough).
And of course, leafing through my CD book looking for an old game to play did nothing – I’ve played the games I brought with me about a million times.
Dennis is in Nebraska or something so I don’t think he’ll be updating for the next while – he’s marrying a goat or something. Sunny already updated and usually he updates every few days so I’ll have to wait for the next one. Justin updated! It was something new and good to read (don’t work too hard Justin). Michelle also updated too and Mich, even though my mother’s maiden name is Fung, I don’t think I know any of those particular Fungs. By the way, what the hell does UNDP SEAHIV stand for? I can figure out the UNDP part, but SEAHIV??? Give us a clue and I hope you’re doing well.
I put up some bad pictures from the baseball game I saw. These were the phone pictures. I have some better pictures but I don’t think I’ll be posting them up seeing as I don’t have a photo album on my webpage.
Oh good, I killed 15 minutes writing this. I’m hungry and I want my teddy bear. Fuckers.
Hewwo
July 04, 2003
Wow my updates are becoming sporadic again. I guess after I get used to a new design and lose the sense of achievement from it, I update less.
What a week. I haven’t felt so tired from work before. Yesterday was one of the longest days ever. It’s not as hot as it was a few weeks ago and it seems like the rainy season is coming to an end even though it’s still raining often. A lot of interesting stories from friends lately – a few I’d love to share with the world but I can’t as I said I wouldn’t. Still, makes my mundane little life here in Osaka a little brighter just listening to them. A few ex-coworkers from the ELI are moving to Japan so there’ll be more people here for me to share funny experiences. One dude isn’t really sure where he’ll be placed but hopefully he’ll be in the Kansai area. Another dude, whom I haven’t heard from since I left was supposed to be heading over too but I’m not sure if he’s still coming or not. And another is heading to the Kanto area. Over time, the whole building in Vancouver will be airlifted to Japan.
I had a whole bunch of things lined up to say but now that I’m typing, I don’t feel like saying it. Homestar Runner rules.
Maybe
June 30, 2003
Maybe I should say that these past days have been exactly like every other day in Japan. Maybe I should say I’m glad Dennis and Sunny have been updating. Maybe I should say that my birthday is coming up again already and that I’m not going to do anything. Maybe I should also say that Nate, who worked at the ELI with me, who now is in Korea, came to Osaka for the weekend and we had a good Saturday afternoon together. Maybe I should say I had a wicked time last week at friend/coworker Daniel’s birthday dinner where a traditionally dressed Japanese woman came to our dining room and poured sake for us, much in the way traditionally dressed Japanese women used to pour sake for samurai and other important men 400 years ago. Maybe I should say I’m getting my ass kicked in Master of Orion 3 because I bit off more than I could chew and now I have 2 very pissed off races after me. Maybe I should say I just wrote a short story that I will eventually post up here after some editing.
Maybe I should say all those things, but I won’t.
Wooohah
June 26, 2003
Whoa. Blogger suddenly got a facelift. After they were taken over by Google, they’be been tinkering around. The new blogger came out today and it looks and feels all nice and stuff but I don’t think there are any real differences.
I had a completely full work week this week – 5 days x 8 lessons each day. I couldn’t believe it. I haven’t had a full week since when I first started working. The feeling is shit. When you’re used to not that many lessons and then all of a sudden you’re thrown back into the pool – you want to rip shit out of people, like guts and spleens and stuff. Sucks.
Sunny, your updates sound so depressing. Hang in there buddy.
I’m just updating right now because I’m bored and I don’t want to do any important stuff yet. It’s my Friday night right now.
Updates
June 23, 2003
It appears Robot Frank may not be as dead as previously thought… interesting turn of events. Although I’m actually kind of sick of it being not updated for a long time then suddenly finding out it’s been abandoned.
Also, Sunny has moved his page to another host with less popups. There’s still one but sure beats the 2 at angelfire and the 1 that pops up when you close one of the first popups. That’s annoying. The other pages at his site are still at angelfire so beware!
And Dennis, I got your email and it is exciting indeed. I will be replying in due time.
I am in need of time.
Business, like Busy-ness, not Selling Condoms Business
June 22, 2003
Here I am, watching an episode of DBZ, eating a cheap bento after a long day at work. Day one finished, only four more busy days left. Tomorrow after work I will be meeting a few Osaka friends and also another friend I haven’t seen in awhile. Actually, I don’t really know her too well. The day after, I’ll be meeting Eri after work. The day after that, it’s my friend Daniel’s birthday dealie. The day after that, probably I’ll be going to that English cafe once again. Then there’s Japanese lesson after that. Lots to do and not enough time to do it.
I’ve been working on a few things for the other sections of my webpage but it’s going really slowly. I’m still writing a story for this one comic thing but it’s probably going to turn out shitty much like the other stuff. I think everything that pops into my head involves crazy insane twists of normal day to day things. There are about four comic/story ideas floating around. One has a completed script (but needs some editing) but I don’t have the drawing skills to complete it yet. Well, I can draw it on paper and scan it but as I don’t have a scanner yet… it’s all wacom or nothing.
And I’m slowly playing Master of Orion 3 still. After the patch was released, the game kicks ass now. The patch fixed a lot of flaws that made the game shitty. Now it’s much easier to play and more interesting too.
And I’m still keeping up on my Japanese studies. I can confidently say I have increased my speaking ability two fold. It’s not much considering I could only say about 4 or 5 things before. Now I can make simple simple sentences about what I did, am doing, or will do.
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Don’t worry if your browser can’t see that. Don’t worry if you can’t understand it too.
Nostalgia
June 20, 2003
I got bored so I opened up a dusty folder in my computer called, “Old Homepages”. In this folder contains the relics I used to call Jerryvision. It essentially has every webpage design I’ve ever made and contains most of all my updates and shit I’ve made. It’s far from complete though and I fear the missing updates are probably lost to history forever. The earliest record I have dates back to June 8, 1999 but I know my very first update dates a little farther back than that. I remember the reason I made the page was when I was in that stupid EDP class in highschool with Andrew, we both thought it would be fun to make some webpages. We had finished making really ugly pages for this class and wanted to play with it more. So my very very first stuff would date back to around 1997 or 1998. Five years later, I’m still writing. Unforunately, I didn’t start archiving updates regularly until late in the game. I’ve lost a lot because of this.
I noticed big changes over these four years in my writing style. Prior to Nov 11, 1999, I was a depressed kid who was yearning for a girlfriend because the past girlfriends and relationships I had were either horrible or dull or mean or wanted something better than me. On that date though, things changed. For those who don’t know, my best friend at the time had a car accident that changed his life and the lives of all those around him. For the next little while after this date, I was just angry at everything. The next important change came when I got my job at the ELI. That place made me discover a lot about myself and I met a lot of good people at that place. I think that place really helped me get over not being best friends with some people and having my life completely change. The summer of 2000 may have been the best one in my life.
A little later that year, around August 2000, I met Eri. We saw each other and hung out a few times that month and then spontaneously, we became a couple in September. I remember the day we got together very well. And people have been right – I do talk about Eri a whole lot. I think after I met her, my writing changed a lot too. My friend’s accident stripped me of a security blanket and forced me to wake up from a long, happy dream. The period of not having this friend made me grow up. The first summer at the ELI made me realize there’s so much more out there for me. Eri became all that was so much more. The updates for the past 2 years, 9 months, and 10 days are all wonderful and I feel so damn proud of myself for going through so much stuff in my insignificant little life. (Incidentally, honey, Happy 2 Years, 9 Months, and 10 Days!)
Some other things I noticed while reminiscing: I said after every final that I would fail but four years of university later and I haven’t failed a single exam or course. I mention Dennis just as much as Eri – much more before I met her. Quake, Shoo, cigarettes, sports, and being bored are also very common things I read about. I was very boring.
That’s about it. If you haven’t done so, you should go read over your old writing and rediscover yourself. I used to be afraid of looking into the past because some of the most painful memories lie beneath. Now, I feel they aren’t as painful as before and have in all their mysterious ways, shaped me into the fine piece of meat I am today.
Dad’s Day
June 15, 2003
On the off chance my dad sees this, then, Happy Father’s Day! It’s hard to do things for Father’s, Mother’s Days, birthdays, and any sort of day where well wishes are required when you’re halfway around the globe. I feel so unfilial.
Thank you, Sunny, for updating! Seattle can be fun and very intimidating at the same time. Those dude(s) were staring at you probably because they thought you and your asian friends all had SARS. That toy store rules and the gianto keyboard ain’t too hard to play, if you’re good at jumping. Now I only wish more people update because I’m sure tired of reading my own updates.
Today was a nice day at work. Six scheduled. Well, at first it was five but they eventually took one away. The first lesson was free and the next two after that didn’t show up. I didn’t teach until the fourth and right after that, I had lunch. Not too bad. Tomorrow morning however looks busy. It’s filled already. I’ll not be looking forward to that. However, I’m going to some pizza all-you-can-eat with a friend tomorrow. Apparently, it’s only 600 yen, or about 7 bucks. That’s VERY cheap by Japan standards and pretty cheap by Canadian value too. Hideki hit another homerun and Roger got his 300th. It’s a great time to be alive.
Update damn you all!
Transformers Comeback Move
June 13, 2003
Whoa! I gotta see this if it ever comes out in Japan. The best thing is, they’re planning to use the original line up of Transformers, not the crazy dazzly ones of the its later years.
Writing More
June 12, 2003
I’m surprised at myself. I’ve been consistently writing on my webpage this past little while. I think I’ve been so excited about this new design that I just want to look at it more. It’s no award winning deal but it’s been so long since my webpage has been drastically changed. The last design was really just a blogger template modified slightly. I can’t really take credit for it. This one isn’t very original but it does include lotsa pictures – something I’ve always wanted to do. I can sort of change the pictures easily. I need to get a nicer camera soon because all the photos taken by my current one always comes out blurry, no matter how I take the picture or play with the settings. I want to get a camera that includes video recording because that’s all the norm now.
I just got word that there will be another student in my Japanese class later today. It’s sort of good and bad. It’s good that I’ll have someone else to practice speaking with in class but bad because I no longer have lucky private lessons. It’s only my third lesson though. I’ve been pretty good with keeping up with the readings. I still haven’t memorized everything but I’m getting up bright and early to do so.
I was going to write about the Israel/Palestine situation and how the peace plan that was going along nicely was just fucked in the butt by an Israeli missile attack, followed by a suicide bombing, and then followed by Israel declaring to wipe out the Hamas faction. What a great little story of hatred and violence. I hope both sides get wiped out or no one dies at all. It’s all or nothing in my camp. Otherwise, the fighting will just endlessly continue. I’m too tired to even think about all that miserable suffering.
And I’ll Never Ever Ever Ever Ever Write A Song About Sibbie…
June 11, 2003
I had some old pics lying around in my phone so here you go. See and read all about my time in Tokyo last month. I never really asked, but the descriptions work right? You guys do click on it and read them right? Hmm… and since now like every freakin page here has gianto pictures everywhere, how are the load times for everyone? Painful? Bearable? Lightning quick? Hmm…
Dennis I hope you’re feeling better. Sunny I hope your ass feels better. By the way, it’s not my place to say, but whenever someone is giving mixed messages – GET OUT. Mixed messages are not fun messages and will only end up biting you in your already swollen ass. That’s my opinion anyway. Feel free to email me and debate this (I am rather curious as to who this person is).
Oh look at the time. I have to sleep! I bet I’m the only one out of everyone who sleeps regularly at 11pm.
Daily Dose
June 09, 2003
I feel like I’m in university! I’ve been updating everyday for the past… 2 days!
The “Created” and “Captured” buttons have had their pictures replaced with pictures that you may actually find some sort of analogy to the word. The first pictures were of my clock and of a school of fish from the aquarium. Go think that one over. Also, the Captured page itself is complete although right now it’s sort of empty. The big pictures here are supposed to be blurry. I need to do more things to fill up my webpage. I’m going to run out of space soon. BTW, I suddenly started using the words, “Spoken, Created, Captured” because first it was more appealing than Blog, Gallery, Photos and it also has more marketing appeal, don’t you think? Not that I have any plans to become a commercial project or something but good marketing never hurts. It just basically started with “spoken” as a blog name and then I thought, well, might as well name the other parts with past participles. Sadly, the past participles of create and capture aren’t as cool as speak. I was thinking of using “Taken” instead for “Captured” because you know, you can “take” pictures. But after some though, “Taken” sounded too sexual for some reason. Yes I know, “Captured” can also be like that too but it was cooler so shut up.
Today after work I joined a few people for coffee. There was an Israeli, a Chinese, an Australian, and a Welsh dude. (That sentence would be a great start to some sort of joke) It was quite fun. I’ve never heard so much bashing of different countries before in one sitting. It was rather amusing. Of these 4 people, I’ve only met one of them outside of work before and it was only one time. I really need to get out and do more stuff with people. Tomorrow I’m going to my first Japanese person’s birthday party (other than Eri). I’m excited as I get a chance to practice the language I’ve picked up these couple of days of studying. I still suck, don’t get the impression from my writing that I’m fluent or anything, far from it.
I tried to get Eri to write comments here but then she reminded me she would only write really embarassing personal messages in a language that’s not quite English, not quite Japanese. This language was forged from our relationship. So, now I’m won’t be so sad if she doesn’t write…
Is This Working?
June 07, 2003
I have no idea. It’s not working everytime.
Accident
June 03, 2003
I had one right after the last update. See the webcam.
Edit – 2005/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Everybody! Everybody!
Since Everybody! Everybody! updated, I’ll do the same although the quality of my writing has been described as, “It’s so fucking boring I want to gouge my eyes out and shove them into my ass just so I could see something more interesting.”
That typhoon I ranted about pissed over pretty quickly. The weather here sure was fucked up for awhile. It was crazy windy for all three days with one day of fair skies and temperature. The next day was piss hot and humid in the day but then it started pouring buckets of piss at night. The last day was nice and cool. It was a mini-me of a typhoon so hopefully the momma typhoons hit soon. I want to see chaos, death, and destruction by the fury of momma nature before I leave.
Work has been pissy busy with 8 lessons nearly everyday for the past few weeks. I’m so sick of it. I feel like I’m on probation again. They have a new scheduling system that was supposed to be more fair but it hasn’t proven to be the case. My compatriots who started at the same time seem to get 6 or 7 while I always get my free periods filled. It’s pathetic and frustrating. I’m deciding to snoop around for other occupations that don’t involve work dissatisfaction and the teaching of languages. It will be a hard find this I know.
I watched The Shawshank Redemption again recently. It reconfirmed its place in the Hall of Great Movies which is jealously guarded by a very short and select movie list.
I hope whoever is having whatever sort of trouble, be it relationship, financial, or just general suddenly find the answer and have a nice day. And don’t think this message is targeted specifically at you because there are so many people right now having things go wrong it’s not even funny. Well, it’s funny to me since everything is so fucking rosy. (Hate mail ensues)
Simple Stimulants
May 23, 2003
It seems like I’m getting easier and easier to please these days. I went to my new Japanese teacher today. It wasn’t a lesson yet – just an interview of sorts and introduction. It’s been 7 months and here I am finally starting to take lessons. I felt pretty happy afterwards. I went to this little cafe called, and I quote, “Italian Tomato Cafe Jr.” I don’t know why it’s called junior but I’m pretty curious about the senior shop. Then I went to the 100 yen store and bought some small shit for my house, a new binder (B5 size… we don’t have those at home do we?) and some instant coffee and a block of cheddar cheese. Cheese is the new heroin.
So I got home and started cleaning up the mess I call home and finally got around to doing the laundry. It’s been two weeks since this place has been vacuumed and it’s looking kinda eoorrrllaauoirhg (that’s Japanese for “gross”). It’s amazing how satisfied I feel after getting chores done. It’s so simple, yet gratifying. Easy to do, yet, easy to put away for tomorrow. I have ten minutes before I gotta get downstairs and bring up the next load of clothes so I’m writing here.
As Dennis has said, it seems many people are having relationship problems. It’s sort of true on this side of the world. I’ve been hearing stories of X broke up with Y and so on. I guess that’s how things go. Once out of school, it’s a big change for everyone and sometimes relationships can’t cope with big changes. So if you are in a situation where a relationship is getting you down, well, you know, don’t be sad and stuff. Luckily (or not), me being in school or working changed nothing for Eri and I – the more important thing was me being closer. I have no idea how long I will be staying but I’m guessing for at least two years. Possibly more. I have no idea what to do with my life and being in Vancouver wouldn’t help either so I’m gonna spend some time here, learning the language, eating some damn fine cuisine, and doing the laundry.
If you or someone you know would like to acquire goods or some sort from Japan but have no contact, then send me an email. I’d gladly send it to you with only a 20% commission off the price. Free if you’re my friend in non-business transactions. Dennis, I think you’re in need of some tentacle porn aren’t you?
Yippy
May 21, 2003
Well I guess my streak of happy, fuzzy peach life has hit a bump. Everything was going very very well until now! Don’t worry, it’s nothing too bad, it’s just that my sister told me someone from a long time ago whom I used to know suddenly wants to contact me for reasons unknown. Should I be scared? Should I quickly hide the evidence? Should I eliminate any witnesses? Who knows. Well, not like that person can come and assassinate me easily. I am a very long distance away. Woohoo. Oceans can be kind sometimes. I’m curious though… what beckons after so many years of non-contact? If I suddenly dissappear off the face of the Earth… well, you all have a suspect now.
Seeya.
Strong Bad!
May 12, 2003
The latest update at HSR is awesome! Not only do we have a new Teen Girl Squad but we also have a cool SB clock that speaks! There’s also a message board but it’s not so interesting to me. The games on the board are kinda boring too. BUT there’s a new issue of Teen Girl Squad!
It’s my second week of earlies and I’m coping much better. I slept quite well last night despite working a late shift and sleeping 6 hours to work an early shift. This week is short for me as I’ll be heading over to Tokyo for almost a week on Wednesday with a friend to meet some other friends. It’s a big whole reunion deal. I’m stoked. I won’t be seeing Eri for more than a week though. This will probably be the last update before that. I’m gonna be camera crazy as long as my stupid digital camera holds and fuggin works. Always got my phone I guess.
Geez I really wanted to update but I am so not writing anything interesting right now. Just go over the HSR. It’s more fun.
Page 4
May 08, 2003
Page 4 is here. In case you were wondering, yes, the thumbnails were supposed to be really bad thumbnails. What’s the point of seeing the big picture if the thumb already gives away the best parts? I intentionally made shitty thumbnails that give no clues.
This Must Be The Hardest Thing To Do
May 03, 2003
Cutting off your own arm to survive? That’s gotta take some heavy balls to do that.
Chubby Rain
April 30, 2003
It’s about 30 past 5AM right now. I went to sleep at 3AM. Why am I up so early? It wasn’t intentional. I was literally woken up by the rain. I woke up and heard a really loud noise and wondered for a moment. It really sounded like rain. I opened the sliding door and I was right. It was the rain. I have never in my life seen so much water coming down from the sky and that says a lot because I come from Vancouver – the land of gravitated water. It’s kind of eerie standing on your balcony at 5:30AM watching the most rain you’ve seen in your life. It kinda made me think of, “Sonova… what if it were to flood… where would I go?” My eyes darted to the taller apartment buildings around…
I’m really glad I don’t have to work today but other arrangements will have to be made with my laundry plans because my clothes will become wetter in the drying process than the washing cycles today. Thankfully I remember that weather in this place doesn’t tend to stick around too long. Gonna try to fall asleep again but damn, that rain is really loud!
This Edition Of The Easiest Thing
April 28, 2003
The easiest thing about enjoying a weekend followed by one day of work and then another weekend because your shift change request was approved and also having had “development” everyday this week which almost guarantees free periods in the first two periods while all the other suckers are working and then having more than your fair share of no shows today in the middle of Golden week which isn’t so golden and isn’t really a week is that… it’s great.
Poor Strong Bad, will he EVER get the ladies?
This Edition Of The Hardest Thing
April 26, 2003
The hardest thing about biking back home on a bike with unfully inflated tires with your girlfriend standing on two stepping things attached to the wheel and carrying her purse, my full backpack, and a bag of videos with strong wind blowing against you and also trying to steer on wet concrete is that you have to convince yourself that you are stronger than five muscular gorillas in heat. It’s sheer will.
I Have To Say mk.II
April 24, 2003
And if you’re like me, you’ll have had tonnes of shitty toys back in the 80s that seemed bodaciously cool for the time. Here’s a webpage that tries to catalog a bunch of 80s toys. It’s amazing how much of it sounds familiar or are so familiar that I can remember how they smelled. It was heinously awesome and radical. Oh yeah, I guess you should check out the glossary of 80s terms or these words I’m using will just sound bogus and totally untubular.
I Have To Say
Greetings.
Well to start off, I think Michelle is mad at me. She said, “Fuck you” in the very first line of her webpage. I think she was directing it at me. I am now wondering if I acted stupid enough to incure the “fuck you” wrath. I was so upset that I didn’t read what the rest of her update was about.
And at work today I pretended I was totally into hockey because, well, all Canadians are supposed to love hockey. I started talking about Bobby Hull, Frank Mahosomething, Gordie Howe, and Guy Lafleur and people totally thought I was a hockey nut. I don’t think I can name off more than 5 Canucks anymore. Just 8 years ago, I could name every Canuck and their second grade teacher. Funny how EIGHT years changes a guy. Assuming it matters, I hope Vancouver does well anyway because I love the town to death and it would just rule to have a big metal cup sitting in some hockey place for people to look at and stuff. Stuff is cool.
And the weather this week has been pissy. We’ve had nothing but cool, crisp, dry, sunny weather with occasional rainfall. I think last Saturday, it rained and all of a sudden it was humidity central. I’m used to rain in Vancouver that feels like water and feels cool and I love the smell of grass after a nice long shower. Well, on Saturday the rain felt and smelled like sweaty socks and it was so warm I was sweating just from walking home from the train station (a ten minute stroll). Couple that with a full day of work and I was ready to kill people just for talking. Today started out really nice and cool but on the way home, I felt this strange blanket of humidity descend upon me. I was walking out of a grocery store and all of a sudden, as if Hermes the Weather God (I know he’s not but don’t dare correct me) pushes down with his divine power heat from Zeus’ underside. It was not pleasant. It felt like Hong Kong only not that hot… yet. Luckily I am changing my schedule very soon and I’ll be leaving the house dead early enough to avoid Zeus’ undersided heat. At least I hope so.
And should you be one of the two people who think my comics have some sort of interesting appeal or are just bemusing, stay tuned because I have been having epiphanies as to things I would like to, or will eventually do. And they won’t swirl around The Evil Penguin (a shit idea to begin with) nor mindnumbing stories where things just suddenly die. Well, some might.
And I will end this update on a fragment sentence. Is such a thing.
Hmm
April 17, 2003
Urgh
April 15, 2003
After some very pleasant, “Jerry it’s not working” messages. I think I finally fixed everything. Turns out a few months ago I fucked Golive and now it came and bit me back in the ass. I think the problem was the page was looking for a javascript library on my computer when it should’ve just shitted the code onto the page as it should. Well I think I made it shit on the page so all the pictures should work. If not, please tell me and I’ll shoot the messenger. The webcam which mysteriously stopped working (I didn’t touch this page at all for a very long time) should also be working too.
Thanks to Justin for pointing out it was fucked and telling me which line the error was on. And thanks to Dennis for patiently testing every little thing I tried, eg. “And this?” “Nope.” “How about this?” “Nope.” And thanks for offering your abuse code but I don’t want pictures of razored women popping up all over the place.
I would update but I’m too sick of looking at this computer. I need to go outside and melt. See you.
Here’s something to read before you eat lunch:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two California poultry farmers who fed some 30,000 live chickens into wood chippers will not face criminal charges because they had permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news – web sites), prosecutors said on Friday.
But a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States called the farmers “callous and barbaric” and disagreed with the decision not to prosecute them.
The farmers needed to destroy the chickens because they were “spent” — or no longer able to produce eggs — and could not make chicken soup out of them because the farms were under quarantine for the poultry virus Exotic Newcastle Disease, District Attorney’s spokeswoman Gayle Stewart said.
Stewart said the men, who run a poultry farm near San Diego, asked a senior veterinarian with the Agriculture Department if they could employ the wood chippers and were given permission.
“Once they had permission we decided that they did not have any criminal intent,” Stewart said.
Brothers Arie and Will Wilgenburg, who run Escondido-based Ward Poultry Farm, could not be reached for comment on Friday. Earlier, they told the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper that they were doing “what we thought we had to do” based on expert advice and stopped as soon as they learned otherwise.
Wayne Pacelle, a spokesman for the Humane Society, said that explanation was unacceptable.
“The act of feeding live chickens into a wood chipper is an extraordinarily callous and barbaric act and I can’t imagine any person with a whit of common sense would use a wood chipper as a killing tool,” he said. “No person with any experience in killing animals would sanction the use of this technique.”
Pacelle said the District Attorney’s decision not to prosecute the brothers rested on the “faulty assumption” that using wood chippers to kill chickens was an accepted practice. [Yahoo! News]
It’s Your Lucky Day
April 10, 2003
For a limited time viewing, I am publicizing things I have made. The latest creation is a small photo album called Japan Captured. Find this and other crazy ass Jerry stuff in my Gallery. Yes! I have a gallery (still).
And Michelle, that poot story is hilarious! It’s hilarious because Eri and I have conversations about how we sometimes hear each other fart in our sleep. We both grind our teeth too which sounds really terrible but it’s probably not that big a deal. I also laugh in my sleep while Eri twitches. It’s cool to observe your loved one in the dead of night for these things that no one else knows.
The Dawn
April 06, 2003
With a two litre bottle of water in hand, he thinks about the things which transpired today.
It’s strange how some things are not quite coincidental and not special enough to be divine intervention. This morning while he and his girlfriend were talking about their schedules that don’t mesh, he mentions, “Well, when the shift change request goes through, we’ll be able to see each other more. But it’ll probably take till fuckin July before it goes through.” Little did he know that when he got to work and logged onto the archaic computers, there would be a foreign message to greet him.
“Please come to LS and pick up your schedule change confirmation sheet. – Ayako*.”
In amazement, he double checks then triple checks this message. Can it finally be true? Has paperwork finally gone through and been approved? It truly was an amazing day. Furthermore, he would go through the whole day with only four lessons and also plan an upcoming trip to Tokyo with his good friends, Darwin* and Darwin*. The most exciting highlight? While enjoying a free block with Darwin, they both see a building blow pillars of smoke. It definitely wasn’t a smoke stack, the building was located pretty much right next to the Osaka Dome. It would be like putting the pork byproduct refinery plant next to GM Place. Ridiculous notion.
And now, as he eats his favorite bento lunch box from the local convenience store, sipping from his two litre bottle of water, he begins to write in his journal…
—
* Actual names have been changed to protect identities.
Finally!!!
As it may have turned out, it might have been my ftp that was fucking up instead of the good stuff at Blogger. Oh well, why split hairs? It’s finally up and now you have THREE updates to catch up on. How lucky you are, my fellow visitor. The book is getting even better. The different characters may just all end up in the same story line yet. Today at work I had seven lessons – I haven’t had that many in quite awhile. To spit on my neck while I’m down, half the students today were utter morons. I know the difficulties of learning a new language but when you don’t understand something, SAY SOMETHING! SAY, “I don’t know” or “I’m sorry” or even a gutteral “HUH?” Today’s morons completely froze when they didn’t understand something. I mean, they just sit there and try not to move. It’s like one of those pill bugs at home. When you touch it, it curls up into a ball and pretends to be dead, in hopes that the predator will go away. Maybe these morons wanted to pretend to be dead so that I would go away. I thought my computer had froze and I had to wave my hand in the camera and start saying, “hello? hello? Uhh…. are you there?” And then in a weak, “… yes” they’ll dispel the illusion that my computer had died.
Blech.
Sucks
April 05, 2003
Well isn’t this how it always is. I updated finally and what? Blogger won’t publish because of some problem. Fuck. Well, seeing how you won’t be reading this update for an unforeseen amount of time, I am going to prophesize about what I will be thinking of by the time this finally gets posted on my webpage.
I will have finished reading half of the book I wrote about in the last update (which you never heard about so after you read this, read the post beforehand). I will be loving the book even more because it’s already as exciting as it is. I will be wanting to buy the other book by the same author because the excerpt from that book, Syrup, is pretty interesting too. Max Barry, you’re a pretty good author, and I’ll forgive you for being Australian. (I bet my Aussie friends at work would beat me into the cheap office flooring if they read that).
I will be dancing with a jolly fat smile because I have a three day weekend coming up and even though events as of late. Just when I was beginning to think the company isn’t as sludge-like as people say, they go and do some retarded, nonsensical, unefficient, money wasting things that piss me off. They just took at least a 3 point dive on the Shit-O-Meter. They weren’t high up there as it was, and now? Geez.
I will be pretty damn pleased at myself because my Chinese (mandarin) communicative ability, or C/A in work slang, has been improving with every language exchange. Yesterday, a coworker and I were annoying our chinese teacher when all we practiced were whimsical use of the words, With, Do, Make, You, Like, With, Love, Me, and Want. It was pretty funny.
Also, I will have smothered Eri to death with voluminous kissing because she just came back today after a week in Nagoya. I will have returned the other pillow to its original position after holding it for a few nights in lieu of Eri. Sad huh?
Hopefully it won’t be long before this thing goes back up. I really don’t want to write another update in which I have to refer to this update or the one previously.
First E-Book
April 03, 2003
In the boredom that occupied most of my last two days, I was browsing through pages and stumbled onto Nation States, a clever little web-based game where you create a country and run its government in the political style of your liking. I was reading through the whole page and it so happens that this game is a marketing ploy for a new book called Jennifer Government. I went over to the book’s page and read about it and plunged into the excerpt and was quite impressed. So impressed in fact, that I just bought the book, the e-book. This would make it the first e-book I have ever purchased, first book in Japan, and first online book purchase ever for me.
I was quite happy until the damn book crashed my palm two times. After a couple of resets (and one data restore), I think the book works. Turns out my old version of winzip was corrupting the file somehow (don’t ask me). I will be busy on the subway reading this book! Anyway, I haven’t gotten far but basically corporations run this world and everyone changes their family name to their corporation’s name. It takes awhile to clear out if they’re talking about THE company or if it’s just some guy who works there. Interesting idea – a review will come when I’m farther into it.
I had something else written yesterday but I fucking accidentally closed the browser because I had too many windows open and was ALT-F4′ing without due care. Rats.
Hello World
March 25, 2003
I read my last update and thought maybe people might think the world was ending. Well, I didn’t mean that humanity as a whole would end because of an isolated conflict in a region of the world that most people don’t know shit about. I just meant this war paves way for other countries to attack other countries, citing this war as precedent. And if no one else approves it, who the fuck cares? No doubt that this war is getting me down because it’s simply ridiculous and completely uncalled for. Where are those fabled chemical, biological, and shudder, nuclear weapons that Iraq was supposed to have? Where are the terrorists that they were supposed to be sponsoring? All in all, this war is a crock and Bush is the cause of all this shit. The sad part is, this war, which is supposed to secure freedom and democracy will only breed hatred against Americans and other people in the western world. It’s not fair to hate these people because most of them didn’t want this war. Blame Bush. Blame that moron that was “voted” into office. Had he lost the election, I highly doubt this war would’ve come to be.
There. I will try to hold any more charged opinions from my updates because the world doesn’t need another lunatic spurring crazy thoughts. There are plenty running countries around the world.
I want to congratulate Michelle for getting that position in the UNDP (what does it stand for again?) Thailand seems so close to here so Mich, if you’re ever in the neighborhood, let me know. I know I’d sure love to visit Thailand! (I just invited myself to stay at your place, if you weren’t sure what I meant – beers on me).
And I finally stepped out of the stone age around here and got myself a cell phone. The thing with cell phones in this crazy country is that they are so technologically advanced that my nokia 3190 is like a typewriter compared to a vaio notebook. My phone has TWO fucking cameras, one facing forward and another facing myself for self portraits, IR, two ways to charge it, full color and great resolution on the display, internet, email, voicemail, and tonnes of programs to download and install ALL in the phone. Plus there’s a cool button that automatically flips the phone open. It’s so cool I want to just call people randomly just so I can use it.
Um. I feel out of touch with everyone that lives in Vancouver so I’m sorry. Bah.
Goodbye World
March 20, 2003
The deadline for a certain dictator’s ultimatum will be here in a few hours. Goodbye world! It was fun living in you. Sorry for blowing you to hell and back. Dear God I hate this creepy feeling I’m getting.
And…
March 18, 2003
Welcome new girl who is living in my old room back home. Whoever you are.
Better not touch my stash.
Apples and Oranges and Applish Oranges
When compact flash came out, it set the standard for portable, micro storage devices. The number of devices that used CF was prolific. Everyone was happy as companies pushed the limit of the number megabytes from 2 to 4 to 8 to a whopping 16. 16Mb was a lot of 640×480 pictures.
Somewhere along the road, Smartmedia and Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick were introduced. Now device makers were confused as to which standard to follow (except for Sony, they didn’t have a choice).
A few years later MMC and then its faster cousin SD came along. Now, XD, Memory Stick Duo, and the next generation CF are slowly taking form. Boasting 4Gb of space, you’ll need that one card only, for life.
I am utterly perplexed on why so many formats were introduced and why one can’t be adopted by everyone. There are printers that have 2 or 3 slots for different cards- where do we draw the line?
I’m sympathetic right now to the SD format because my handy palm uses it (this update is being written on a doc file on an SD card in my palm as we speak). All the cool cameras here are with SD and it’s small enough to conceal in many unsightly places. Not that I’ve had to shove an SD card into my ear (or worse), it’s nice to know if I had some sensitive information, I could shove it in my ear.
Soon, wireless access will have just as many standards: Bluetooth, WiFi, and 820.015 or something like that.
Repeat
March 14, 2003
Let’s start with a Happy Birthday to Dennis and Justin. Happy Birthday!
I had this whole update written in my head this morning as I was contemplating whether to wake up or sleep some more. It was going to be about the inevitable war. It was not a war between two countries, but a war instigated by one country and the other was forced to fight. It’s about the failing, corrupt, selfish, lying, discriminating policy of that bigger country versus the collective opinion of many many many countries. I am glad one outspoken country has vehemently been opposing the whole shebang because otherwise, it would set precedent for many other countries to blow up other countries.
And to top things off, the Serbian PM was assassinated. Wasn’t this how WW1 began?
Pencil Carving
March 11, 2003
Pencils that become art. This so cool. The skill involved with creating something like this must be amazing. I bet they go through half a dozen attempts before getting one right.
My Baby Can Graduate
She found out today – she had been working on her thesis for a long long time. Woohoo!
Glory
Tonight I finally finished Grand Theft Auto 3. I mean finally! I didn’t achieve 100%, not even close. I did all the career missions, found 100 hidden packages, did all police, firetruck, and ambulance missions, and all the payphone missions. I didn’t do any of the jumps, rampages, 4×4′s and didn’t finish the import/export ones. Those would take forever. I’m happy just to see the ending. AND I finally got to drive my very own Rhino Tank around tonight… very nice. Its turret destroys something instaneously. It’s like someone mounted an instaneous rocket launcher atop a garbage truck. Oh it’s so great. It’s terrific.
I’ve Been Meaning To Update
March 10, 2003
I just couldn’t think of anything relevant to say. I have a word doc in my palm titled, “Webpage Updates” and I try to write in it at work and upload it onto here when I get home. I stared at this empty file about 5 or 6 times in the past few days and just didn’t know what to say.
I found out why my palm get dying. I installed Insaniquarium for Palm and the program ran fine. It’s just that everytime I exited the game, a fatal error would force my palm to reset. After booting up again, it would ask if I wanted to delete everything. I choose no, it would reset again and just keep looping until I press yes, delete everything. Then I did delete everything and tried to have the desktop overwite the palm but they wouldn’t talk anymore. So I just fudged it and reinstalled it all. I actually enjoy my palm again now because it seems so much better without a bunch of garbage leftover from old programs. It’s like working with a fresh install of Windows.
Anyway I’m deciding that this update just be a random thought update, much like the ones before. I really wanted to write thought provoking issues on here and have you think about it and perhaps even respond. It seems thought provoking issues come rare in my mind so you get what you pay for huh?
Today is our two and a half year anniversary. Last night we figured out that in our 2.5 years together, we have been apart for at least 1 year. Also, we have never been with each other in May and June. How fucked up is that?
Work has been a tad irritating because it’s been getting busy again. Today I actually had the full 8 lessons. I was pretty frustrated because my day started out with 5 lessons and I watched as “they” filled each free block up. Others had 5 or 6. What a bitch. And to spit on my neck while I’m down, my shift change request has been turned down until next month. That means in April, when Eri starts working, we will see each other about 2 hours a week or something. Assuming my request gets approved for May, it won’t be too bad but they have prickly prick(s) in charge of shifts. I mean, if they reject my request, as long as they(he) is/are courteous about it, i would completely understand and respect it. No. No way… they(he) must be pompous and arrogant and carry a holier than thou attitude. I hate that.
I had a thrilling dream last night. I was in the castle scene from LoTR. I was helping them fend off orcs. How cool is that? I saw them catapulting giant hunks of coal and then giant hunks of lit firestarter onto the walls, trying to set shit on fire. I had to help pick up these gianto coals and throw them back down. Then I used a mini bow and shot pencil sized arrows at them. I think I killed a few. Cool huh?
I am slowly learning Japanese AND Mandarin here. I am going to come back a very linguistic, tempered youth.
Someone update for the love of [insert your deity]. I’m getting bored.
Fuck 2
March 06, 2003
For starters, Eri had a wisdom tooth removed and she’s been in pain all night. Then my webpage doesn’t work and hence I can’t get any email. I think it’s not my isp this time because even Blogger seems to have trouble posting this. So by the time you read this, it’ll probably be way after I wrote it. Lastly, my Palm suddenly fucked and destroyed itself. I lost all my data on it. I tried synching it to my computer but it wouldn’t connect for some reason so I just backed up all my crucial info and reinstalled it all.
If it gets worse, my whole computer will die and I’ll have to reinstall which will be scary. I haven’t reinstalled XP yet and I’m not even sure if I brought all the cds and documents I need to Japan.
Fuck eh?
Fuck
March 04, 2003
I opened the door to the balcony and saw that it was snowing today. It wasn’t a blizzard but enough flurries to make me excited. It was the first snow I have seen in a very long time. Supposedly it snowed in early January but I missed it or it turned to rain or something. Anyway, I went to brush my teeth and then picked up my camera to take a picture. I think snow scenes are beautiful, even in a nature-less place like Osaka. I open the door again and see that it’s sunny and all the snow stopped. It stopped in literally five minutes. Fucking luck. So much for a new webcam pic.
Did it snow in Vancouver this winter?
I’m sick too!
March 01, 2003
Actually, I’m at the brink of being sick. Eri is the one who is sick. She had a sore throat, runny nose, and a slight fever. I’ve been feeling that itch in my throat and I’ve been hocking nonexistent loogies. A lot of people at work are sick too. It’s a pandemic!
New Best Work
February 27, 2003
Wasn’t it like two weeks ago or less that I had the best day of work? Well today beat that day. Four scheduled lessons again, except this time one of them was a no-show. Another one also came five minutes late. So today, I actually worked 1 hour and 55 minutes. And how much do I get paid??? Who cares!
Last night, while trying to sleep (alone), I was thinking about Eri. She was to have an x-ray taken because she is going to have her wisdom teeth removed in a week or so. I started thinking about the anaesthetics she would have. I started thinking about the remote chance that she could not wake up because they overdose on the gas or something. I started thinking about how horrific life would be if I were in Japan and she were in a coma and I can’t even ask the doctor on her situation. It was 3am and I was worrying myself dead. I wanted to wake up and email her just to let her know how much I love her while I had the chance. It was a long night. I don’t even know why I freaked out like that suddenly. Anyway, I found out she’s not gonna get gassed, she’s gonna get needled. The worst that can happen is they hit a nerve or something and she won’t feel in a small area in her gums. I can live with that.
Starcontrol 2 rules over every game ever made. Ta!
Fun Day
February 25, 2003
Today I saw The Two Towers finally. I really liked it! Actually, I really liked the siege scenes at Helmsgate. It was one of the best siege scenes ever. Can’t wait for the next one. Can’t wait for the Matrix too, and, the other Matrix too. And, Dennis and I downloaded the remake of Starcontrol 2, possibly the best computer game that I’ve ever played. I loaded it up and it ran like I was running a DOS machine – flawlessly. It seems to be missing the intro (which was awesome) but now there are live speeches during alien encounters instead of only the text. I don’t want to start playing it yet – I want to finish GTA 3 first. Top that off with a new Strong Bad email. The cherry of it all, I finally bought a USB hub. I finally felt I had enough USB devices to warrant a hub. I wish I could get another hub actually. It has been a fun day.
Hey Yo
February 22, 2003
Jonathan is the first of our group to have a three way no-show. He and I take the same subway line home but I usually never see him on the train because I like to make a dash for it after work and take the 10:48. He doesn’t like the rush and takes his time and usually takes the next train after that. Tonight though, I saw him in the elevator so I asked him why he was so early… “I had a three way no show today,” he says, with a big grin on his face. I started questioning him, “Really? You’re sure? You sure it wasn’t a two way? Or a one way?” Of course, there really weren’t any other possibilties. That bum. He only had four lessons tonight and one of them turned out to be a holy grail. I had five today with a one way no show but now I just feel cheated.
I guess my update everyday thing fell apart shortly after Dennis stopped. I just ran out of things to say. I’m (re)playing Grand Theft Auto 3 now and I’m trying to find every bonus and secret thing this time. Actually, I never made it to the second part of the game the first time I played. And I’m out of things to say.
Strong Sad!
February 17, 2003
One of the joys of living on the other side of the planet is that while everyone is sleeping, I’m wide awake in time to check the Strong Bad Email! This week’s issue is excellent. Poor Strong Sad though. Oh and The Cheat hoodies??? How much better can it get?
Ok, I won’t spoil anything else for you people, which, I’m guessing would only be Dennis because I’m not sure if anyone else is hooked on that webpage like us.
On a side note, Utada Hikaru looks completely different now than when she first became famous with that hideously overplayed song. I guess marrying a guy ten years your senior will do that to you.
Holiday
February 16, 2003
Day 1 of my four day weekend. Today I listened to a whole bunch of the ghost show that I used to listen to in Vancouver. The recent ones suck because they don’t record the whole show, only certain segments which are purely fictional. I also played a bit of old super nintendo games. Then as I was talking to Dennis about stuff, I was trying to think of a design for a webpage. The ones in my files are just not quite right to use.
I had a dream a few nights ago where I was in the same band as Dennis. I remember seeing about 6 or 7 people in this band. The band was great, I remember being very successful in this band. However the dream kind of sucked because I was having an argument with Dennis over what kind of music we should play. I don’t really remember how the argument ended because the dream phased into a new situation – this time I was a thief and I broke into some family’s house and stole a blue skateboard and a boardgame.
Quarter Life Crisis
February 13, 2003
Here I am on a Thursday afternoon waiting for a student to show up for a lesson. She will not show up. As a result, I now write this update to be blogged on later today. It’s kind of like a time capsule in a sad, boring way.
Reading Dennis’ update got me thinking about what I want in the next years ahead. Having a meaningless, non-technical degree severely limits my options. Firstly, my marks are nowhere near the level needed to score an accounting job. I’ve tried scores of firms, from mega-size to mom ‘n’ pop partnerships. I thought I had secured a position last year because the dude invited me up to the office for a tour and you don’t do that to people you don’t hire. Alas, no callback so screw him. A possibility would be to venture to Hong Kong or mainland China to see what accounting positions are available but I really don’t want to.
The truth is that accounting does not interest me. That may explain my lacklustre marks in my core accounting classes while I pull A’s in my other more ‘general business’ courses. I have come to a conclusion that I don’t want to apply myself to one area of business but instead to smear myself across the whole spectrum.
This makes starting my own business very appealing as I would be on my hands and knees doing the dirty work and at the same time reap the rewards (less taxes of course). The big problems here are of course I have no practical business experience and I have no idea what business to dive into.
I really don’t want a 9-5 job to eat my life away because it just won’t be worth it, no matter what the latest bonus plan or shiny incentive may be. I am sea-green with envy when I see people doing what they love and also doing something for their community or even this world. Unfortunately for me, there isn’t anyone around who will pay me to do the things I love.
Still life goes on with or without me and in the end: I choose to live it, for better or for worse.
Weekend
February 11, 2003
I don’t remember if I complained about this before but today is my first day off since January 29 because I traded my weekend last week for a coworker’s weekend. She was going on some sort of vacation and needed the extra time. I, being a coward, was unable to say no to her so I idiotically filled in the shift swap request form. So I just worked 12 days straight. It wasn’t all bad actually because since now my “priority” level for lessons is not as high and they also brought in a whole pack of new people (suckers, that is). The last week was rather nice – I was complimented on my being a “good teacher” by about 4 or 5 students and one even went as far as, and I quote, “you’re the best teacher I’ve ever had.” These are the sort of things that increase job satisfaction without the company’s interference and I could write a novel about the horrors the company subjects us to. Oh, what am I getting in return for working 12 days straight? Well, today (Tues) and tomorrow is my normal weekend. I then work Thurs, Fri, Sat. In return for my good heart, I will get Sun through Wed off.
I remember writing awhile back about my four lesson work day that would be hard to top. Last night, I beat it. I started the day with 5 lessons. I teach the first two and refresh my schedule again, (think F5, F5, F5, F5) and much to my shagrin, they removed two lessons. Normally, whenever they take someone away, they will in the next 30 seconds put another back in so I wasn’t too excited yet but by the time the lesson bell rang, I knew I was in the clear. I used the next to blocks talking and drinking canned coffee. Then I had a nice lunch which Eri made for me. I checked my sched again thinking they’ll have probably filled up the latter half by now – NO! I got the next three blocks free and finally finished off with a lesson and went home. 3 lesson. Breaking it down: 1 grammar lesson which are actually fun to teach, a 3 student lesson made of very advanced students – the topic being, Conspiracy Theories, and finally a private lesson with a man who had neglected lessons for 5 months (I failed him, that poor, nervous wreck). It will be a day to be remembered.
Enough about work.
I just finished reading, You Damn Kid, a very funny comic that had me bursting out in laughter in the middle of the night. It will be linked up soon enough. You should read it if you like funnies.
Also, there is a new webcam pic. Eri and I were in the middle of beating the shit out of each other or tickling each other or something when she suddenly screams and points at the top of the sliding doors. I keep a few animals up there (by tape) and one is a pair of bears that hold each other. I had taped them up to look like they were floating angel bears or something but one of the bears must’ve been too heavy and broke free from the tape. Their hands have velcro sewed on and I fastened them together before taping them up. So the other bear, in his infinite love for the falling bear, would not let go of the otherwise, doomed bear. Here are two pics to illustrate this great struggle out of love. By the way, the bears were untouched in anyway. I quickly plugged in the webcam and captured it before they fell. The third pic is after I fixed the falling bear. this is what they’re supposed to look like.
Fear Me!
February 08, 2003
Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Webcam
February 03, 2003
Wow. I haven’t changed it in more than a month. So there’s a new pic up. It’s of my apartment at night. The light is a kitchen light. If it were off, you would see the scary hallway light.
Edit – 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Oh Man
February 01, 2003
The Columbia shuttle has lost contact on its landing. Debris was seen falling from it as it flew by. Doesn’t sound good. Yahoo! News. Wasn’t it near the end of Jan in 1986 when the Challenger blew up? That’s almost 17 years exactly.
Holy
January 27, 2003
Holy Smoked Salmon Batman! Has it been almost a week already?
Today, well, technically, last night at work a dilemna popped up. I taught this one man earlier in the day and he told me he was taking six lessons, mine being the third. After my break, I was curious about his other three classes so I opened up his file to see what the teachers after me had written about him. Instead of seeing three comments following my own, I only saw one. Fair enough, perhaps he had decided to not be crazy and stuff an extra two hours of English into his somewhat deranged brain (he was kinda weird). The strange thing was the first line of the comments started with, “Dear Superman”. Teachers at the company are not your normal bunch but to write something like this into the comments which are read by teachers and other staff is just not very smart.
Ok, I thought, MAYBE the student used this line in the lesson and the teacher thought it would be informative to write this out for other teachers. I know I write what students say just to show some examples of their abilities or to highlight some errors that the next teacher may want to work on or be aware of. I read the rest of the comments and they were even weirder than that.
One line I remember went something like, “I know you fuck dogs and drink whiskey in the morning”. Then some other crap about not knowing where Superman is. Then it ended with something like I will mess up the newspaper editor. It was signed, “Louis”. If we keep to the Superman theme, it should’ve been Lois, like Lois Lane. Who knows. Maybe this person wanted to frame a teacher called Louis? Anyway my dilemna was should I just ignore it or should I tell someone? If I ignore it, the next person who read it would probably have to do something. Conveniently enough, my trainer was sitting very close to my booth so I motioned him to come over and take a look. He wasn’t very impressed by it and he took down the name and the student’s number and he went “upstairs” to what I believe is some sort of torture room for misbehaving teachers. Near the end of my shift, curiosity got the better of me so I opened up the same file. Not to my surprise, the comments had been replaced with, “.”
I guess it wasn’t really a big dilemna. I think I did the right thing because what the person wrote was unprofessional, unconstructive, and just plain fucking stupid. I know that particular student was somewhat of a pain in the ass to teach but he tried very hard and he was quite friendly. My hypothesis is that this teacher probably was leaving Japan soon, was rather bitter about the job, hated this student, and just decided to write some stupid comments to pass the time and vent. I hope the poor student didn’t end up taking the rest of his lessons because this teacher was being a dickface.
I don’t feel very happy about getting someone in shit but no matter how bad the environment can be, it doesn’t help anything to be more destructive.
I hope he doesn’t hunt me down and write stupid comments on my webpage.
Success
January 21, 2003
Tonight I fixed the door. A couple months ago, I had trapped myself in the washroom one night because the knob wouldn’t pull back the latch and let me out. It would just spin and spin. I was standing there naked thinking, “Oh shit. When the locksmith comes, I’ll be naked and happy to see him.” I got Eri to pass me some screwdrivers and pants through the window from the outside, in the apartment corridor. I pried it open and took it apart. For the last couple of months, when we used the washroom, the door could at any moment swing open because there was nothing holding it to the wall.
Tonight I got bored and I took apart half of the door and finally discovered how the locking mechanism works. I was able to fix the door.
I am now a certified locksmith.
Still, I fear I will be alone in the washroom one day and thinking the door would open when I want it to. I fear I will once again be spinning the knob aimlessly while this time, wondering who would pass me screwdrivers and pants. Shudder.
Things To Come
I’m working on a bunch of things I hope to bring up soon.
Here’s a preview of Livingspace II. It’s not as linear as the first one. This layout took quite awhile to draw, not so much because of the lines in photoshop are hard to put down but it took forever to measure my apartment. By the way, the dimensions are very very very accurate. Each pixel represents one centimeter. I think the whole thing is off by less than 10 centimeters, 15 at the most. I was pretty anal about making sure it was realistic. The blue rep walls, yellow are windows, and red are doors (including sliding doors, closet doors, and the main door). The smaller rectangles are the washroom and closet while the bigger spaces are the kitchen, den, and bedroom.
Woohoo!
January 16, 2003
I am now the proud owner of a Wacom Intuos 2 drawing tablet. It’s terrific! I can now start a bunch of stuff that has been dumping around in my head. Actually before that, I really have to practice because it’s quite different from the one at work and doodling on paper. Woohoo! Oh yeah, I didn’t pay anywhere near the price listed on that webpage, I paid about two hundred. Not too bad I guess.
Unwanted Update
January 15, 2003
I fear if I don’t update about once a week, I will let it slip and my dear webpage will burn from the smell of an entry dated months before. Therefore, I am updating, against my imagination and writing skills, to keep the place smelling new. Sunny messaged me, “man..i’ve been reading your updates… are you going to make it back home alive????” What a kind gesture from Sunny, he was asking about my well being. I’ll admit, my past updates have been… less than fuzzy and indeed, I felt like shit at times over these past couple of weeks. Let it be known that I am a survivor and I was just bitching/venting. I’m doing quite well.
My dear family has sent a nice little care package and my sister sent a crate of Godiva chocolates. Eri mentioned, “We’ll never finish it.” WRONG! I am the chocolate incinerator. I devour chocolates faster than it is made. Woe to Willy Wonka! I will purge Purdy’s! God help you Godiva! We opened the box today and already I ate about half a dozen pieces. Muhahaha.
We haven’t done much lately. The lack of money may be a reason. My income is pretty good considering what I do, but when split among two hungry hungry hippos of a couple, it doesn’t last long. That’s ok. I get paid today!
A reason why I’m not updating as often as before is because I have a whole slew of things I’m working on right now that are diverting previous energy away from my webpage. I’m writing a mini script for a story dealie and I’m also visiting a whole bunch of blog sites to look for design inspirations. I’m soon to pick up a drawing tablet because my hand/mouse coordination is simply not good enough for pixel pushing. Hell, I can’t even play a decent round of Quake 3 anymore – Dennis can attest to that. I’m reading a coles notes version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (great stuff). I’m lending a hand doing some research into an international trade dealie. And, Eri and I are working on a puzzle featuring a bunch of dogs. It’s all cutesy and all but it’s fucking difficult to differentiate the fur of one dog from the next. We’re about half done.
Anyway I hope all goes well for all who come here. Write me a few words dammit! Hast the world forgotten about me already?
Not Dead Yet I’m Afraid
January 09, 2003
Once again I am updating after a night of not being able to sleep. This is becoming a disturbing pattern. My circadian patterns have evolved beyond that of normal man and have become… INSOMNIA-SAPIEN… the new order of human. It’s not like I drank anything with caffeine in it too unless they have a nasty habit of spiking orange juice with speed here. Unfortunately I had to wake my fat ass up at 6 this morning to fucking work. Fortunately, I only had to teach four lessons which is like they’re paying me to sit around and draw in my notebook and read. Unfortunately I was way too tired to enjoy it and the latter half of today’s shift seemed like skiing through the Sahara.
Time has no meaning anymore… today it’s Thursday and soon it will be Thursday again. And again. And again. And again. I am losing it…
Second
January 04, 2003
Fact: Jasmine tea does to me what a double grande triple swirl super loaded coffee at Starbucks would do, it suppresses my sleep urges all night. I came home last night after spending a few days at Eri’s house. I came home with a cold too, which was the main reason I wanted to come home in the first place. As hospitable and generous Eri’s family were to me, I still felt very much like a guest and just couldn’t get myself to relax. I enjoyed the cooking though and the visit to the temple on New Year’s Day but yesterday I decided that if I wanted to fight off this cold invasion, I must return home and barricade myself. Eri will be coming back in a few hours. My nose has been the victim of a mucus onslaught and sneeze raids for far too long. My eyes feel like I haven’t blinked in a week. My throat is telling me, “I’m about to be sore! Save me!” Blech. And it’s stupid cold too.
Art Bell is once again retired at the end of last year. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s retired and/or gone off the air. It’s sad (again). He’s been having back pains for a long time now and because of this, he’s cut down to only a few nights a week for the past while. His successor, George Noory, is a pretty good host so the show will be in good hands. I have to admit that I’ve lost interest in the show since summer. The guests and topics aren’t as fun as they used to be. Since being in Japan, I’ve only listened to the show once and only for 15 minutes. The time zones make it too difficult. They even killed the original webpage because it wasn’t made by the corporate giant but made by some guy in the middle of somewhere (Art made it a condition of his return to have the little guy continue to be the webmaster). Now that Art is gone, the little guy webmaster goes with him. Sad.
Ech. I have a lot of things to do but I don’t have the energy to do it right now. Instead, I’ll play some Final Fantasy 1. That’s right… ONE. Woohoo!
First Update of the Year
January 01, 2003
It’s still technically true that the last update would be my last update of the year although I am updating within a few days. I am at Eri’s house and our countdown into this new year was quite modest. We’ll be heading out to a temple early in the morning.
This New Year didn’t feel much like a new year either. Actually, it’s almost exactly how my last year’s new year was run in, here in Eri’s house. Much like last year we’ll be heading into yet another mysterious year not filled with hope but instead with news of terrorist attacks and inevitable ‘wars’ and hatred and killing. Ooh la de da.
Happy New Year? Only for the ignorant.
Last Update of the Year
December 28, 2002
I’ll be busy relaxing and catching up with things around here after tonight so I won’t be updating for a few days. Tonight is the last night of work before the break! Woohoo.
I guess it’s ok to talk about why Christmas didn’t happen now. Last Monday, Eri’s grandfather passed away. He had been in a coma for almost two years from an accident he had while Eri and her family were in Canada. Obviously, Eri and her family were busy with preparations for the funeral which happened on Thursday. On Wednesday (Christmas), Eri went to her grandmother’s house (in another city close to Osaka) to spend the night. I was stuck alone. It was ok though because these circumstances were slightly more important than celebrations. I just feel bad for Eri because it was her birthday too. Anyhow, things are winding down and there’s hope for the New Year.
Something interesting now is that I am living in a place where North Korea could possibly nuke, once they make them. I’m sure in Vancouver and North America in general, the news coverage on the N. Korea situation is limited, if not controlled. Here in Japan, there is a lot more coverage but most of it is quite biased and almost editorial. Still, kind of scary that they are continuing with turning on the reactor … for electricity purposes… bullshit. I wonder if the idiot Dubya will do anything about it. I mean, N. Korea poses a much greater threat than Iraq.
And now for some humour.
Reasons why to attack Iraq
This is so true.
Have yourself a Happy New Year everybody! La de da de da!
Re: Turkey
December 23, 2002
Michelle, I did fathom the idea of having a Christmas dinner including the good big stupid bird we love to shove crap into but if you see my kitchen setup, you’ll understand that a turkey bird would simply be a BAD idea. Firstly, my “oven” is just one of those small convection ovens you plug in and make grilled cheese sandwiches in. My stove could possibly fit the turkey if I had this huge pan that sat across the two heating elements but who wants a fried turkey? Most importantly, I have yet to see a turkey in supermarkets. They’re simply too big for the normal japanese diet I think. There are chickens abound but when I tried drawing the difference in size between a chicken and a turkey to some students, they were horrified. It was as if I were eating 100 chickens or something. Oh, and it is against the Christmas rules to buy only a portion of a turkey, like a leg or a wing. It’s all or nothing or the gas chamber.
I think I’ll just skip Christmas this year in lieu of a bigger New Year’s shebang. They’re more festive around the 1st anyway.
Christmas?
December 22, 2002
It doesn’t feel like it at all.
The Long Awaited Update
December 17, 2002
For me anyway. The work week has finally come to a grueling end tonight. I had my final evaluation while on probation. Starting next month, I will be a fully fledged teacher who is no longer on probation. I am on the list for training for additional programs which means I will be getting less and less lessons… at least that’s what should happen. My Thursday was great – only 5 lessons with frees spread out quite evenly through the day. My Friday, Saturday, and Sunday only spared me one free and one evaluation block. That’s a lot of of work. No matter, I get a holiday in 11 days.
I got my camera to work again! I actually opened it up. The stupid thing had two dozen screws all over the casing. I took it apart because I thought it was a total loss and I might as well satisfy my curiousity and see how it works. The thing has chips and parts packed up the yingyang. After all the plastic casing was off, I put in the batteries and tried to turn it on… IT WORKED!!! What the hell? I didn’t do anything except take off the casing. Anyways as I was screaming to Eri that it works, she screamed back and told me to put it together. I got almost every screw in place except for two. I have no idea where they go. Who cares. I even found an easier and faster way to get pictures onto my computer. Too bad most of the pics from USJ came out bad due to poor lighting. I’ll eventually post some up for all to salivate over.
Eri hated the old webcam so we just took a new one. It’s our shot at starring in the next Resident Evil or Ring movie. Give us a shot Mr. Director!
And Dennis, that’s the brightest update I’ve read on your page in a long time.
Fun Day
December 11, 2002
We’re off to Universal Studios Japan today. Won’t be back till night probably. I’m bringing my camera so you’ll all see it! Here’s a new webcam to celebrate. Eri’s gonna be mad at this one. It’s our we-just-woke-up look taken last week (real webcam now).
Poke The Bunny!
December 10, 2002
This was fun. I made a neat little techno beat, then got scared shitless because I was wearing headphones and the volume was upped from simcity.
Weird Dreams
December 07, 2002
Ever since I’ve been here, I have been having some pretty strange dreams. In Vancouver, I would dream often but mostly the dreams would be fragments of a scene, like part of a story. Usually the stories would be very abstract and would make little sense to me when I pondered about them the morning after. Remember my XCom dream where all my friends didn’t help me even though they were armed to the hilt with weapons and I was being attacked by a gruesome alien? That didn’t make any sense at all.
In Japan, I have been having dreams that seem to make sense and are more coherent and complete. They are the whole play now. It may be a combination of a different sleeping schedule, new environment, new food (psychedelics??), and new everything. I usually sleep around 2 or 3am and wake up around 12pm. It may be too much sleep that’s causing these plays to be played in my head.
Last night I had three different, yet connected dreams. You do care to hear them right?
1. Someone from the ELI called me and asked if I can substitute teach for a day. I really wanted to do so. It was going to be on a Monday at 11am or something but I realized I had to work at 9:30am that day in my normal job (I actually don’t work that early). I really regretted it but I also realized I don’t have the qualifications to teach there anyway so I thought I should get that first. So all of a sudden, I was in this huge mansion studying and trying to get a TESOL. The mansion must have been the dream extension of my house in Vancouver because there were many aspects that were similar and I could navigate through it easily. As I was studying, many people suddenly appeared. Most of them were young kids who needed my help with homework. I felt so needed because they were all waiting quietly, studying and writing, as I helped them one by one. I worked with them until maybe 11pm or so. This dream might represent the homesickness and my new job intermingling. I always want to help people and being able to do so must’ve been a sign that if my “new” life and my “old” were to mix, it would be some sort of ideal?
2. Same house, right after that dream. A whole bunch of people who were my friends were over for a party. I recognized many of them but others were complete strangers but who were still my friends. This was where I found out Eri had cheated on my during our early days of dating. I was furious and extremely dissappointed. I don’t remember how I came to this conclusion, but by around 2am, we had talked about this for a lot and we were fine. I then decided that we had to break up. I don’t know why because minutes before, we worked it out. Anyways, I ended it and she left home. At first I was feeling free, as if I could have some sort of new beginning, some new adventure. But as 3am crept in, and as everyone left the house, I was feeling really lonely and sad. I felt I had made a wrong decision and I wanted to call her right away and tell her to come back. I figured it was too late to call and part of me said I shouldn’t call because I needed this new beginning. I felt horrible though. Even going to the washroom (which had a really cool sky window where I saw 10 shooting stars) was a horrible feeling. I went to sleep in a giant bed all alone. This dream may have been my worst fear or my pessimism or any negative angst left over from these few days. It may even have been reading about Dennis (dude, we are not sick of reading it… you are pouring your heart out for crying out loud). At one point, I seemed to project all the leftover feelings of anger, sadness, and loneliness from past relationships onto one person… as if she were all the past people put together. Now that is a scary thought… all your ex’s mushed into one…
3. My third and final dream was much more exciting. I believe it represents my Ideal Self, or at least my vision of a Perfect Self. I was some sort of cop or guardian and I happened to be walking along a downtown street. Suddenly, more than 10 bright lights streaked down from the sky and hit a building, causing a lot of damage. I knew at this point that the lights were some sort of alien weapon and that the Earth was under attack. I quickly ran over to the building to see if I could find any survivors. Luckily, many people were able to escape. I saw a strange man standing beside me looking into the building. I realized he was either AN alien, or he was helping the aliens – he was partly responsible for this attack. He knew that I knew somehow. He started running. I felt compelled to catch him, to bring him to justice. This guy ran at lightning speeds. Some other cops from the building were chasing him too but they were nowhere near as fast as this man. I however, also ran at super speeds and was able to catch up to him very quickly. We had a fight and I was able to easily overcome him. I had extraordinary strength and my fighting prowess was top notch. As he lay incapacitated, an important man came up and commended me on a good job. However, he mentioned something that I cannot know about this and he touched my head, near the left temple. He was doing something to me to erase my short term memory. At this point, I couldn’t see but I literally felt something on my head and I felt my memories being erased. Thankfully, I woke up at this point and I still retained the whole sequence. I think this superhero me is what I would like to be – someone who is able to help many people using my superb talents that were painstakingly developed. Maybe my fascination with aliens and conspiracies led to this story. The terroristic attack may be influenced by all the shit that’s been happening lately. And the guy I beat up might just be some shmuck I hate or something. Who knows.
Anyways, three vivid dreams by a slightly imbalanced fool.
Hello
Yet another drawing I did. This one is a tribute to Homestar Runner who has brought hours and hours of laughs. I am truly amazed at the quality of work done by those guys. Although the toons are for children, the humour is great for everyone, especially someone like me. My only wish is that more toons come out. I have to appreciate the amount of work put into each toon, I’m sure it’s a long long process for each one. Just the sounds alone must take a long time.
Aaaaanyways.
This photography site has the best use of flash I’ve ever seen. The navigation is exciting and refreshing, instead of just using bells and whistles, this site cleverly uses it to make the user curious about each link. The whole experience is quite refreshing.
Miss
December 02, 2002
I’ve been in Japan for a month and a half now and I have a growing list of things that I miss. It’s all the usual stuff like family and friends, coffee, and a lot less responsibilities, yada yada.
I have just discovered a new thing though. I miss singing. I miss belching out songs at the top of my lungs and not having to worry about waking anybody up. I used to sing in my basement back home into the latest hours of the night and no one would hear me. Not anymore. When I’m listening to the small collection of songs on my computer or the limited number of cd’s I brought, I’m careful not to blast it too loud because I know these walls aren’t very thick and people WILL hear me.
This really cuts into my singing because now I have this shroud of shame and fear even when I’m just humming in the shower. There are about 5 karaoke places per person in Japan but what really sucks is that I don’t know many Japanese songs and the ones that I do know, I don’t know how to sing. The English collection they have is painfully small and painfully selected for a small niche of people. There are zero Chinese songs. That sucks because now I’m itching to sing in Chinese considering I haven’t spoken it for as long as I have been here. Though my talent is far from superstar or even small time, one hit wonder, I feel if I don’t sing soon, I will become monotonous and lose any musical inkling that ever flowed in my blood.
I fear I will just one day BURST out singing on my balcony, estranging (even more) the ten million people in this city. Doh.
Request And Ye Shall Receiveth
December 01, 2002
This is the second, and currently, only other PDA drawing that uses the whole field. It’s called, fireball troll. fireball troll depicts a troll who is holding a fireball.
This became a turning point in the artist’s work. This was when he started drawing trolls holding chemical reactions instead of the traditional mace or short sword.
The motivations behind every drawing are mysterious and eerie. To look into this matter would only draw you into the farthest reaches of the cesspool of the artist’s mind. Where he pulls out these ideas is a hotly debated topic. Scholars say that Lucifer himself forged a demonic fax machine that dialed straight into the artist’s head. Another school of thought says the Archangel Michael trumpets the thoughts into the air for the artist to revel in His Glory.
It may be said whether he dabbles in the forces of good or evil, these comics are an enigma that are best left alone, only to be enjoyed on the surface, never to be deeply probed.
Stupid PDA Drawings
November 27, 2002
I made a whole bunch of them back when I first got my Palm but ever since, I’ve stopped. UNTIL NOW! As mentioned in a few updates ago, I am using my palm more and more lately and so while at work one time, I drew a couple more drawings… this time using the WHOLE notepad field instead of just the one screen. Voila
I call it, The Town because it is a picture of a town. Be amazed at the details and the black and white somber moods.
Woohoo
November 26, 2002
Today has been the sweetest day at work ever. A normal day consists of most likely 8 or if I’m lucky, 7 lessons. Today I had 4 scheduled but 1 just got dropped so I have a grand total of 3! Having lessons fill up scheduled free blocks is very common and is expected. I come to work and check my schedule to see 5 or 6 but as the day progresses, they’ll fill them up. It’s the most dissappointing thing: you’re 5 minutes away from finishing a lesson thinking you have a free and when you check your schedule – they’ve filled it up.
Anyway, having lessons taken away is almost unheard of! I will remember this day as the best work day. Thanks go to the guy who cancelled this lesson OR thanks go to the new recruit who had this lesson thrust upon him. Ok, I did have a meeting today which usually means an automatic free right after – still, it means I have 3 frees today. I consider it payback for the full 8s they’ve given me these past few days.
What a great way to end this otherwise busy week (it’s my weekend tomorrow).
—
Ah fuck. Right after I had written that, I checked my schedule again. They had filled it with a new lesson. Bastards. Well, I’m on the subway going home now so I guess it wasn’t that bad. Four beats eight anyday.
New webcam
November 19, 2002
yay
Edit – 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Ahhhhh
Right now is probably the most relaxing time in the week for me.
I just finished vacuuming, taking out the trash, cleaning up some stuff that was scattered, washed a few nights worth of dishes, and had a light snack. Now for some high quality relaxing. Eri’s off to school and I’m to meet her in an hour or so near the subway so we can go grocery shopping. This gives me just enough time to update, play some Baldur’s Gate, listen to some music, and maybe think about stuff I want to do later.
Dennis, my quake is now patched up and ready to go. Give me the IP and we’re set.
You know, I remember Dennis saying one time that the 9/11 attacks reminded him of Deus Ex – where terrorists bombed the Statue of Liberty and set the world into panic mode. The UN (in the game) declared war on the NSF (the ‘bad guys’) and an antiterrorist coalition was formed. In the news lately have been warnings by many countries – Al Qaeda will attack some place, some time, somewhere. It wasn’t until I saw many of these warnings when I also realized how Deus Exy this all seemed. Kinda scary. It’s weird, there’s really no mention of much terrorist information on Japanese tv. I only read about this stuff on Yahoo and Google news. Either these sites are part of some big government propaganda to scare the shit out of people or maybe here in Japan they live in such an isolated society that they don’t really care. Cool.
It’s Update Day
Yes! It’s the happiest day! Update Day!
I am very jealous of Dennis, Justin, and Michelle because although I am where they invented sushi, I would have loved hanging out with them. Sucks to you jerks for not inviting me. I’m not inviting any of you to my next sushi day. Anyone who is not Dennis, Justin, or Michelle is invited. Anyone who actually shows up will get free sushi and demon sake or something. Those in Japan need not try. Bleh.
I feel very settled in this place now. My job is routine and it’s not as boring as I used to think. I am meeting a new coworker everyday – whether or not I’ll get to know them remains a mystery. My Thurs, Fri, and Mondays are easy. Usually I’ll get a free or two on these days. Today, I had two frees and a no-show. So I actually taught 5. Sat and Sun are the worst days because it is almost certain that I get a full 8. It’s going to be this way until the new year because I’m currently still on “probation” – means they pay me less because I’m “inexperienced” (I’ve been teaching since second year university… jerks). I did see two streams of new people so far which means I’m placed lower on the priority list – the higher you are, the more you teach. Some teachers I’ve talked to who’ve been there for awhile get something like 5 or 6 a day on average (I get about 7 or 8 average).
Since working here, I’ve read more books, studied more Japanese, and used my Palm in more useful applications. I was writing a new About page on the old Palm on the subway for the last two or three days. I’ve created some crappy monthly income statement to guage where my money goes (I still don’t know). I am trying to play Bejeweled more because Eri miraculously beat my mega score of 230,000 by 20,000. She’s been quite gloaty lately… I MUST beat her score… for the sake of men all over the world. I’m looking at more webpages on it – I have used up the whole 2m limit given at AvantGo. I’m still looking for ways to use this pda more constructively… ideas? Veo.com is coming out with a camera for the palm and I’m contemplating getting it or a cell phone with a camera. Either one will suit the purpose of; “crude picture taker that’s easily transported and not too valuable”. Bleh.
That’s really about it. Eri is sleeping at her own house tonight. Which sucks. That made a lot of grammatical sense. Anyways, it’s my Friday night! I will spend my Saturday (Tuesday) cleaning up and watching tv that doesn’t make any sense.
Three updates in a day? I must be dreaming!
November 14, 2002
You sure are friend. It’s probably true to because right now it’s 3:30am in Vancouver and all you little boys and girls are probably sound asleep dreaming of candy and robots. After getting my webpage to show up again, I felt the urge to write. Seeing how Dennis has a new webpage up has made me want to change my webpage. I’m slowly in the process but I really have no idea on what to do. I’m still saving up money to buy a good digital camera – I know which one I’m getting at least. It’s a stills/video recorder that can record up to 90 minutes of video with sound. It’s kinda expensive and right now money is pretty tight. Seeing how I’m only getting paid for October this month, I’m still wondering if I can stretch this month’s food budget until December. In the meantime, I’m playing with my old piece of shit camera just for kicks. I seem to have misplaced my battery charger… either that or maybe I left it in Vancouver. I could’ve sworn I saw it here. I finally got back to playing Baldur’s Gate today after a week of neglecting it. I fell asleep in the middle of it. Some guy on my floor is moving out so he’s selling me this small computer desk for 1000 yen (slightly over $10). It’s pretty sweet. I saw a similar one in the stores for about $100. Woo, I’m just throwing random thoughts all over this update. Dennis, you have to make a new icon for your new webpage. Actually so do I. Work, if you’re wondering, is alright as of late. I’ve been getting more frees (that means they don’t schedule the all 8 in a day, they give you maybe 6 or 7 so I can have some breather room). It’s getting quite breezy although it’s still quite tiring to talk all day. I have a small group of like minded individuals whom I eat with and bitch about things. It’s like something out of Seinfeld actually. I’m the George of all people because I complain the most and sometimes they don’t understand me. I’m waiting for Eri to finish her thesis so that we can start cooking. Uhh I think I am out of thoughts now.
Yay!!!!!
It works! I can finally see my fucking webpage! Thanks to Dennis for the technical consultation and making me think my host was blocking my ip. I think the answer was a lot simpler. Thanks to Eri – when she came over to try to be affectionate, the webpage suddenly worked again – I just shoved her aside for the joy of seeing my webpage again. She’s now saying, “No! Ha Ha Ha Ha… don’t write about me…”. Woohoo! Let it be known that from this day forward, November 14 will now be called, Webpage Came Back Day.
The problem I think is something about when my computer goes into sleep mode (I just slam the cover down and it sleeps), something messes it up because when I open it up, ICQ and Messenger are shown as online when in reality, I have to reconnect again. Well I unplugged the modem and replugged it and rebooted my computer and voila.. it works!
Honey, shut up.
Hello?
Hello.
And A New Webcam
November 12, 2002
Actually I don’t have a web camera right now as I left it in Vancouver for my sister. This picture was taken in the first few days I got here. I’m going to post a bunch of pictures up of my apartment and of Japan but I’m still working on it, a little at a time. Soon.
Edit – 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
Vancouver Riot?
November 09, 2002
Cool. Another riot in my hometown huh? Cool. Incidentally, my apartment is very close to “Riot Control Force 2″. Makes me feel safe to know if there were a riot in my neighborhood, The Man would be here to bash me with batons in a matter of minutes.
For Your Interest
November 07, 2002
God is sending us bubonic plague again.
And fill your Darwin needs with this game.
And this is from a while back but I forgot if I posted it or not; survive death by being a diamond!
And Art Bell is retiring for the second time. Sigh. I don’t even know anymore.
And see these beautiful photos from all over Asia before Bush bombs the fuck out of them too.
Hello
November 06, 2002
Tonight I will go see some friends from the ELI whom I haven’t seen in a few months. It will be the first time I see people other than Eri since I arrived here. I’m excited! The only problem is I’m not exactly sure where we’re meeting so chances are I will be lost trying to find the place. Who knows. It’s kind of weird because it feels like we’re going to meet in Vancouver. Instead of Namba station, it feels like we’re gonna meet at Robson and Denman or something. Weird.
I just finished hanging wet laundry out on my balcony and my fingers are frozen dead. I could use the dryer but I’m too cheap to fork over the two bucks or whatever it costs. Besides, it’s a sunny (albeit cold) day today. It’d do my clothes good to air out the stenches. I hope people don’t think I have deep mental problems because beside my shirts, pants, socks, and underwear is a pair of Eri’s panties and her bra. Seeing how I’m supposed to be living here alone, it gives my neighbors a lot of strange thoughts about me.
I am currently reading, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’m on habit 3 and I’m impressed with the book. Instead of promising quick fixes, it acknowledges that solving problems takes time and effort and is a longterm commitment. I recommend this book to anyone who feels they’re not living an optimized life (all of you). I wish more people read it so that I can talk to them about it. I picked it up because Eri’s company asked her to read it and write some sort of book report about it and since I’ve heard rave reviews about this book, I decided to read it with her. Actually, she’s reading the Japanese version. I have been reading more in this month than I ever did in half a year in Vancouver. Taking the subway really gives me a lot more time to pursue quiet hobbies. It takes about 15 minutes per trip plus free blocks and my break during work gives me tonnes of time to read.
Bye.
Sigh
November 02, 2002
I wonder when everyone will start to update again.
I Am Dialed In
October 30, 2002
This is incredibly fast. It’s supposed to be a 12Mbps connections but it’s probably not that fast. Still kicks the pants off the one at home though. Hehehe.
Hello
October 23, 2002
Still waiting for ADSL. Things work really slowly here. Maybe in a week or two… till then.
SURPRISE!!!
October 12, 2002
Hello all! I don’t really have time for a real update yet. I’m doing well and I’m in the process of hooking up adsl to my place. Come back in a week or so. I already wrote out two pages worth of updates to post later so soon you will indulge in my adventures. Till then, take care and send me email or money.
Bye Vancouver
October 08, 2002
That’s it folks. This will be my last update in Vancouver for awhile. I’m all packed and ready to go. Thanks to everyone for everything and I’ll miss you all. I will update as soon as I can when I’m in Japan. I’ll probably be staying at Eri’s house the first night so maybe I can update there. Otherwise, take care and email me.
Woohoo
October 07, 2002
Justin and Dennis have been reading my webpage and got me the full Simpsons season 2 episodes on dvd. Too bad they didn’t get me a car or 110VAC because I’ll be missing those too. But I think I’m going to enjoy this dvd set very much because Simpsons spells “at home” for me. Thank you so much fellas. There’s finally a new webcam of me and my new gift.
In other news, Palm has a new PDA out. It’s called the Zire and it’s the barebones version of everything but the design is pretty nice. Easy to use and veered towards technoblindies.
This is awesome
October 05, 2002
link.
Eep
Smoking pays. Too bad she won’t live long to spend it.
It was the second day in a row where I couldn’t sleep until 5am. The first night, I went to Starbucks with my cousin and had a venti coffee. I tried sleeping at 2 but got up and looked at the clock until 5. Same thing yesterday only it was with another person instead. I blame it on the venti coffees but maybe to some degree on the anxiety that’s been building up these few days. Bah.
World’s Funniest Jokes
October 04, 2002
First the link.
Now I know that in a month or so, the link will be dead so I’m going to cut and paste these jokes here too.
By Corey Ullman
LONDON (Reuters) – After a year of painstaking scientific research, the world’s funniest joke was revealed on Thursday.
In a project described as the largest-ever scientific study into humor, the British Association for the Advancement of Science ( news – web sites) asked Internet users around the world to submit their favorite jokes and rate the funniness of other people’s offerings.
More than 40,000 jokes from 70 countries and two million critiques later, this is it:
“Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his phone and calls emergency services.
He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: “Take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.”
There is a silence, then a shot is heard.
Back on the phone, the hunter says, “Ok, now what?”
Researchers found significant differences between nations in the types of jokes they found funny.
People from the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand preferred gags involving word play, such as:
PATIENT: “Doctor, I’ve got a strawberry stuck up my bum.”
DOCTOR: “I’ve got some cream for that.”
Americans and Canadians favored jokes where people were made to look stupid.
TEXAN: “Where are you from?”
HARVARD GRAD: “I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions.”
TEXAN: “OK — where are you from, jackass?”
Meanwhile, many Europeans liked gags that were surreal or made light of serious subjects such as illness, death and marriage:
A patient says, “Doctor, last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my mother-in-law and wanted to say: ‘Could you please pass the butter?’
“But instead I said: ‘You silly cow, you have completely ruined my life.’”
Marriage-mocking also featured in the top American joke:
“A man and a friend are playing golf one day. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course.
“He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: ‘Wow that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You are truly a kind man.’
“The man then replies: ‘Yeah, well, we were married 35 years.’”
Death earned big laughs in Scotland:
“I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.”
And animals figured prominently. Take the number one joke in England:
“Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other one. He screams, ‘I slept with your mother!’
“The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do.
“The first again yells, ‘I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!’
“The other says: ‘Go home dad, you’re drunk.’”
The survey revealed other fun facts:
– Of the countries rating the highest number of jokes, Germans, perhaps surprisingly, laughed the most. Canadians laughed least.
– If you want to tell a funny animal joke, make it a duck.
– The most frequently submitted joke, at 300 times, was: “What’s brown and sticky? A stick.”
Researchers said no one ever found it funny.
The findings can be read at www.laughlab.co.uk
Things I’m Going to Enjoy
October 03, 2002
being with Eri
cheap cigarettes
real Japanese food
100 yen stores
100 yen sushi places
my new digital camera (soon)
wireless 64kps connection (cheap)
temples and pictures thereof
laughing at the really small cars
laughing at the really small people
getting beat up by small people
learning japanese martial arts
learning japanese
the look on people’s faces when I speak fluent English
Things I’m Going To Miss
family foremost
close close friends
friends
work
Simpsons
ADSL
cheap greasy food
open space
coffee with friends
110VAC
my house
having a car
being able to speak to anyone on the street
books
mild weather
Dear Michelle
October 01, 2002
Two words – Cranberry Juice.
Cleaning Up
September 30, 2002
I began boxing some stuff that I won’t be bringing to Japan because my parents may rent out the basement. While stuffing things like my textbooks, notebooks, personal effects, etc, I stumbled onto my box of memories – a shoebox filled with stuff from girlfriends, friends, would-be lovers, and other people that in some way or another impacted my life.
I don’t think I could get myself to go through each piece of item so meticulously if it were a few years back. Some of the memories were just too painful to revive. Today, as an older and wiser self, I went through each item remembering whom it was that gave it to me, the reason, the situations, my state of mind, and the like. I’ve concluded that even though I think I lead a pretty mundane life today (that I’m content with), I had a pretty crazy life back then. If it were three years ago, I would have said that that life was horrible and traumatic, filled with hate, anger, tears, and fear. Today, I know that there were just as many happy moments as there were sad moments. Some affected my life and turned it from its path while others barely nudge me along the path and go unnoticed. For all its worth, I’m glad I went through everything that I did. It’s shaped me to become the god-like being I am today.
That’s all. Back to stuffing crap into boxes. I’m fucking leaving in nine days and I’m feeling glummy.
Hi2
September 28, 2002
My titles of each update just suck now.
I saw a Canucks game today. First game I saw in probably 10 years or something. It was a pre-season against Calgary and Vancouver whupped them 5-1. Having not watched hockey even on tv for many many years, I didn’t know any of the players except Linden and last year’s playoff sensation Bertuzzi. We got the ticket for free from work and somehow managed to get free parking too – some guy handed out these pieces of paper that read “User Authorization #1038″. Ok…
I’m feeling so blech right now. The place is so quiet without Eri around.
Also, I’m looking around for a Kodak Palmpix for the m515… even though I’m gonna get a good digicam in Japan, I kinda want a small one to bring around in my pocket for spur of the moment shots. Anyone hear how they are? Everything I read on the web says it’s not very good but you gotta love the compact size.
Update
September 26, 2002
It’s weird. I had written probably five updates since my last update but right before I press publish in blogger, I decide the update is too stupid to be used and delete it. I even wrote the sentence you just read in my last unused update.
Dennis:
keep us updated onto the story of this Leigh Morrow. Sounds mysterious… maybe we’ll get a scoop on some breaking news regarding someone from Hamber. And congrats on your dnab eman.
Justin:
if you’re gonna just lock out topics that don’t agree with you, your forum is going to suck. And you sure get sensitive about that picture.
Michelle:
Hello! Sorry if my hello is 19.5 hours late… I know how it feels to be awake in the wee hours and there’s no one online to talk to.
As Dennis mentioned, the Victoria trip was quite fun. Eri, having slept only two hours the night before, was dragging herself everywhere. Every ten minutes I would ask her, “Are you ok?” and she would say, “Yes, I’m just sleepy”. Even so, we took some pretty cool pictures. The digital ones are in a disk somewhere but there are some ‘real’ pictures on my real camera that need to be developed. I’ll probably use them up in the coming week.
Eri is leaving for Japan tomorrow which marks the last few days I’ll be here in Vancouver. I know I have a million things to do but I just don’t want to do it. I’ll really miss everything here but I look forward to a place that bears no resemblance to anything I’ve accustomed to. I made backups of backups of my contact lists so that I’ll have some email buddies to ground me to my life. I’m bringing a small library of books and mega-collages of photos to remind me of things. And of course I’m bringing my favourite games and my kickass laptop. Forgive me if I don’t update when I get there. I’ll be scrambling around looking for wide bandwidth. So far the most appealing is a wireless connection for 30 bucks a month flat… only thing is it’s a 64kps connection. Doh. ADSL will be way too expensive after factoring in the skyrocket phone bills and the line installation (FUCKING 700 DOLLARS TO CONNECT THE FUCKING LINE + FORTY FOR THE PHONE EACH MONTH + THE ADSL FEE).
I didn’t know it at the time, but Tuesday was my last day of work. I thought I would go to the meeting tomorrow but since I’ll be driving Eri to the airport, I’ll miss it. I’m still going in because I just can’t get myself to sever ties with that damn place.
Monsters Inc.
September 18, 2002
Just saw it. It was so awesome! Boo is utterly adorable.
The movie disc itself is 93 minutes viewing time. The bonus special disc is freakin 200+ minutes viewing time. It’s filled with a lot of garbage like cut scenes only they show them in pencil form. When you patch a million pencil drawings together into jumpy animations, it makes your viewers sick. That disc sucks. The only cool thing was a virtual tour through the Pixar Studio. It’s a freakin playland there. They seem to have lots of fun at that company. If only I had talent…
Hi
Since no one else is updating, I’ll take the liberty to lead into the forefront.
Eri and I, along with Dennis and Shannon, will be venturing to Victoria this weekend for a day of fun in the sun. We’ll each be holding an Orb that has lost its light and through the course of the day, we’ll have to restore each orb’s light in order to save the world from Chaos(tm). First, we’ll go to Butchart Gardens to battle the Earth Elemental. Then it’s onto the Undersea Garden to thwart the Water Elemental. Then it’s onto a restaurant for lunch where we’ll fight the Fire Elemental in the oven. Finally, the Air Elemental can be found in the Insect World place because a lot of insects can fly. Our weapons will consist of cameras, maps, bags and bags of money for admission, and hearts of gold. Don’t tell anyone this, but I’m planning to make fun of Dennis’ stupid long robes and the pointy hat he’ll wear.
Argh! I’m leaving so soon. Argh! I’m financially screwed!
Happy Friday the 13th!
September 14, 2002
May you all stumble across black cats and walk under a thousand ladders. – Ancient Chinese Proverb
Thank you Michelle for updating! Thank you for giving me something to read about in my otherwise mundane life. I never got the idea of American Idol. A bunch of kids with varying levels of self esteem get up and get bashed by a panel of judges whose credentials are more suspect than the dissappearance of Hoffa. It’s the same to me as those chinese singing competitions they have every year where ugloids try to win and possibly make it big in hong kong – it’s not about talent. Real talent should be found by the public, not some fancy jacket, leather shoed, expensive tie clip judge who yells at people for trying. Sadly, this show is yet another one of those stupid game shows where you vote people off until the last person wins. The formula for these shows is so old now.
I think Justin’s forum has potential if people would just post on it.
Finally I have things to say (not important though)
September 11, 2002
Today is our 2 year anniversary. We went to the rose garden at UBC because that’s what we did on our first day together. We even stayed in tradition and stole a rose there. Yay! Other than that, we didn’t really celebrate.
And I finished Aliens vs Predator 2 yesterday. It is a really good game – it beats the first one hands down. The marine campaign is outright scary, especially with headphones on and dimmed lights. The other campaigns are alright, but not as scary. The storyline is not bad too although it’s a little hard to understand what’s really going on. They did a nice job isolating the one human marine from his team though. In the first game, you just start out alone and everyone is dead. I thought that was kind of weird. I’m playing it over again on a harder setting this time. The hardest setting doesn’t let you save so I’ll just pass that by. Definitely worth playing.
New webcam picture of Balloon Puppy #2. #1 died in Japan because after it shrunk to the size of a pencil, Eri untied its rear legs and after that, she couldn’t re-tie them. So it looked like half a balloon puppy with a pointy balloon end for a tail. I think after that, we both knew #1 had passed on. When she came back this time, we had to go get another one. Hence the webcam picture. #2 is already getting a bit soft. It won’t be long until it turns pencil size too. That’s all.
YAEC
September 09, 2002
Yet Another Email Change:
jeleung@hotmail.com is dead. New one is “jerry_leung_< at >hotmail.com”. Obviously, replace < at > with the real “at” sign. The reason why I changed is because the first one is loaded with spam everyday.
First Day
September 04, 2002
For many it was the first day of school. For me, it was the first day of realizing that I will be leaving for Japan in a little over a month. So I guess for anyone who still doesn’t know, I’ve taken employment with Nova Group in Osaka for at least a year to teach conversational English. The pay is alright – I’ll be able to live comfortably and probably save up a little bit of money – that is, if I don’t spend it all on those delicious electronics. I am leaving on October 8th and before that I would like to have a small party just to see my friends and spend some time together. I haven’t made any plans yet but just giving you a warning that you will be required to come.
Today I went to the airport to see off a group of students who have been here for a month. The ones that were close to us cried and cried. It was kind of funny. One girl had written four cards and as she was giving them to us, she burst out in tears each time she handed out a card. Between each card, the receiver and the girl would hug, express gratitute and say they’ll miss each other. Repeat 4x. The ones that didn’t make any effort at all to speak to us nor speak English at all did not show any emotional attachments. I don’t blame them. I don’t miss them either. As for me, I didn’t really say goodbye because I will be able to see them in a month or so. One guy, Hiro, even lent me a Thin Lizzy reunion cd which to me, was to lock in my visit to see him in Tokyo (about a 2 hour bullet train ride away from Osaka).
So in this month I will be filled with anxiety and feelings of unpreparedness. I’ll be doing things that I know I will miss for at least a year. But hey, I’m only an email away so I want most people to write me once in awhile and for a select few, I expect and would be angry if they didn’t write. I’ll also snag a webcam/mic before I leave so I can run some live chats with people. If you’re even in the neighborhood, my small closet of an apartment is yours to live in and should I have time, I’ll gladly take you around and show you everything (once I get to know the surroundings).
Fear not, I will update twice as much in Japan as I do now. Hopefully.
New webcam
August 28, 2002
celebrating the wackiness that is grand theft auto 3.
Edit – 2002/09/22
I was referring to this picture.
It’s been 5 days?
August 27, 2002
It didn’t seem like this long has past since last time. Ah well. Thankfully(?) there’s nothing significant to write about.
We bought Grand Theft Auto today and a new gamepad to go along. Playing it on 1600×1200 is sweet. I didn’t think this game would be so addicting but I’ve been playing it all day. Eri played it a few times but all she did was kill people and drive the taxi and ambulance for awhile. It’s weird, she rushes the ambulance around to save people but she ends up killing a dozen on the way to the hospital. Oh well. As for me, I’m running through each mission as fast as I can. I’m anxious to see the Yakuza.
This week will be the end of this busy season. The week after will be pretty much the last mile for me at this job. Doh.
Hi
August 22, 2002
We just got back from the PNE. It’s been about 4 years since I went and it’s still exactly as I remember it with the exception of a few different rides. The food pavillion seemed to dissappear too or maybe I just forgot where it was located. The prices are as expensive as ever – $10 freaking dollars for a shitty burger, shitty fries, and a drink. We didn’t go on many rides, actually, we just went on the Coaster. I never liked the rides. It’s a combination of me being a chicken shit, the rides not really differing year to year, and the expensiveness of the passes. I wanted to win Eri a big ass doll but all the dolls were really ugly this year and I figure it would cost $20 to win something decent sized anyway. We just ended up watching a bunch of shows, namely the monster truck rally (sucky and loud), the pig race (too short but the ducks were cute), and the superdogs (sucky but cute). I don’t think I’ll go again until I have kids to bring.
I recommend the movie Rat Race. It’s a comedy featuring many big names in the comedy field. It was gag after gag and each gag was hilarious but I found many famous comedians do not add up to a really funny movie. Each had a strong presence on screen and I think in a way, it took away from the movie. But it was funny. And Jared, some guy from my high school, was in the movie. At least I think it was him.
Lastly, following up on Michelle’s update, I tried Grand Theft Auto 3 for the first time a couple days ago. My god, video games have come a long way since my day. Even from GTA 1 – it was pretty tame by today’s standard. But the third one is just crazy! As much as I think violence is not caused by games and tv, this game may cause me to waver in my view. Verdict: This game is very very fun. It puts into a game what every one of us is thinking about when we’re driving in rush hour. I would love to just gun it on the sidewalk, careless of how many people I squish. Best of all is when you run someone over, back up over them, run them over again and so on. It’s very satisfying.
Cool
August 18, 2002
Everyone Updated
August 17, 2002
So I will do the same.
I spent the day at Victoria working. I, along with three other coworkers took a group of 30 to see the island city. I always like Victoria, no matter how boring it can seem. The day went relatively smoothly except for one girl who got a stomach ache on the ferry. I’m sure she was just looking a lot worse than her condition really was.
I’ve been working pretty long days this week so I’ve been neglecting Eri. I’m gonna spend the weekend with her so hopefully I won’t be contacted so easily (it’ll mean I’m actually out). I’ve also downloaded a lot of OLD songs lately, mostly songs I liked or loved during elementary school and high school but haven’t heard in years. My collection of mp3′s is quickly becoming some sort of diverse 80′s stuff. I mean, when was the last time anyone heard PM Dawn or Erasure?
You care not I see. I hope Dennis’ car wasn’t too hard to clean.
Signs
August 14, 2002
We saw it last night. Contrary to what everyone is saying, it is a very good movie and the ending IS very good. I don’t understand why people didn’t enjoy it because it was a very cleverly written story. Albeit it wasn’t a scary movie per se, but I don’t think the point of it was to be a scary movie. If you consider Shyamalan’s previous two movies, they weren’t very scary either. They were more of a thinking movie… Ok, in Sixth Sense, people were scared senseless by the many BOO scenes, but in the end, you were thinking about how the doctor didn’t interact with any living being except Cole. In Unbreakable (my favourite of the three), if you know anything about comics, you’ll understand the intricacies of the hero and villain conflicts. In Signs, the somewhat religious overtones worked well even if you’re atheist or agnostic because in the end, ALL the little stories and scenes came together to thwart the invasion.
All things considered, it was a very good movie. I still like Unbreakable more. I had written a big essay about the movie but decided it spoilt it too much so just go watch it.
Fireworks
August 11, 2002
Today I witnessed my worst pet peeve: big crowds. We had planned to watch the big fireworks finale all week and originally, I thought I would just take Eri to Jericho or maybe Kits to see it. Granted the view isn’t spectacular from these two locations, but the traffic is a lot less heavy. However, Benny invited us to go with him to English Bay today and seeing how I’m always busy when he asks to go out, I promised I would go. So we did.
I parked in the parkade under Eatons (actually, it’s Sears now) and we walked all the way down Robson to get to the beach. Everything up to this point was relatively fine. There were many people walking on the sidewalks but none were too unruly. The problems started when we actually got to English Bay. For some stupid reason, they put up fences around the sand. Why would you want to fence in 100,000 people? They made a few entrances onto the beach, each about 6 feet in width. Imagine thousands of people going into entrances 6 feet in width and you’ll begin to get the idea. Ideally, and theoretically, if everyone walked and NO ONE budged, pushed, shoved, or prodded, people would get onto the beach very efficiently and no one would be mad but throw in what I call the BIG FUCKING ASSHOLE factor and you get one big mess. People kept pushing and pushing. One european lady behind me was holding out her elbow as if it were a lance and kept spearing me with it. I got pissed off because she did this for 6 meters (which took about 5 minutes to travel) so I stood my ground, bent my knees and just made sure she could not move. Then she just shoved her stumpy body to whoever was beside me. If she had only lowered her stupid elbow, I wouldn’t have been pissed. I understand the mentality that people want a good seat and therefore are pushing to get by but please, no pointy objects. I really wanted to just elbow her back in her nose.
Canada won by the way. The fireworks were nice. They were as nice as fireworks can be… you know, flashy explosions containing millions of dollars worth of chemicals.
Leaving the beach was exactly the same as entering. More shoving, more morons, more elbow spears, and a bitch who pushed Eri this time. That got me pissed but it was some short asian girl with a stupid “it’s not my fault” attitude. Fuck you bitch. We walked through an alley running parallel to Robson and that saved us a lot of time. By the time I got back to the car, I was a fireworks display with a short fuse or a loose trigger. We drove out and of course, at one green light (Robson and Howe maybe…), NO cars went through because more morons crossed when they shouldn’t have. At Nelson and Seymour, some kids made some stupid scary faces and stupid noises and us. I would have honestly killed them if there were no consequences. I would have really murdered them cold blooded. One more episode. As I was crossing a green, two really stupid white guys dashed across the street in front of my car. Again, I would have loved to run them over if I didn’t have to go to jail or pay money or whatever. I would gladly rid the world of people who can’t wait fucking 2 minutes for the light to change. Don’t bother to point out the irony of me not waiting 2 seconds for them to cross because I did wait when my light was red.
So we got home relatively fast because we parked so far away. I hate fireworks now. I hate big crowds. I’m really pissed and stressed. I hate big crowds.
God I have a bad temper. It’s just people… calm down dude. Ah fuck off. Here’s a new webcam to show you exactly how I feel.
I AM ARNIE!
August 09, 2002
| You are 25% geek | |
 |
OK, so maybe you ain’t a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you’re probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you. |
Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com
Today
August 08, 2002
We went to watch the fireworks with some friends last night. It was the first fireworks I have seen in many many years. I didn’t enjoy the fireworks so much because to me, fireworks are fireworks. Whether they’re from Italy, Canada, or Spain, they’re still just colorful sparkles that make big noises and cause a lot of traffic hassles and underage drinking problems. The only thing I enjoyed was being with Eri. She had been wanting to go for the longest time but I’ve just been putting it off. Anyways, I’m glad that we went because they were pretty nice in a flashy light sort of way. I wish I brought my camera because this house near the beach was selling hot dogs and drinks out of their front lawn. What opportunistic people they are. I envy them.
Thank you Michelle for updating so much. I always enjoy your updates even if sometimes I don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. Keep writing ok? Don’t leave me hanging like the rest of these boys. Ok maybe Dennis is off the hook since he’s struck with diarrhea or something. And Justin updates often too. So all in all, I guess there’s enough to read. I would be interested as to how’s everyone doing. I just found out David is back in Vancouver. I’m so out of the loop (if the loop still exists anymore).
No matter. I’ll fill you guys about me. Working and being with Eri and not frequently being with some friends. It’s mostly work lately. I’m exhausted to the brink of being sick. I also got badly sunburnt on Friday but now it’s ok. The burned areas are now a nice nice tan that I wish covered my entire body. What else… I’m still playing with my laptop. I connected it to the internet for the first time today at work. I’m playing some quake 3 too! It runs so smoothly on all the highest graphic settings. Finally, it looks nice and it runs great. I had a mini-LAN party with two people who have never played quake in their lives. I of course mutilated them (because I’m mean) but they still enjoyed shooting the hell out of each other. I still want to play Red Alert 2 though.
And yet another webcam pic catching Eri by surprise.
Buhhh
August 07, 2002
Why is it everytime I want to update, I have nothing to write about. Why is it I always have so much stuff I want to write about when I don’t feel like writing? This reality is too complicated to be real and it’s also too simple to be fictional. Can anyone explain?
Nevermind
August 02, 2002
Nevermind, I got the game to work now. Sweet. Only problem is that no one I know likes playing the game. A bigger problem is that my roommate (Eri), doesn’t like violent games at all. That more or less eliminates games in general. But if anyone wants a game of RA2 versus me (I’m a really good newbie), then knock on my door and I’ll nuke you back home. Maybe I’ll burn myself a quake 3 disk.
Yay, thanks Dennis
Dennis tells me to something about connecting my computers together and then it works. I should’ve asked him 5 hours before. Oh well. It was a good learning experience. I finally have my own lan. It’s kinda neat.
I was just sending files from my desktop to the laptop all night. Only two things came up: 1. my photoshop CD doesn’t work on my laptop, and 2. I tried running Red Alert 2 multiplayer but the desktop didn’t recognize the network card (what is an IPX socket and why won’t RA2 recognize it?). I hope that’s the only game that’s not working.
Anyways, thanks Dennis!
Hey
August 01, 2002
My computer is acting up again. I think this time my power supply is gonna die. It happened before last year. The computer just wouldn’t boot no matter what I did. I had to replace the power supply to get it to work. So far it reboots at random, I just have to be patient and turn the power on and off about 10 times. Speaking of dead power supplies, Dennis’ webpage is back up. Anyways, if I don’t appear to be on Messenger or ICQ, then the power supply probably electrocuted me and set my place on fire.
New webcam pic.
That’s all. I’m sleeping now.
Hey Michelle’s back!
Welcome back!
Sweet…
My laptop came today! What a nice surprise. Only I don’t have a USB joystick to enjoy any games right now except Simcity 3000. Yay. They didn’t ship me those color palm rests though. I’m on their case. I’m gonna buy that zip drive, a joystick, and maybe a router.
It’s back up!
July 31, 2002
And I thought the company that hosted my page had folded shop, locked the store, and ran with my 8 bucks a month. I have to go to work now but I’ll update later.
Hi Again
Anyway, my page has been down since I got back from Seattle on Saturday night. I couldn’t get emails, access my ftp, log into their page (it was down too), and more importantly, couldn’t load my own page. I was already looking at different hosting solutions. Oh well, we’ll see how long it stays online this time.
The trip to Seattle was excellent. We were stuck at ther Peace Arch border for two hours. That wait caused us to be late fot the game. We got there at the top of the third and watched as the Mariners were buried 8 – 0 by the Angels. We did get to see Ichiro’s last hit in his 11 game streak. For me, the biggest treat was watching John Olerud play. He was one of my favourite Blue Jay back in the day. We got a lot of shopping done. We even saw the First Starbucks ever! Pike Market is like a better Granville Island, except it’s full of stupid people. There were these people with a southern accent wearing really ugly Vancouver shirts. Obviously they were involved in some sort of tour and some clever Canadian conned them into buying those ugly shirts. Poor stupid people. I bought Simcity 3000 Unlimited, the Mech 4 expansion, and the add-on. They were all slightly cheaper. What sucks is I don’t have enough space to install them on my computer so I’ll wait until my laptop comes in… tee hee hee.
Fine. One More Thing Before We Go
July 27, 2002
A really cool surveillance video of what appears to be a ghost. There are also two articles about this video, found at the KFSN webpage and that of a family whose loved one died in one of those cars in the video. I saw all this from artbell.com of course. I really should give credit to links now.
Also, new webcam pic. Bye.
See At Toe
July 26, 2002
Gone until Saturday night. Will take a bucket of pictures and post them up (usual non-standard pictures again). Fragment sentences end. Soon. Bye.
Webcam
July 24, 2002
I’m going to follow suit and copy Dennis and Justin’s webcam. Actually, I’ve had my camera for almost a year now. It was a fine present from Dennis and Shannon. So far, I’ve only used it primarily to teleconference with Eri when she was in Japan and sometimes play around with it at home. So, just click where it says, “webcam” on the left.
Poor Dennis
July 23, 2002
His site has died again. Something about not paying his BC Hydro bill and they cut the power to the power supply. It’s time to lament.
The grapevine has news that he’s not gonna do anything about it for now. Instead, he’s withdrawing to his cave of design and come up with something that will knock the pants off everything you’ve known up to this point. He likes it when people’s pants get knocked off. Stay tuned.
Agh Not Again
I don’t know what’s up with my host but my page can’t be accessed again. I know they recently switched to all Linux servers. Maybe they’re switching some other crap too or maybe Linuxes aren’t as stable as previous thought. Don’t bother emailing about the differences (advantages) of Linux over Windows. I don’t have the technical comprehension to care. I guess by the time you read this update, the server is ok again.
PS. The picture from yesterday will now sit in the About page. If you go there and the picture isn’t up, chances are I’ve been trying to ftp it onto my server without luck. Sucks.
And my damn computer isn’t here yet. It says it’s still in production. I bet they’re busy coloring those plastic flaps that snap onto the computer to make it look nice.
Yay
July 22, 2002
JPEG follows GIF
July 21, 2002
JPEGs are to be licenced as well now. Sooner or later, every graphic compression format will be banned by use by everyday people. All websites will only contain text. Then in a strange twist of fate, someone will patent the alpha numeric system we use on our keyboards and licence its use as well. Webpages worldwide will be nothing more than blank sheets of color. Your individuality shown only through the use of a different tone or hue. Couple this with deeplinking made illegal and it spells the end of the internet.
Hello World
July 18, 2002
Apologies to Dennis because I was supposed to note that his webpage has changed address to http://hmlka26135.smarttadsl.com/~sinned/. Blogger had a problem and I couldn’t post any updates until now. And then my server is down for some reason. I guess it’s all ok now that you’re reading this.
Dennis has been kidnapped
July 16, 2002
They knew he was alone in his house so they went in with weapons armed and raided his place. Their mission was to take down his domain. They succeeded. They said they won’t release the domain unless a ransom of $5 is paid in full American dollars.
Viewers of Dennis’ webpage do not worry for supporters of his cause already have set up another site at a secret location.
Please, my friends, please support his cause. I fear if we don’t act soon, he will not be alive much longer.
His site is now at http://hmlka26135.smarttadsl.com/~sinned/.
More stuff
As mentioned by Dennis before his page went dead, we spent a great night yesterday eating giant plates of food, walking forever in a forest labyrinth (Eri was attacked by a wolf), drinking spherical infusion beverages, and then digesting sacharine ridden baked pastry goods. Actually it was all good fun and countless thanks goes to Dennis and Shannon for the dinner.
I have to work again tomorrow. This week off was very nice indeed. No school and no work for a whole week. I haven’t experienced this since my trip to Japan but still, I kept on worrying about school and work anyway. Uhhhh I can’t think of anything more to say so goodnight.
Mail Order Bride??
July 12, 2002
Mail order? Bullshit! It’s online, internet order bride!
Eri is sleeping right now because she didn’t sleep on the plane and it’s morning right now in Japan. I didn’t realize how much I missed her until I was with her. Yay!
In other news, I finally bought a laptop! Well, I ordered it anyway. It’s a Dell Inspiron 8200. P4-1.6GHz (it was 500+ for a 2.0, but I doubt I’ll need all that raw power until Doom 3 comes out), 256 ram, DVD/CDRW, a Geforce4 on it, and color inserts!!! The color inserts are basically these plastic colored flaps that snap onto the front. They’re useless really but the whole thing is a dull gray/black, so the color would spice it up a bit. I’ll be leasing it since I don’t have a four thousand bucks lying around but what’s nice is I can pay off the balance anytime without penalties. I’m expecting it to come through my mail slot in ten days. I’m contemplating whether to try to hook it up to the net (maybe Eri will play Baldur’s Gate too??), but since I’m mentally handicapped when it comes to this computer network stuff, someone will have to help me… that is, if that someone wants 4 people to play BG.
Rock on! Too bad Dennis found a bassist already. I know this guy, his name is Harrison, and he’s a bass player. Plus, his brother probably sings and can write really good songs too.
The typhoon got its ass kicked
July 11, 2002
I got so pissed off at that typhoon that threatened to delay Eri’s flight to Vancouver so I flew up and sped my way over there. Over a 15 hour period, I blasted the typhoon with my ultra powers and beat it into submission. The typhoon is now in full retreat. Seeing that my work was done, I quickly flew back home and it wasn’t until I was soaking in a nice bath when I realized I could’ve just picked up Eri and fly her back here. I’m so forgetful sometimes. The typhoon is now less of a threat than before. Eri should be leaving for Tokyo right now and then later tonight, she’ll leave Tokyo, heading this way. Maybe I’ll meet her mid-Pacific and eat dinner with her on the plane.
Ever since that night I played Baldur’s Gate with Dennon (Dennis/Shannon), I started playing my single player campaign again. I left it a couple months ago because I got really bored with exploring all those maps. Today I just finished chapter 5 and I’m just about to set foot into the town that gave the game its name. The town is gimongous! My main character is on the verge of becoming a level 7 thief and not that far away from level 7 fighter. If you know much about Ad&d, level 7 is quite an achievement. Thank god I spent countless years killing so many squirrels and chickens for experience points! Word has it that Dennis discovered the cause of the savegame bug and we may be able to continue our campaign again. Here’s a hint: Eri comes here tomorrow morning so tonight would be more than a good time to play. THAT’S WEDNESDAY, JULY 10… PLAY!!!
I’m taking a week off of work to spend time with my sex slave so if you are really my friend, do not call, do not message, do not even think of my name. Leave us alone for a week. Games that have the words ‘Baldur’ or ‘Gate’ or ‘Doom 3′ do not apply to this – I’m sure I can play a little. I’m excited.
Mysterious Forces Work The Universe
July 09, 2002
Eri was planning to be in Vancouver this Thursday. First, her grandfather gets sick and was on the brink of cancelling her trip. He still remains in pretty iffy waters. Then, a typhoon is on its way in Japan, very likely grounding flights that day. It’s weird because the last time she was coming here, two airplanes crashed into the twin towers at the World Trade Centre, causing her plane to be 5 hours late (with a certain boyfriend waiting for a nice 5 hours at the airport). Something out there doesn’t want her to come to Vancouver. Whatever it is, if I ever find out, I will seriously give it a big ass kicking, omnipotent or not omnipotent.
In other news, Dennis, Shannon, and I played Baldur’s Gate last night. Apparently, they’ve been playing for a week already and I guess Dennis felt guilty about it. He came clean and that very night, I was back in action, killing bears and the like. I imported my level 6 guy into their level 3 group. I even took all the good stuff from my party and stuffed it into my guy so that I could benefit from all the goodies. I forgot to import a cloak that turns me into a wolf. It’s not that useful but fun to play with. Hopefully we can play some more soon.
Lastly, as much as I hate the Crocodile Hunter, his new movie looks a bit funny. He’s much better suited doing fictional, big screen comedy rather than his pseudo-educational, lame-ass, Discovery Channel show. His stupid show is on 20 times a day. I will be watching MIB2 with Eri when she comes here but I bet it’s a lame lame movie (again).
Yahoo! News isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer…
July 06, 2002
“…the heavily armed Egyptian immigrant who fatally shot two people at the ticket counter of Israel’s national airline had gone to the Los Angeles airport to kill.”
Does anyone else see the repeating repetitiveness of this repetition? The guy who killed people at the airport went to the airport to kill people. Why… if they didn’t say so, I would’ve never known he went to the airport to kill! To kill! The gunman went to the airport to kill! Airport! Kill! The headlines at Yahoo have really sucked lately. I think I’m switching to the ever pleasant BBC.
Woohoo
July 05, 2002
Thanks to a friendly email from someone who read about Starcontrol 2 on my webpage, I finally got the game to work on my computer! The last time I tried, one problem always persisted and made me not want to play. The music didn’t work, or the graphics were messed up, or not enough conventional memory, but now, the game works perfectly! I spent an hour trying out different combinations of windows settings, boot disks, and all that good stuff. In the end, it was worth it, I’m already blasting apart Ur Quan Dreadnoughts like there’s no tomorrow.
Friday or Saturday
July 03, 2002
Andrew said that we are going to have a get-to-gether this Friday or Saturday. So book it off. We haven’t had a social dealie in quite awhile now people.
Notice Anything Different?
Dennis got to see this webpage about 2 hours in advance. That special bastard. I’m sorry dude, but I had to use GIFs because PNGs just looked too weird. Everything else that was on this site before is still there but it just looks too weird to put together with this page so they’re all on holiday.
More Writing To Please Your Ravenous Appetites
July 02, 2002
I’m going to start by posing a question. Do you think complaining is bad or does it start the process of improvement? I ask this because awhile ago, I was out with my family for some dim sum. The restaurant that my dad chose really sucked ass. I mean, it was bad. It was the sort of chinese restaurant I would expect to see back in the mid 80′s. They had that really annoying plastic table cloth that does not absorb tea and therefore when you spill tea around your area, the tea just runs along the plastic and spills all over your lap. They had the dim sum carts – I’ve noticed in the past 5 years, the carts are being phased out by the paper and pencil method (saves money and looks more professional, IMHO). Not only did the carts look like they need a tuneup, the past-middle-aged ladies pushing those things did a crummy job advertising their food too. One lady with the shrimp dumplings and sui mai didn’t bother to yell out some other dish that we wanted. My dad had to ask her if she had “X” and she said yes! So she took out X and stamped our bill paper. I’m wondering, if my dad had to ask for a dish anyway, what use do the cart ladies serve? They get paid minimum (or even less) and therefore work very unhappily, causing me to think the place is in turmoil. Oh yes, they also had those stainless steel teapots with the metal handles that heat up when boiling tea is left in the pot for a few minutes. Last thing, the waiters kept staring me down. I have no idea why. They were probably in their late twenties, early thirties and just about to exit their youth. All of them were staring me down, a la Young and Dangerous and it was pathetic. Fuck you! Just do your stupid waiter job and I’ll leave, don’t even try to pretend you’re a tough guy – even I don’t do that (I’m a wuss). The food tasted alright – that is the only redeeming quality left in this restaurant.
Now back to my question. I started complaining about the place and I do mean complaining. It was early morning and I was in my fucking asshole mode so I just shot out complaint after complaint. My dad got pissed off at me and tried to lecture me about not complaining and try not being so negative… his conclusion, “you’ll be a happier person”. I didn’t bother responding because I know I would’ve started an all out argument in the middle of this shitty restaurant, so I let his stupid comment slide.
I started thinking, if I were a person who didn’t complain, and let everything bad slide, I probably would be a happier person. Yet, I would be happy in a stupid, mental patient kind of way. By not complaining, restaurants like this one stay in business and never improve. By not complaining, people don’t see weaknesses in their life and therefore cannot improve. As much of an asshole as I am, I’m sure I’m not the only person who had a shitty time in that restaurant. If it were up to me, we would never go there anymore.
Middle of the Year Update
July 01, 2002
I have done nothing in the first half of this year that I think is important. That’s so sad.
Now that the World Cup is finally over, I hope everything becomes normal again. I’m sick of soccer even though I never liked it to begin with. I did not watch a single game but I did listen to the outcomes and saw a few highlights now and then. The only reason I wanted to know the outcomes was so that I could have something to talk about the next day with people. “So, you watch the Korea game?” or “Hey, Japan did well yesterday!” but it all ended when all the asian teams were out. Thank god this only comes around every four years (much like the boring Olympics).
I’m not updating that often now because I haven’t anything to say and because, like Dennis, I’m tinkering with a new design too. Have a good Canada Day everybody.
Ok a real update now
June 25, 2002
Phew. I told Dennis that he should visit my page in 15 minutes about 20 minutes ago and now that it’s all uploaded, I can explain. The Evil Penguin was just supposed to be something I would draw for fun. Not a webcomic, not the next mascot, not anything. I was drawing it on all my work stuff in the oh-so-boring meetings and playing with the idea. I conceived the idea (or rather, stole it) from the Wallace and Gromit video I saw. That’s all. No more mystery.
It’s funny, that simple, really stupid comic took me a long time to make. I don’t think I can handle making a real comic.
As for the Japan pictures, those are the bulk of them. I didn’t scan the ones that I thought would embarass Eri or me.
This is for Dennis
I rushed this so much just so it’ll be up before he updates. If you’re not Dennis, I guess it’s alright if you see it too.
This is for everyone who didn’t see my Japan pics
I’ll make a better album some other time. But for now, MSN rules!
More Mystery
June 20, 2002
The Evil Penguin will not be taking over Dragon, nor Dizzymon, nor whatever ill-fated mascot that briefly lived on my webpage… no. The Evil Penguin will be attempting at every opportunity to gain power, get the women, rise above, and maybe even improve his appearance. Soon, soon you and your friends will be bowing down to the mystery called The Evil Penguin.
And I’m really tempted to buy something from this site because they’re just so darn cute.
Coming Soon: The Evil Penguin
Inspired by the penguin in Wallace & Gromit – The Wrong Trousers, the Evil Penguin will be wreaking havoc at your favourite website (this one). Just WHO is the Evil Penguin? You will find out…
A strange question
June 18, 2002
Can someone tell me when Israel became an American state?
It’s strange because in my timeline, Israel was an ally of the USA only. I never knew the USA had jurisdiction over the political affairs of a separate national entity. Why the fuck is Bush proposing something for Israel? Well it doesn’t seem to matter because Sharon doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about this proposal, nor is it preventing any more suicide bombings.
I say our Jean and the Liberals should come up with a proposal for the removal of the second amendment in the American Constitution. Why not? Then maybe Jiang Zemin and those guys come up with a proposal for Quebec to separate from Canada.
Update You Loser!!
June 17, 2002
Dammit, everytime I’m on these trips, Dennis usually updates with an insulting thing like I surf for porn or whatever. And it’s the last morning before I leave and he still hasn’t said a word. Maybe he’s busy, huh huh, polishing his guitar, huh huh. I bet it’s not even a real guitar because it has fisher price stamped on the bottom. Either that or he’s finishing Baldur’s Gate as we speak, which by the way, is getting a bit boring because the story progresses quite slowly.
The weather once again must be cooperating because I am in a delightful mood at 8am on a Sunday. Happy Dad’s Day.
Hello from Whislter!!!
June 16, 2002
I forgot that with blogger, I can update anywhere. I better make this quick cuz i only have 3 minutes of internet time left before I need to plug in another two bucks. The weather is sensational and the doing nothing is amazing. I love you all, but primarily only Eri! (I love donuts too). Bye folks.
Please Leave A Message After The Beep
June 14, 2002
In case you’re looking through my windows this weekend and wondering why I’m not home, I’m off to Whistler for a three day extravaganza of getting some color back into my skin. Email my cell if you’re bored. Otherwise, seeya on the other side of this week.
A Real Update Today
June 11, 2002
Seeing how I haven’t put effort into the last few posts, today I’ll actually take some time to write something.
I have been working everyday (except Sunday) for the past 1,000,000,000 days, or so it seems. Even though I’m expecting a nice paycheque soon, my visa is off the wall so in the end I’ll just have a few dimes leftover to mooch a beer off someone. I guess it’s alright because work is more of a social environment for me instead. I have more fun with people from work than most other groups because I think I can make an ass of myself and no one would care whereas in other groups, say school people, I feel I have to watch what I say. Oh well, not like I have to see them anymore.
I will be going down to the magical land of Seattle next month with Eri and a few work people for a Mariners game! The deal with Ichiro is that he’s some Japanese baseball player and he is worshipped by many in Japan. The cool thing is he is actually a really good baseball player (MVP and Rookie of the Year) so their fanatical obsessions with Ichiro are actually over skill I think. So far I’m still looking for a good hotel (good = cheap) to stay the night. I have a bad feeling that the girls are going to be shopping madly while the guys will be making fun of them outside. I think I’ll skip the Krispy Kreme dealie because it doesn’t sound like such a big deal. I will knock everyone unconscious so that I can try to visit Bruce Lee’s grave and pay my respects to the man I admire most.
Speaking of work, some people are organizing an activity named “Summerfest”. As far as I know, it’ll be an annual festival where a bunch of English schools are invited to party (beer, games, music I guess). They are actually sampling local bands right now for the festival. Dennis, if you are interested in performing, get me a tape and I’ll put in a good word although I don’t think they’ll be very keen on growl metal. Maybe we can rock together in the stylings of Rage Against The Machine or Silverchair or something. That would be cruel.
The strangest thing that’s happened is that everyone except for Jesse has updated to some extent. Even Michelle, who is fighting off giant mosquitos updated somehow… must’ve mailed her update on some bamboo leaves and had a friend type it up.
I am out of words.
One of the Best Comics
June 07, 2002
I’m going to plug this site because it has the best comics I’ve ever seen on the internet. It’s already on the links page along with a few changes I made a long time ago.
Hotmail Becomes Useless
June 06, 2002
We are sorry to inform you that as of July 16, 2002, we will no longer be able to offer POP Mail Retrieval to our Hotmail users with a standard free account. This means that you will not be able to aggregate e-mail from various accounts into a single Hotmail account.
Soon Messenger will probably cost money. It’s going to affect a lot of people I know since they only use their hotmail account. I guess if they like the webpage based emailing it’s alright. I personally hate that and avoid it unless I’m accessing from a remote place. I think I’ll just get a damn modem for my palm and never have to worry about this anymore.
Nom de Plume
June 05, 2002
Many writers use a different name in their books. It’s something I just don’t understand why. It’s not just writers who do this, some actors also have different names. For actors I guess it’s the marketing appeal of a name. John Flash is probably a more popular name than Alvin Oliver Lichenstein III.
I have no immediate plans of becoming an actor nor a writer but if I did, what would my pen name be? I figure I would call myself Tom something. That way, if people who thought they were clever and original asked, “Hey Tom, where’s Jerry?” or “Hey Jerry, where’s Tom?” I could instantaneously turn into my alter-ego and say in superhero fashion “HERE” and punch them square in the nose. It’s all about the nose punching. On a side note, when trying to zing people, come up with something original. Wouldn’t you think someone named Jerry would’ve heard the where’s Tom routine before? Don’t bother with stupid zings.
DENNIS THE MENACE! DENNIS THE MENACE!
Fun
June 03, 2002
World’s smallest webpage. Find a magnifying glass.
Blog
May 31, 2002
I recently learned that the word ‘Blog’ came from ‘web log’. Say ‘web log’ quickly a few times and then drop the ‘we’ syllable.
Dennis really knows me well. I was going to complain that he wasn’t updating but he beat me to the punch. I now believe Dennis is the opposite of me in terms of I like designing webpages but I wouldn’t know the difference between interfacing with databases and grating mozzarella cheese. It’s good that he’s doing it now because should the day come I host my own site, then I’ll just beat him up for the code. Maybe I’ll send him a few bucks as compensation afterwards… nah. Congratulations to Shannon for the fish poop job! I’m wondering how far you two are in Baldur’s Gate. I’m not really that far into the central storyline – I just found out the reason why the metal’s been turning bad in Nashkel. I did however explore every area south of Bereghost. Most of it is just wilderness chock full of your bears (kill the bears for so much exp), vampire wolves, sword spiders, and something called a sirrine (each of these things are 2000exp a pop!). Everyone in my party is around level 5/6 but I think since the copy we bought includes the expansion, the experience cap isn’t until level 7ish for my main dude.
My ankle is a lot better now but I still have to tiptoe step on my left foot which is kind of funny to watch. It turns out the more I walk around, the better the ankle feels. It’s the most painful when I wake up. So sleep does not cure all. I hope it heals really quickly because I’m missing my tkd classes and I’m starting my crazy work-every-day schedule now.
Last thing. I made this yesterday but added a couple more today. I got bored.
Moby
May 30, 2002
Not only is his music fun to listen to, he is really funny too. He’s on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and he’s interesting.
The Bush Strikes Again
When you give a monkey a big gun with an easy-pull trigger, things will go wrong. Here’s the proof that he’s a monkey.
Ouchie
May 28, 2002
I twisted my ankle yesterday during my belt test. That’s rather embarrassing. And it was Andrew’s friend, Arthur who was overseeing the test too. I didn’t warm up very much and I was trying to move to a side doing a double punch when I hear Pop! Then the pain shot up my leg and made a hole in the pain area of my brain. I thought I could shake it off but the pain overtook me. Oh well, I’m not in it for the belt colors anyway.
I did get home alright and the whole day was fine but during sleep, I roll around a lot and everytime I turned, my ankle would contort to a painful position and send me waking up yelping, “Itai” (the word for pain in Japanese). So today I’m gonna be a wuss and go see a doctor. Only my dad just told me doctors don’t work today (what a bunch of bastards) so I have to see a tet-da guy (chinese dudes… uh translated means “metal hit”). I don’t really trust these old chinese forms of medicine… I don’t know why. It just doesn’t seem scientific enough for my trust. Also, if I have a badly torn ligament (which I think I do), will this chinese dude know how to set a cast? Or will he make me drink a concoction boiled with 70 different herbs?
I bet one of those herbs really do work well in healing the injury, it’s just that they don’t know which one, so they pile a whole bunch of them up and hope one of them works.
Oh yeah, did I tell you how stinky these concoctions usually are? No party at my house this week dudes.
Baldur’s Gate cont
May 25, 2002
Dennis, Shannon, and I started playing yesterday after probably an hour of trying to set up battlecom. The game will be so slow. It’s not because of connections, or framerates, or my shitty processor speed, but it’s the fact that it takes forever to gather all three of us to do a simple thing like buying weapons. Plus those two are always stealing and doing unlawful things and that pisses off my character (Lawful good human paladin – the epitome of goodness). Luckily, they’re so weak that even with my fists I nearly bludgeoned Dennis’ character to death (left with 1hp) hehehe. But of course, being a nice paladin, I healed him up as best I could. I even protected him from evil. This game is going to take months to complete. Yesterday we spent probably another hour just walking around the starting town before we headed out. We were at a place called the Friendly Arm Inn when an attacker killed me. And with the main character dead, the game ended (sorry guys, I didn’t realize that Teshnor or whatever his name is was so strong). In case you’re wondering, Shannon is playing a Willow character while Dennis is playing a character similar to the guy who yells, “Hey Abbot!!!!” in Men In Tights. Playing in character is fun.
Baldur’s Gate
May 23, 2002
I picked up the game yesterday and played it all night. It’s pretty good. I don’t think it’s a game for everyone because it does take a little patience. If you ever liked the old TSR games like Pools of Darkness (or Radiance), Champions (or Dark Queen) of Krynn, anything made by the old Forgotten Realms Unlimited editor, then you may like this. I haven’t gotten far in the game so the central storyline is still a big mystery to me. I did a couple of the miniquests and quite a few oddjobs for people (deliver this, kill that, find this, etc). Now I understand what Dennis meant when he said he had two lunatics in his party… so did I. One guy had a hamster that made a funny squeek when you pressed it. As for my character, I chose a fighter/thief instead of a pure fighter or paladin. Sure the leveling up is ultra slow (i played for quite awhile and I’m still on level 1) but I get benefits from both worlds. I’m still opposed to bards though.
Weapon of choice is the composite bow – for everyone in the party. Most of the enemies I’ve met so far are puny little monkey guys and wolves. They fall to arrows quite easily and no one gets hurt. It’s quite gratifying to see a dozen of these bluish imp looking guys walking through a narrow valley while my 6 composite bows fire away in an obvious ambush. Then I send one guy in to pick up the spoils and luring another group of imps into this gauntlet. Muhahaha.
I can’t wait for the multiplayer although I have a feeling it’s gonna be quite slow.
Blast it
May 20, 2002
I woke up at 3am and rolled around in my bed, listening to George Noory talk about nothing for an hour. I realize my attempt at going back to sleep will be useless unless I accomplish three things: peeing for one, getting water, and of course, updating in the wee hours of the night. A few hours ago, Dennis and I finally finished off that damn ss2 game. It was funny because we only had about 10 minutes of gameplay left where we left off but we put it off for two weeks. We’re going to attempt Baldur’s Gate next. Apparently it stays quite true to AD&D (except stupid elves and be resurrected). I will of course be a fighter with the possibility of being a paladin (which is just a variant of the fighter class anyway). Why am I always a fighter? It’s all about the swords. You can shoot your stupid slings and sing your damn songs (bard) but for me, it’s always the clangs of the blade. Bah I don’t have anything else to say other than I really should get some sleep.
Cool
May 19, 2002
a = b
a^2 = ab
a^2 – b^2 = ab – b^2
(a + b)(a – b) = b(a – b)
a + b = b
2b = b
2 = 1
HAlloo
Looks like Dennis has caught himself in another one of those pesky time warps again because he’s updating from far into the future. No wonder he says no one is updating. We’re still on linear time and he’s waiting for us 10 days in advance. I wonder if he meant today or next Saturday to play SS2. Maybe I’ll send him a time capsule.
I had a weird dream yesterday. What’s that? Share details with you? Ok.
So for some reason, I find myself on a bike that’s also carrying my sister and my mom. And for another reason, we had to get to UBC. My dad took off in the van and left us here with only the bike. So there we were, biking to UBC, actually, it was only me who was peddling. We stopped at some crazy woman’s house and she gave us a container. I think she wanted us to fill it with food. Suddenly, another friend joined our group and he said he would fill it up. Anyways, it’s getting late so we decide to move on. Now I find myself in at least 5 other bike’s presence. I was first so I turned around to see the others… SHIT! It’s that crazy woman and she’s pissed off about not filling her container. We pull over and the crazy woman is screaming at me and accusing me of stealing her food. She says she wants to see what’s in my backpack. I tell her it’s illegal for her to check (Dream Act, s5 paragraph 7b). But I start pulling stuff out of my bag anyway. I pull out 52 decks of cards, each with a different design. Whatever I was gonna do at UBC must’ve involved tonnes of playing cards. After proving our innocence, we were on our way. And that’s when the phone rang and I woke up.
That’s all.
Time to pick up
May 18, 2002
The retreat was so fun. I didn’t really speak much to the new people like I should’ve because I decided I just wanted to have fun and do whatever I want to do instead (for a change). So I spent the three days talking to the people I usually speak to anyway, making fun of the same people while they call me an asshole and punch my arm. I didn’t even take any pictures but who cares. Now that it’s over, it’s back to work as usual after this four day weekend.
Thursday: tae kwan do (or dragonboat practice sometimes)
Friday: volleyball or basketball
Saturday: tae kwan do
Sunday: dragonboat practice
Monday to Wednesday: rest and get ready for Thursday
That’s my new exercise schedule. I’m gonna try it out and see if I suffer heart failure or not. I’m even back on creatine just to max my energy.
What a crappy update! Send your complaints.
One more update before I go
May 13, 2002
These guys are a bunch of crazy assholes. Not only are people willing to talk for peace but their own leader has called for stops. They still won’t go. Too bad a remote explosive detonator doesn’t exist for their kinds of bombs otherwise… “beep” and kaboom. Assholes.
At least we have a little good news.
Hello Supernintento Chalmers
Nevermind the title.
Thanks Dennis for updating. What sucks is that I sleep so late now I read it already so on my retreat there won’t be anything new to read. Oh well, his heart was in the right place. The sudden breakup of The Reckoning is rather a shock to me (even though I’ve never heard them play or ever seen the band members other than Dennis). I thought things were happening with them from what Dennis has been saying in the recent while. As for a new band name, I suggest the Leongs/Leungs/Liangs. Just get Harrison for bass and me for singer and the pseudo-band from highschool will once again be reborn. Oh yeah, you gotta fire whoever’s on guitar and hire Jon too . . . he’ll bring at least 1 song to the band. By the way, they want their porno disks back Dennis.
Eri is coming to Vancouver in July and she’ll be staying for about two months! After those two months I think I’ll be heading over there for a while so I kinda get the feeling it’s my last days in Vancouver (for at least a year) even though I probably won’t leave until September or October.
I’ve had a really strange experience three nights ago but I don’t know what to make of it yet so I won’t write about it. And I also think time is going by too fast. When school is over, summer’s usually last forever but it’s already mid-May and I haven’t done much of the things I wanted to do. Bah. No updating until Wednesday. It’d be cool if I could update with my palm and a modem (think 150 updates per day).
Anyways so I’m off to my retreat tomorrow (some “rec center” with an Indian name in Squamish). I also get to meet the 9 new guys they hired. I know two of them already, one being Daniel. I saw another newbie who was as short as a fire hydrant. Well, maybe not that short. I feel so old in this job. Ok bye.
Best Sleep In Ages
May 10, 2002
I slept more than 10 hours today and even though I’ve been doing so ever since school ended, for some reason this was the best sleep I’ve ever had. I woke up with a big cheerful smile even though the Kelowna trip I’m planning at work isn’t going very well. We need 35 people to go to break even and yesterday we had 13. Screw them. I put in quite some time planning some really cool stuff but oh well. It is life. I’m going away on Monday and won’t be back until Wednesday for our annual work retreat. No boozing though.
Finally, someone updated. Actually when I asked why nobody is updating anymore, I was basically just asking, why is Dennis not updating anymore. He’s pretty amazing. He’s reading four books at the same time. I can only read two books at once because I forget what happened the last time I read. Usually I try to read one fiction and one non-fiction. The fiction is purely for fun while the non-fiction is usually some sort of learning/self-improvement thing. Anyway we will be finishing that blasted ss2 game soon I hope. It’s getting to me how we’re so close but not finishing.
End.
Nothing much
May 09, 2002
I got my camera back! The bulb was dead. It was rather expensive to get it fixed – $55 for the bulb and another $100 for labour and then the government wants a cut of that too. Luckily, VISA guarantees stuff you buy (on certain cards) so it’ll all get reimbursed. I thought what a shitty camera I had because I had it for a year and a bit and the bulb dies on me but it turns out the flash has been used over 2000 times. I figure that’s not too bad.
I wonder why nobody is updating anymore.
That is cool
May 07, 2002
I just finished watching a dragonball tv special about Trunks’ future and what do I see in the credits? Dream Theater did a couple of the songs. That is soooo cool. I was always thinking that DT’s heavier songs would sound so good in a great battle type environment and voila. And they spelt it Theater, not Theatre too.
I’m off to my tkd class all hyped up now. Bye.
Ack
May 06, 2002
Sorry Dennis for not playing SS2 yesterday. I was cleaning up the place and I guess the time just whisked away with the dust. After the starcon2 failure, I downloaded Master of Magic. It’s like Civilization except with magic. It reminds me of that bbs game we played back in the day where it was like BRE except with magic. It was published by Microprose which explains why the opening menu and even the freaking sound effects sound so much like Master of Orion. The things that were awesome and that sucked about Civ are also in this game. A nice feature about the game is that even though you start with a single race like Elves or Gnomes, when you conquer other cities with different races, you can build different racial units. Master of Orion lacked this. The game crashes once in awhile which is weird for old dos games. I was never frustrated with crashes until the introduction of windows 95.
Boo-urns Boo-urns
May 05, 2002
I really wanted to play Starcontrol II all of a sudden so I found the game and tried tinkering with the old config.sys and autoexec.bat files to run it in dos. I got the sound to work but the colors are all screwed up. The game runs as if I had an EGA display when the game was made to take advantage of a whopping 256 colors back then. So the game looked like big crap. Plus it froze for some unknown reason. I think I have to find a driver for a VGA display but I’m just tired of restarting so many times so fuck it. No SC2 for me. The game was sooo good though.
Wee!
May 03, 2002
Suddenly, when things looked bleak, Eri surprises me yesterday morning (she woke me up at 7am) and says she got a job! She’s been job hunting for the past many months and has been feeling down but then suddenly she got a job that she really wanted. So yay for her! I’m busy making a big surprise for her. Well, it’s a big ol’ package with her name on it. The contents are top secret. Sorry hon, you’ll have to wait to see what’s inside.
And yay for me. That same day, I discover that I passed that old darn English course (re: May 01 update) and therefore I can graduate. And after that first class at that martial arts place, I suddenly have all this new motivation and energy to train. I know what it is. I’m new and therefore crappy at the place. I don’t like being crappy so I have to work extra hard to get good fast. So yay for me too. My hamstrings hurt but like they say, No Pain. That’s all they say.
GMAT
May 02, 2002
Thinking about possibilities in my future, I chanced onto the Graduate Management Admission Council website (the makers of the GMAT) and started doing some sample questions. Is it me or are they rather easy? I scored 100% on the Quantitative questions and almost 100 in the Verbal questions (I missed one or two grammar correction questions). I haven’t done the analytical writing stuff because it’s pretty hard to know if I did well or not. Of course I’m not saying that the GMAT is a breeze and I’ll ace it but it’s nice to know that it’s not as hard as the LSAT.
It’s May Already?
I just finished exams not long ago though…
I passed that english course! I must’ve pulled a whopper of a good final because I beat my estimate by a lot. I was guessing between 40 – 55%. Now that I know I passed this course, I’ve assured my graduation because I have enough credits already. I’m still waiting on one course but I think I passed it before even writing the final anyway.
This while has been filled with working, coffee, and occassionally going out with chums. I admit that I smoked a bit this little while but it’s nowhere near what I used to smoke. I don’t plan on buying any cigarettes either.
Today I went to my first class at the martial arts place next to my dad’s store. The guy’s pretty nice and he’s a good teacher. The private lesson was mainly about basic stuff but it focussed more on tkd (and therefore the legs) which I haven’t trained much of. It’s a little more formal than I’m used to too, with uniforms and belts, bowing and the whole nine yards but it’s acceptable. I’m gonna train a lot to get some flexibility in these old legs o’ mine.
I’m sneaking this into the April updates
May 01, 2002
There’s really no point to today’s topic. I’ve been thinking of a simple design for a photo album and here’s what I’ve come up with first round. It reminds me too much of windows so it sucks and crashes. Sorry, this opens up in the same window with no navigation back. Maybe I’ll make a photoalbum design to display my photoalbum designs. Anyways, the file is a little big (slightly under 100k) because I don’t have a good graphic compressor (PS5.5 still). Don’t mind the weird weird message and pictures, they’re just for testing and they’re all changeable of course.
To Eri: Don’t be sad honey. Ganbare and I will buy you white chocolate mochas.
I forgot to congratulate Daniel for getting the job. Congratulations. Doesn’t mean you’ll be beating my Bejeweled score anytime soon though. Dennis and I have been playing ss2 for the past two nights. I think we’ll be finishing it really soon – like maybe 30 more minutes of gameplay. And lastly, I’m still waiting for two marks (one of which determines whether I grad or not). I got another back, I missed an A- by 1%. Sucks ass but at this point, I’ll take anything over 50. All that coffee today is wearing off so don’t disturb me while I nap.
Templates for successful groups
April 28, 2002
Remember how the Carebears had a grumpy bear… maybe called Grumpy? The Seven Dwarves had a Grumpy. Sesame Street had Oscar the Grouch. South Park has its Cartman. Who’s the grump in your group? Does having a grump in a group make it successful? Arguably these groups have had their success in their years. What about other personalities? There’s usually a leader character who throws out morals and makes claims of friendship and trust, there’s usually a nerd, a tough guy, a couple “normals”, someone who refers to him or herself in the third-person, there’s usually someone of a visible minority (be it an ethnic minority or of a different social class) – these are your standard groups.
Now looking into our group…who’s who? I don’t think we really have a grump – all of us get grumpy once in awhile, but no one is grumpy all the time. We have a few computer nerds (more than our alotted quota of one nerd), we have a crazy pyro (Hi Sunny) who definitely is the most dangerous in the group, we have crazy death metal man Dennis (who also happens to be a computer nerd, but I guess mixing OCCs is ok – they let you do it in AD&D if you’re not human. Who’s our leader? I don’t think we have one, well, maybe Shannon, I’m afraid of her and her crazy Pokemon Attack Guards. I’m the crazy kung fu guy I guess. Jeff would be our big guy, kinda like the lion or the elephant in the Carebears, or Snuffalufagus (sp?) in Sesame Street. Andrew strikes me as a normal. Jesse is the quiet computer nerd who one day comes out with an earth shattering secret, something like he can fly or lift 10 tonnes. And Justin and Dave are more like normals too. We’re missing a leader and a visibly different ethnic person, I think having a Rabbi or a Tibetan monk would be awesome. OH hey I got it! Michelle, bring your white boyfriend into our group and we’ll have our ethnic minority! I don’t think Eri counts because she doesn’t visibly look different. We’ll also need a pet. Most groups have some sort of faithful dog or dizzymon or something. Considering that my parents have a pet shop, let me take care of that (Attack Budgie). This works out perfectly guys! We are now officially a group. I nominate myself to be Dark Supreme Overlord, on account of my good overlording skills. All we need now is a band of arch nemeses with weird powers – Frogman, Dr. Wily, Yosemite Sam, Shredder, Gaybot, Cutman, you know the drill.
Anyways, if I missed anyone in the group, you shouldn’t be too offended, I just forgot about you that’s all. You’re probably the crazy doesn’t-show-up person anyway so consider yourself cut from the group. And if I did name you and you are offended, oh well, then this episode in our lives will be you and me making amends and hugging in the end and proclaiming that we’ll be friends forever, after defeating a wicked villain first (Cutman probably).
Michelle falls into the tank
April 26, 2002
My majestic plan to enslave all of you is going well. Michelle has fallen off the edge of the planet by reaching the 8th pet… she has no hope of returning to the normal world. How did you get 2 snails? I got a crab as my 8th pet. And I can’t get over 4000 points on the third tank. How the fuck did those guys get over 30,000? That game is the best. If you haven’t been enslaved yet, go get your slave medicine here.
VAG
My trip to the VAG was the first visit since the Rembrandt exhibit last year. I finally got myself a membership because I wanted to get the student discount while I’m still technically a student. The cyborg exhibit is so cool. You’d never think something like cyborgs could hold some artistic potential but wow. Moving. I didn’t care much for Douglas Gordon, no matter how famous he is. His stuff didn’t really get to me. The whole contrasting/opposite relations theme seems a little repetitive. Anyway, now I can see all the new exhibits without paying. Plus I get two free guess passes so if any one of you wish to pursue some artistic appreciation without paying, let me know.
Staring through a glass of water
April 25, 2002
I see… I see a strange calm settling in the water. A quiet sense of security that is about to be rudely awakened by a violent shake of the glass. The tranquility will be no more. Turbulent storms will erupt shaking the glass and everything inside to the verge of ruin. The water will no longer be crystal clear because somewhere along the shaking, foreign particles were introduced. This demonized water will be poison to those who still believe in it. This glass as we know it, is dead.
In a few hundred years, scholars will read that and think I’m some amazing prophet that predicted some terrible catastrophe. Much to the styling of Michel de Nostrodame, they will call me, Leungus.
Lego D0000D
April 24, 2002
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Take the test here if you can’t find the link in that picture.
Justin
He’s back suddenly. Back since Saturday too. No one told me… maybe he was avoiding me. No cheese. After seeing Frailty (review below), I went and had too much coffee with “the gang” at BG. Good times for me anyway because I actually talked. People, you are my friends but if you don’t talk, it’s just some idiot called Jerry making really stupid jokes for an hour. It was nice to see these guys again. It’s rare that we ever hang out anymore. I guess that’s part of “growing up”. Or maybe it’s just people don’t like me and avoid me. Nah it’s not that. Now back to Frailty. I didn’t know anything about the movie when I walked into the theatre. The first hour is boring and pointless UNTIL the ending. Seeing the ending made everything make sense. It’s kind of sad because at least three guys walked out of the movie during the boring part. They will think the movie sucked ass but if they saw the ending, they might have thought otherwise. It’s got a Sixth Sense sorta ending, twisty and made ya think. Normally I like no brainer movies (like the upcoming Triple X movie!!!) but I guess this one was good. What was the movie about? Crazy guy thinks God is telling him to kill people who are demons. Kills people in front of his two kids. Kids grow up messed up. They kill people too. But then the ending shows one of the crazy kids seeing these demons and they actually did evil stuff. So I guess the crazy God part came true.
I guess that review limits any career as a movie critique but they’re always stupid anyway. Goodnight. I love Eri.
Promoting a game
April 23, 2002
Insaniquarium is possibly the most creative internet game I have ever seen. It’s so stupid and fun and addicting. What is it? You have a fishtank. You have two fish. You feed them. They poop out money. You collect the money. After awhile, they grow and you can buy stuff like more fish, better food upgrades, better weapons to shoot down enemies (some alien from Aliens and some sort of lion thing). Then when you amass enough money, you buy pieces of an egg. When you have three egg pieces, the game ends and out hatches a “pet” for you to keep. I think there are 8 pets available right now. I have 7 hehe. When you play a new game you can add your pets into the tank (max 3 pets at once). I don’t know if there’s any point to the game but it’s just so fun and cute. Oh and if you have kids, don’t buy the carnivore and have little fish in the same tank. Your kids will cry.
I highly recommend you play this game because since I like it, you must by default, like it too.
This is bliss
That’s it folks, no more exams tee hee. Boy it sure feels good. Having passed the exam that I knew I failed. Thank god there are many other dumbasses in that class along with me, otherwise, there would have been no scaling. Another surprise, I pulled an A- in my land law class. I got 58% on the midterm but after some quick calculation, I got close to 90% on the final. A 77 on something else. Today’s final final was a lot easier than I imagined. I studied my ass off for this because the teacher was scaring us about “more quantitative calculations” but there were really just 2 of them and they were for preschoolers. I actually dreamed of not knowing some things and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I made a mental note to read it quickly in the morning.
I was the first to leave every exam except one this term. I love that. People think I’m so smart for leaving quickly, but do I know better hehe.
WOOHOOO!
April 22, 2002
He did it! He scaled the marks! I passed! 57%!!! Woohoo! I think I can graduate now.
Damn Luck Last Night
About an hour after my last update yesterday, I went outside so I could catch the planets and what do I see? Stupid stupid clouds covering up most of the southern sky. What luck. The alignment will be around for a week so unless these clouds are gonna hang around that long, nothing’s gonna stop me.
Here are some really beautiful aurora borealis pictures to make up for the clouds. Damn Patchy.
Do Yourself a Favour
April 21, 2002
And get off your lazy ass tonight at dusk. Walk outside the house, that’s right, out of the safe protection of your four walls, and look south (or look north and then spin 180 degrees really quickly). The brightest object you see in the sky (next to the moon) is Jupiter. Then, slowly turn your head towards the west (I don’t want you to injure any discs in your neck) and find another bright object, this should be Venus I think. Now here’s the complicated part. Remember where Jupiter is? Point your finger at Jupiter and slowly (no neck injury again) trace a straight line to Venus (might be Mercury, I forgot). On this imaginary line, you should be able to spot Mars, Mercury, and Saturn (assuming it is Venus to the west, I don’t want you to think you’re seeing TWO Mercuries, that would just be crazy). This happens once every 30 years or 100 years (tv stations should really find out which is real) so instead of studying or practicing kung fu, or burning cylinders for your band, or not fucking with Andrew’s site tonight, you should go see this astronomical treat. It’s also so nice and sunny right now so no evil cloud will block your view. Unless Patchy the Evil Cloud comes out tonight. I hate that bastard.
And one more thing
April 18, 2002
Andrew has asked for “you and your friends to not f*** around with aksy.dhs.org for the entire week because i’m using it for my interview as a demonstration.
thanks”. That sucks. Me and my friends actually had a meeting last week at a secret CIA building making plans to fuck with his webpage. In fact, Conrad, my Second Lieutenant, mentioned, “Haha, Commander Jerry, this plan will not fail. We will fuck with his webpage with certainty, unless he is using it for an interview as a demonstration.” Bastard! I’m having Conrad executed for his stupid prediction.
Attaining This Power
Today I’m gonna talk about something that means to me what metal and other metallic types of music must mean to Dennis.
All of us probably grew up watching those wicked kung fu movies where people use “noi kung” or inner strength to defeat armies of opponents. I’ve had an interest in martial arts since I was 15 and through these years, I’ve seen my fair share of people who preach inner strength. Words like chi, or ki, tai-chi, and qigong all come to mind but I can honestly say 99% of all the stuff I’ve seen is pure bullshit, aimed at those who want to become good at a martial art really quickly.
Anyway, until I started learning a “soft” martial art called Yi Chuan (literally fist of the mind or will), I never really tried to pursue any sort of inner strength training. I tried it for a year but never really got anywhere because it was too slow and passive for me to enjoy. I thought it was bullshit because I didn’t feel any different in terms of power or speed or even health benefits. Well, one day I was at class and my teacher and I were practicing something called “sticky hands” – it’s the primary wing chun training technique. I suddenly realized how fucking strong my teacher was. I’m not talking about a high school bully who’s 100 lbs bigger than you strong, I’m talking about holy shit he can snap me in half strong.
I was fighting just to stay on my feet. With every small movement, I felt my whole body almost lift into the air, smacking into the wall. Then, he used more force and guess what… I DID go flying into the wall. I remember the hitting the wall and getting up and asking him “how did you do that?” I forgot his answer. Let’s compare this to another member of the class who was always slightly better and slightly faster and slightly stronger. When we were training, I would never have to fight just to balance, I could spend my attention on trapping him or getting in that punch. With my teacher, I never got a chance.
So after that day, I realized that that was what real inner strength was. My teacher isn’t a big person. He’s shorter but bulkier than me. Skeptics can argue that he has a lower centre of gravity and I would have a higher one and it was easier to lift and push me, but I was braced and balanced for his attack. Also, there’s another guy who’s roughly the exact same size and proportion to him and he sucks ass. He could have never sent me flying the way my teacher did to me. Still, he never told me how he trained to get that sort of power. I know it took him decades to get to that level, but even so, he wouldn’t share his training techniques. That kind of pisses me off about teachers. Many will never share the one thing that makes them better than their students.
I’m getting back into training every other day now but it’s all “outer” stuff. I want to learn more “inner” stuff. It’s so easy to copy “outer” forms and techniques. Anyone with working eyes can watch Bruce Lee do a few side kicks and copy his form and even his idiosynchasies (that’s what I did) but it’s impossible to watch someone perform some inner training and copy it. There’s a lot of subtle things like breathing and how to exert force and power that make copying impossible. Damn it. Don’t bother suggestion learning tai chi chuan or yoga or whatever the hell they’re serving at your community centre. I stress that 99% is bullshit rule again. It’s not that tai chi chuan is not good (it can be brutally devastating) but it’s that most teachers don’t know how to teach it for my purpose.
Hmm… this is rather confusing
April 16, 2002
I just looked at my credits from classes I’ve taken and it turns out even if I fail that course… I might be able to graduate… I’m not really sure. I think it’s cuz I took that extra class last year and so I have an extra three credits sticking out like a sore thumb. But since I probably failed that other one, that sore thumb is gonna swell back down into a normal thumb. Or something like that.
I’m as confused as you are. Good day and bid me a good study night tonight.
I forgot to give these links
Another flash thingy that I enjoy. This one is funny. And here’s a comic I just started reading.
Poor guy
Poor Colon Powell (that is how he pronounces it so that’s how it should be spelled). He’s over there running between two sides trying to patch things up when it’s blatantly obvious even to the most inept individuals that his efforts will be viewed with disdain by both sides. Talking isn’t the most effective tool when people have been blown to bits by tanks, snipers, suicide bombs, and a whole bunch of crazy shit like that. I appreciate how someone is finally getting into the nitty gritty and trying to put an end to this senseless (to me anyway) violence.
Will his effort produce fruit? Arafat denounced ONE bombing yesterday and now he expects Sharon to unconditionally pull out of the Palestinian controlled towns. Sharon (and Bush for that matter) wants Arafat to take immediate actions to stop any more bombings. Arafat says not until they pull out. Sharon says not until he stops them.
10 print “Hello World”
20 goto 10
run
Meanwhile idiot guerrillas in Lebanon and Syria are making idiot attacks on their borders. Will they stop just because Powell has asked their respective governments to end it? I strongly doubt it.
We live in interesting times.
I guess I’ll update then
April 15, 2002
Who was it that updated when I was the only one? It was Dennis so I’ll update this special update for him. All you other fuckers who aren’t updating, well you’re not allowed to read it.
Let’s see what’s on the front page these few days. People are still exploding in wars, a plane crashed in south korea, and looks like the holy church has a few skeletons in its holy closet. I wonder what I should wear for prom… oh god, I hope my hair looks nice that day. And X-Files is ending in a few episodes, oh god like, what am I like, gonna do, and stuff?
Since not downloading emails from my smarttnet account, 25 spam messages have been sent. I checked them through the email checker thing in ICQ so that’s why I haven’t downloaded them. None have been sent to my normal email. So yay. I’ve been studying all weekend except now when I went to get some coffee with Jeff. Uhh… 3 more finals. Well, most likely there’ll be one more in the summer when I take a course because I fucking failed that stupid on last Tuesday. Stupid me.
I’ve been making these really stupid drawings on my palm, in the “Notes”. They look really ugly (they’re meant to look ugly) but I can just blame it on the low pixel count and the monochrome notes screen. And Aldon’s Crossing looks like a really fun game, it reminds me of “Wraith” for the old Apple II. Too bad it’s in shareware. I hate shareware. The software usually is too crappy to buy but too useful to pass over. I’m using this screenshot program that prints “Register at www…”. Ok, I could use this program but it’s $20. I don’t want to spring twenty bucks for something that just takes a snapshot of what’s on the screen. Hell, I’m in the hole with taxes and crap coming up.
Anyways what a shitty update this turned out to be. Bye.
Email Change
April 13, 2002
From now on, I won’t be using my smarttnet email account because I get a huge chunk of spam from there. After two attempts at contacting smarttnet to see if they can do anything about it, I’m giving up. They didn’t respond to my first email and the next one, they said they would refer me to abuse@smartt.com but nothing happened after that. Since I’m probably leaving for Japan in half a year, I’m not gonna bother switching isp’s at this point but I’ve had it with them. Azonet (the host of this webpage) has some sort of spam filter now that works pretty well so it will be the only address I use (jerry [AT] jvision.ca). So if you happen to have my jl@smartt.com address in your book, you should change it.
Expertise or Well-roundedness?
April 10, 2002
Today I wrote my first exam and unfortunately I am reasonably sure that I failed it (and therefore failing the course). I’ve failed an assignment or two in my life but never a whole course. I’ve been close a couple of times but not truly fail. Am I disappointed? Yes. I studied quite hard for the exam but sadly I still didn’t understand all the material covered. It was the ‘advanced’ accounting course that I keep complaining about.
I then began thinking about this soon to be fail and how it applied to the rest of my persona. I didn’t do too bad in the courses leading up to this one but for some reason I just choked and died. I then realized that I do that in everything that I’ve ever done. I try something, get kind of good in it, but never reach the threshold where I would consider myself very good. It’s as if something (within me?) holds me back and won’t let me go.
And I guess to compensate for this, I try a lot of things. I have so many hobbies, so many interests, so many things I like to learn about or talk about or do. To put it best, I’m a jack of all trades, but a master of none. No matter how hard I try, I’ve never been the top dog so to speak in whatever I’ve done. I’m not really sad about it because I know I put in a lot of effort and I can look in a mirror and say that it was the best I could have done. It’s just, it was a few steps short.
As I began lamenting over this weird quirk, I also thought? was this really a bad thing? I started debating over which was better: to be able to do a lot of things fairly well, or to be able to do a couple things (or maybe even one) really really well? My conclusion is that I don’t know.
I look back into my past and think of friends that were superb in something. They might have been great musicians, excellent sports players (one single sport), really intuitive computer dude, or an artist who can turn ink into beauty. I appreciated their talent and their effort and wish I had their skill but when I turn to the next ‘activity’, their name leaves my mind.
So for me, to be really great at something is only good when people are thinking about it. Otherwise, you may be forgotten or even passed. I never picked the computer guy for my soccer team nor did I go to the musician for help on homework. And when it came to financial success, my artist friend would probably be the last person I think of.
But then again, a person who’s not really great at many things wouldn’t be thought of too. What a dilemna: should people concentrate on one or two things that they can do really well or should they try to broaden their scopes and try many things and not be too concerned about being that great?
More funny business stuff
April 09, 2002
I’ve been reading fuckedcompany.com a lot lately and here’s another piece: some company wants to buy Napster and are ready to spend up to $30,000,000 US. And what’s funny is that this company “had spent around $100 million supporting Napster.” Maybe I’ll go buy Enron for $300,000,000,000 then. It’s about the same deal. I assume that Napster has negligible real assets (you know, like factories, land, machines, coke dispensers) and a big giant lawsuit at its door. I haven’t seen its financials but I can guess this company is buying for “future outlook” or whatever. I guess they think they’ll figure out a deal with the record companies and I guess users will end up paying some money for d/l’ing music and everyone will flood back to napster. I guess they don’t realize that some other illegal idiot will come up with whatever.com and let people transfer music.
Man if I had $30m i would dump it into oil futures now since Mr. Crazy Iraq Guy has just stopped exporting oil. What good will that do? It’s not like Americans (including us, America Jr.’s) have not been through times where oil prices skyrocketed. They did it in the 70′s and a few years ago. Sure it was a cartel that limited supply for business/asshole reasons but this political reason will probably have the same effect. Other crazy leaders will think crazy iraq guy is right and jump in. Oil is at/around $27~28 a barrel right now. It went as high as $32 a couple years ago so let’s try to break that barrier! 40! 50! 60! Soon oil will be the next internet bubble, except you can hold oil… in a can at least. So buy oil futures now! 6 months down the road, you’ll be buying me prime rib dinner and some chardonnay. Too bad I have negative money right now (damn taxes).
Taking a break from studying
April 08, 2002
This is amazing foosball playing.
Does anyone else out there care?
April 07, 2002
Is it just me that has concerns that a multinationed war, a “world” war if you will, is set up to begin? The players has been polarized and taken sides, entrenching themselves in what could be a very fearful battle. It’s iron versus terror. Aircraft carriers versus viral carriers. Highly trained professional soldiers versus religious zealots willing to part with life for the cause. Two sides have formed with threats being thrown left and right. In the middle of it all are two who have been “retaliating” for over 2 years. These two are the source of this chesspiece forming. I’m with white, black is evil. I’m with black, white is evil. Is it just me that sees all this and cares? While people are being blown up left and right, I see people wondering what they’ll wear at their grad, where to go out and party, bickering about some girl that wronged them in their past. Are these sheep oblivious to the countless news reports of death and terror? Are these morons so indulged in the “decadence of the West” that they believe they are safe from world issues? I pity these sheep. The sheep that believe in George Orwell’s ignorance is bliss proclamation. Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m overtly sensitive to this because I believe every race, religion, belief, political doctrine, language, action, and life is all the same. I believe that every human is nothing but a human. There are no divisions, no borders, and divides.
Maybe a culture like “The Borg” from Star Trek isn’t such a bad idea. They don’t fight over religion. I have always respected religion and the right of every individual to pursue any religion they like but I’m having my doubts. I only see evil coming out of religion. Only sadness, murder, hatred, division, and greed. I see blame, scapegoats, propaganda, power, fear, and control.
There you go.
You bastards
Bah. I was planning to out wait you asses and not update until someone else does but it’s gonna be 2 weeks for the next person to update. I had my last class yesterday and suddenly realized that I won’t have to step into another lecture for a long time. I do plan to continue learning something but not soon (well, maybe Japanese classes). That last class signaled the end of school but the start of 21 days of continual studying and final writing. Bah. I have to go through four chapters of this stupid book today and know it inside out.
With school out, I can plan more important stuff now for the summer. Third on the list is a redesign of this page. I’m getting bored of it already. Well, not already because this has been up since summer of last year. It didn’t even make a full year hehe. Oh well. My pages never do.
I finished Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4 yesterday without losing a single battle, using Lui Bei. I love conquer the universe type games. Always use catapults because they’re so fun. What a shitty update this is turning out to be.
Doh I was had
April 04, 2002
My last update about fuckedcompany.com turned out to be an april fools joke. Damn! I saw soo many april fools webpages but I had to get caught by this one! Haha. I found out a little later after my update, but blogger.com was down (AGAIN) so I couldn’t erase the update and hope nobody caught it (damn you Justin). God I feel like a panda bear in an orc filled world.
And the simpsons was dead on
April 03, 2002
I was reading fuckedcompany.com and found that, Idealab was giving money to fuckedcompany.com even though idealab was the target of unnice remarks by fcomp. Idealab CEO then says, “The move makes perfect sense. By operating a number of small, profitable websites, PK Interactive is leading the next paradigm of web business.”
One episode in the Simpsons said something like people who use the word “paradigm” were stupid people who were trying to sound smart (or something to that effect). The Simpsons is a tv show proving to be this century’s Oracle. What the fuck does leading the next paradigm of web business mean? He just dumped 18 million into a company! How does that lead to the next paradigm? 18 million could’ve gone into marketing, or human resource, or dividends (remember what those are people? dot com’s don’t know what dividends are), or just whatever. 10 bucks says this company’s gonna tank because of stupid use of the word paradigm.
Some kid with obvious mental illnesses kills himself and the mother blames Everquest
Here’s the article. I don’t think it was Everquest that killed him. It was him that killed him. Did the game contribute to his death (and therefore be found liable for … manslaughter or negligence or some crap)? Who knows. The mother wants “warning labels” put on the games. Dude, that will just make kids want to play it more. Things are more fun when they’re forbidden or frowned upon. Here’s another story in the article:
One client – a 21-year-old college student – stopped going to class within eight weeks after he started playing EverQuest his senior year.
After playing the game for 36 hours straight, he had a psychotic break because of sleep deprivation, Parker said.
“He thought the characters had come out of the game and were chasing him,” Parker said. “He was running through his neighborhood having hallucinations. I can’t think of a drug he could have taken where he would have disintegrated in 15 weeks.”
It’s not the game’s fault these kids were stupid. It’s actually violence on tv, blame violence on tv instead.
This is the coolest idea ever
April 01, 2002
Artist Trading Cards. What people do is that they make 20 original cards of their own design (by whatever means they want) and send them to this place. When they send 20, they’ll receive 15 from different people who also made cards. It’s like a big art swap. And they try to organize meets to let people trade in person. There’s even a Vancouver meeting at The Grind (the shadiest coffee place that I’ve ever been to). If I were artistic, I’d be making cards all day instead of writing this update or trying to figure out how to convert txt/doc files to palm format all night. If you happen to be artistic, send me a card. It would make my day big time.
On my wishlist
March 31, 2002
I have to buy Dragon: Story of Bruce Lee. It’s on right now and I forgot how good it was. Half of it is bullshit and hollywood-ized but it’s still a good movie. I have a friend who looks eerily like Jason Lee and he has the same family name. I wonder if there’s any relation. This movie is motivating me again. Tee hee!
I love days where I can do nothing because I usually do the most. I cleaned up the whole place and did a bit of rearranging. I even fixed the table that my computer lies on. It turns out more than half the screws holding it together were either loose or about to come loose. I figure in another month or so, the whole thing would collapse, destroying my computer in the process. It’s ok now. And now I’m doing pushups for the first time in month. Go go go!
Wow, this is a real twist
March 30, 2002
After a few days of trying to put together a peace deal, BAM! This is gonna be interesting how it goes. I love how Arafat was quoted as saying, “They want me under arrest or in exile or dead, but I am telling them, I prefer to be martyred”. If I were world dictator, I would make it so that religion and politics would never mix. Nothing good ever came out of that. Charged and strong point, but prove me wrong.
And Youthanasia came out in 1994. I did mean that I haven’t heard any of their new stuff released after 1994. But didn’t I hear this for the first time in 1995? The year I first started touching a guitar?
Check another one off
March 29, 2002
We finished off another school project today – this one was some stupid database thing that normally takes forever to do with a lot of frustration. This time we finished early but didn’t attempt the bonus stuff (which would only add 1.2% to our overall score anyway). There’s 4 more days of class before the finals roll about. Am I ever glad. I already wrote up a list of things to do when school is out, one of which is pick up martial arts again. I think I’m gonna learn something totally different from what I’m used to, I’m thinking of tae kwan do or maybe hapkido, both of which I do not know much of. And thanks to Dennis, I started listening to my old megadeth cd’s again. They rock! I can’t say I really know them because I haven’t heard any of their albums since 1994. That’s almost 10 years! Geez. Israel declares Arafat an “enemy” and on the news it just said that Israeli tanks have trashed Arafat’s gates and have opened fire. I can’t wait to be with Eri again and start a “new life” in Japan.
Daniel, this one’s for you
March 27, 2002
As per our battle for the title, Master of the Universe, I would like to say I am he. Proof. That’s right Dan.
Political Pressure is too much for mega businesses
Andersen CEO resigns “bowing to mounting pressure as a result of Anderson’s role in the Enron scandal.” What does this mean? It means this firm is done. Branches in the States are trying to merge with KPMG while I also read that the Hong Kong affiliates are trying to get into bed with PWC. The rats are abandoning ship. This means either everyone will continue joining the other big 4 or they’ll change their name again and try to pretend nothing happened.
Do not think that it was that one bad auditor that doomed this company, many of their clients are under suspicion while many legit people have ditched them in favor of other firms. This is before any class actions have been settled too. The 7th largest accounting firm in the world was brought under after settling a big big lawsuit back in the 80′s. Andersen is among the Big 5 so the impact in the “accounting world” will be humongous. I expect the SEC to come out with way more stringent rules soon.
That’s all. Thanks for not giving a rat’s ass.
Muhahaha
March 26, 2002
Jerry – 47820
Daniel – 45960
These are the current Bejeweled scores. Close Daniel, but not close enough. Have fun in Japan stewing in your own impatience as you know I will be in Vancouver getting an even higher score. Muhahaha.
Andrew’s dream is the first time in many months that all of us got together even though it was to watch dogs explode or something. That was fun, can’t wait to see you guys in the next dream or movie night or whatever. Dammit I didn’t get any gruesome dreams at all. I think blood and gore is so normalized to me. Maybe if I watch stuff like A Beautiful Mind then I’ll start having nightmares.
Why is it that a 75kb powerpoint file becomes >200kb when converted to go into my palm? I thought things would get compressed, not inflated. But showing powerpoint slideshows on a small handheld is cool. I think that’s my favourite use of all. And I just killed my Space Traders dude who had over 200,000 credits. I went on one of those stupid quests with the best ship, best weapons, best armor and got whupped by one of those alien ships. The game totally reminds me of the old bbs days (the game was inspired by ELITE or was it Planets?). I’m just looking for Sinned and Adonis so I can slit their throats at hotels or send ugly Violet to them.
And I’m out of things to say.
Resident Evil
March 24, 2002
I saw it today with Andrew, Pat, and Jesse. I didn’t think I would like it because history has taught us movies from video games usually suck royally. Examples: Supaer Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Duckhunt (ok maybe not Duckhunt since it won 2 Oscars). I was surprised that it turned out to be rather good. The whole movie was filled with suspense without any boring talk scenes. The sound track was superb, with deep heartbeat-like beats all the time. It followed the game environment pretty well in that everything in the movie could have happened during the game Resident Evil. No, the characters aren’t Albert Wesker, Jill Valentine, and Chris… Something. It ends with a possibility of a sequel – leading right up to the start of the Resident Evil 2 game.
The zombies were pretty well done but somewhat comical to me. I can’t explain it. Here they are eating up those special forces dudes and I was chuckling. It’s almost insanely sick hehe. My favourite thing was how well the doggies were done. Then there was that big giant thing that crawled on ceilings and had a long tongue. I think something similar is in the game but I can’t remember what they were called (Reapers??). Sorry fans, no Tyrant (but that would have been just supercool). And Milla Jovovich (sp?) is just plain hot. There’s something about a woman who can kick and punch that is such a turn on. So the movie is good.
I feel like updating
March 22, 2002
Last meal requests from the state of Texas. It’s quite interesting what deathrowers want to eat. Reading this made me question my eye-for-an-eye mentality. Anyways, a good read.
I’m sitting around not doing my accounting homework due tomorrow because the effort is just not worth the 2%. I’m exhausted from the day. I had that presenation dead early in the morning and we fucked up because the last two parts were big time rushed because the second part took up more than 10minutes (out of 15mins). Doh. Then I went to “work” and watched as people tried in futility to beat my Bejeweled high score. You monkeys never learn. You can’t beat me.
I will sleep lots to make up for the not lots of sleep from yesterday. Decode that and win.
Doh Day
March 21, 2002
Something tells me Dennis isn’t happy. I’m good at knowing these things. As for errors… I didn’t reed any errors in his update! I teach English good!
Maybe fate decided that yesterday was enough of a punishment and decided to give me a better day today because I was busy 9 to 9 but I’m still pretty happy right now. Firstly, I was worried about Eri all day because she didn’t message me yesterday before I slept which is highly unusual and when I woke up, I didn’t see any messages from her before she slept (damn time zones). I went to school thinking all sorts of bad things had happened but finally around 5ish, I got an email from her. Phew. I usually don’t worry about anyone.
I’m hooked on Bejeweled again, this time on my pda. It’s the best game. It’s mindless, can take forever to play, and addicting. I’m starting some sort of contest with Daniel to see who can get the highest score. So far, I’m whupping his sorry ass. That’s right punk, I know you’re reading this! I kicked your ass in Bejeweled. Muhaha.
I have a ‘formal’ presentation tomorrow and a free lunch. Yay for me.
Sushi
March 20, 2002
All this talk about Tama sushi has made me ponder this. Why do local Japanese restaurants name their sushi in such weird ways? For you have the standard stuff: there’s salmon in salmon rolls, there’s tuna in tuna rolls. Why did they name it Caterpillar roll? I don’t doubt that it tastes great, I’m just wondering about the name. What part of avocado and tempura (was it) that reminds them of caterpillars? … or … there are caterpillars in it. The same goes for Dynamite rolls. I’ve seen places call dynamite rolls tempura rolls which make sense, but then I see dynamite roll and asked the server dude what was it. And California roll? I think it was rumoured to have been created here too. BC roll, Alaska roll, Afghanistan roll (that one is made out of starving children), you don’t know what you’re getting when you order it.
WRONG!
Having a japanese girlfriend has its advantages. Uni is not eel. Uni is sea urchin. It’s that really disgusting orangey crap that’s highly expensive and stinky. Unagi is eel. Unagi is awesome. One of my favourites is unagi-don.
The reactor’s gonna blow
Today is one of the worst days in my life. Not because any single thing really bugged me, but just everything just got together and spanked me silly. I am stressed and about to blow a fuse. I’m glad no one sparked me off because I feel like wounding people right now.
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
March 19, 2002
Here. It took me awhile to find.
For the PDA people
I didn’t realize how annoying my webpage was in AvantGo. You have to turn off images or else my page looks so weird with pics flying all over the place. So for your convenience, here is the PDA version of my webpage. I guess only 2 or 3 people will use it but oh well. There are no archives because it’ll take too much room but there are more days of updates shown.
Snowing again?
As I kid I loved snow. Now I’m not a kid. I hate snow. I hate how you have to shovel it out of walkways. I hate how it makes every freaking driver out there slow to 9kph. I hate how my stupid light car fishtails if I pull anything. I hate how I freeze to the brim of cryogenic storage and then I realize I can’t find my gloves. I hate you snow.
I woke up today planning to go to my 10am class. I was way too sleepy. I decided to go to the second section at 11:30 instead (the teacher usually lets). Yay! Another 1.5hr of wonderful sleep. Now I have awaken, stared out the window, and decided to just avoid any rage today from snow by staying home.
It’s a big problem now with me. I’ve skipped so many classes this month that I’m afraid. I just hate school so much now. What’s the point? I’m not looking for jobs, competing out there, so school is just a joke to me. I just want to grad and get it over with. Fack! I can’t wait for the summer.
Life’s a bitch and then she dumps your sorry ass, taking your money and your youth. Thankfully I still have Eri.
Agh We Lost Again
March 18, 2002
Damn volleyball games. Our first game we defaulted because half the damn team didn’t show up. One girl was ridiculously late (she missed the bus she claims). I guess on Saturdays, they only run 1 bus around Vancouver. Our next game, we actually won our first set. Then as usual, we choked big time and lost the next two. Damn games. I really love volleyball, competitively and for fun, but if the team won’t give 100% (ie. not showing up), then it’s only up to me. And as one person, I can only do so much. So all in all, I blame everyone else. I was perfect. I don’t really think that of course.
Damn volleyball.
This is fun
March 17, 2002
I spent the whole day playing around with the Palm, uploading pictures, games, and all sorts of crap. I can’t believe there are so many sex guides for PDAs. Any programs you are using that is fun or cool or useful?
I forgot to put this up, but Dennis responded to my time machine question with a great answer:
Go back to the late 1800s and kill H. G. Wells while he was writing The Time
Machine so people wouldn’t be asking these questions. He wins!
Saturday Waste Finished
Alright, so the group thing wasn’t too bad, we were pretty productive. And then I did it. I went and bought a Palm m515. I guess it wasn’t really down to either the Palm or Sony because I looked at the Clie for 2 seconds, then looked at the Palm and asked the dude to get one for me. I even got the extended warranty dealie because I’ve heard too many horror stories of busted buttons, cracked screens, etc etc to take that chance. I’m waiting on the initial charge right now. Whenever I get a new cell phone, I never wait for the first charge and end up having a battery with half its theoretical life. So for this baby I’m gonna be patient. Right now I’m looking for software to plug in (no thanks, Kama Sutra not needed). I kinda want the Japan travel pack because it will come in handy when I go there. As for other accessories, I’m gonna get a carrying case and maybe a keyboard. And definitely a memory expansion.
I’m down seven hundred now doh but impulse buying is the only cure for gadgetitis.
Wasting A Saturday
9:30am Saturday and I am AWAKE! Not to save the world. Not to liberate slaves. Not to prevent nuclear disaster. For what? To do a stupid group project. Thank god there’s only 2 more weeks left. I’ve had it up to my neck with group projects and the like.
I’m debating whether to save money or buy that PDA I always wanted. I’m debating whether to get a Palm m515 or a Sony Clie 760 or whatever. Both have their good things but the Clie seems to be more liked and has a few extra features that could come in handy. But I’ve always liked how the Palm looks and when it comes down to it, it’s about the look, not function – otherwise I’d hire a hot secretary to do all the things a PDA can do (but then that would be for looks too right?). What I mean is, you can store phone numbers, appointments, and download that Kama Sutra thing for either (you dirty PDA owners know who you are). The Clie can be a remote control, play mp3, has a bigger screen/resolution. The Palm looks cool, supposedly has better color and brightness with the new m515, has more third party products (LIKE GPS!!! I NEED GPS). Anyway I’m still weighing the cost/benefit. It’s 700 bucks that could be used for tuition or something.
Congratulate me because I’m cigarette-free for almost 3 weeks now, past midterms and these stupid early morning group projects.
Mystery Solved
March 15, 2002
That ghost in Daniel’s picture has been solved. It’s a really mundane explanation (as expected) but it’s kind of funny how something so trivial can turn into an image of a face and fingers.
I’m too tired to write anything else except Happy Birthday Dennis and Justin. And Patricia too but she’ll never read this anyway. It took me a few moments to remember who some of those other people that Dennis wished happy bday were, then when I remembered them, I thought how could I have forgotten. Oh well. Like I’ll ever see them soon.
Here’s a question
March 13, 2002
I was just wondering after watching the ad for The Time Machine or whatever it’s called: What would you do if you were able to travel back in time? Or maybe forward in time? Let’s just say there are no weird side effects and it’s so easy for you to travel. Say, you have a magic rib bone that can’t be lost and will never lose this power. What would you do?
If I were to travel back in time, I think I would get the biggest loan I could and put it in stocks or options or currency that I know would make me money, then put it in an account in my name for me to open in the future. If I were to travel forward in time, I’d do the “Back To The Future II” bit and buy a sports almanac or a business almanac and go back to the present and make my money then.
This is purely for riches. Afterwards, I might go back to fulfill my spiritual needs such as seeing once and for all if Jesus was white (as portrayed by modern day churches) and if Buddha really taught everyone the sometimes strange dogma practiced today. Things like that. I’d go see where Atlantis actually was, see some famous battle here or there, and maybe pick up some collectibles for kicks. Then in the future, I’d see if we nuked the hell out of the planet yet. Oh yeah, I’d go and meet Bruce Lee too. I’d challenge him to a fight, get my ass kicked, and then come back and tell everyone that I got my ass kicked by Bruce Lee. I’m sure there aren’t many people alive today that can say that. What would you do?
Magical Links
This Laser Reflecting Game is fun. You use lasers, mirrors, prisms, and such to light some lightbulbs. I guess they invented some sort of laser-powered lightbulb. Oh well. It gets pretty hard in the later games. I forgot where I wrote my passwords so I have to start over again doh.
Usually, flash webpages make me sick because they bear no relevance to the actual webpage and just make it weird and confusing for users. I finally found a flash webpage that I love. It’s in japanese so my honey will have to translate for me. It’s some sort of arty thing where you interact with lights and sounds to make some pretty cool patterns and stuff. It’s art, people. It’s nice. Yeah.
What’s this? Back from the dead?
March 10, 2002
Maybe. I don’t know what to do with it yet.
Hahaha this is the best spam I’ve ever received
DEAR FRIEND,
I AM MRS. SESE-SEKO WIDOW OF LATE PRESIDENT MOBUTU
SESE-SEKO OF ZAIRE? NOW KNOWN AS DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF CONGO (DRC). I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER,
THIS WAS IN CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY PRESENT
CIRCUMSTANCE AND SITUATION.
I ESCAPED ALONG WITH MY HUSBAND AND TWO OF OUR SONS
DUKE AND BASHER OUT OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF
CONGO (DRC) TO ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE WHERE MY FAMILY
AND I SETTLED, WHILE WE LATER MOVED TO SETTLED IN
MORROCO WHERE MY HUSBAND LATER DIED OF CANCER
DISEASE. HOWEVER DUE TO THIS SITUATION WE DECIDED TO
CHANGED MOST OF MY HUSBAND’S BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
DEPOSITED IN SWISS BANK AND OTHER COUNTRIES INTO OTHER
FORMS OF MONEY CODED FOR SAFE PURPOSE BECAUSE THE NEW
HEAD OF STATE OF (DR) MR LAURENT KABILA HAS MADE
ARRANGEMENT WITH THE SWISS GOVERNMENT AND OTHER
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TO FREEZE ALL MY LATE HUSBAND’S
TREASURES DEPOSITED IN SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. HENCE
MY CHILDREN AND I DECIDED LAYING LOW IN AFRICA TO
STUDY THE SITUATION TILL WHEN THINGS GETS BETTER,
LIKE NOW THAT PRESIDENT KABILA IS DEAD AND THE SON
TAKING OVER (JOSEPH KABILA). ONE OF MY LATE HUSBAND’S
CHATEAUX IN SOUTHERN FRANCE WAS CONFISCATED BY THE
FRENCH GOVERNMENT, AND AS SUCH I HAD TO CHANGE MY
IDENTITY SO THAT MY INVESTMENT WILL NOT BE TRACED AND
CONFISCATED. I HAVE DEPOSITED THE SUM THIRTY MILLION
UNITED STATE DOLLARS(US$30,000,000,00.) WITH A
SECURITY COMPANY , FOR SAFEKEEPING. THE FUNDS ARE
SECURITY CODED TO PREVENT THEM FROM
KNOWING THE CONTENT. WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO IS TO
INDICATE YOUR INTEREST THAT YOU WILL ASSIST US BY RECEIVING THE MONEY ON OUR BEHALF.ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MESSAGE, SO THAT I CAN INTRODUCE YOU TO MY SON (DUKE) WHO HAS THE OUT MODALITIES FOR THE CLAIM OF THE SAID FUNDS. I WANT YOU TO ASSIST IN INVESTING THIS MONEY, BUT I WILL NOT WANT MY IDENTITY REVEALED. I WILL ALSO WANT TO BUY PROPERTIES AND STOCK IN MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES AND TO ENGAGE IN OTHER SAFE AND
NON-SPECULATIVE INVESTMENTS. MAY I AT THIS POINT
EMPHASISE THE HIGH LEVEL OF CONFIDENTIALITY, WHICH
THIS BUSINESS DEMANDS, AND HOPE YOU WILL NOT BETRAY
THE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE, WHICH I REPOSE IN YOU. IN
CONCLUSION, IF YOU WANT TO ASSIST US , MY SON SHALL
PUT YOU IN THE PICTURE OF THE BUSINESS, TELL YOU
WHERE THE FUNDS ARE CURRENTLY BEING MAINTAINED AND
ALSO DISCUSS OTHER MODALITIES INCLUDING REMUNERATION
FOR YOUR SERVICES.
FOR THIS REASON KINDLY FURNISH US YOUR CONTACT
INFORMATION, THAT IS YOUR PERSONAL TELEPHONE AND FAX
NUMBER FOR CONFIDENTIAL PURPOSE.
BEST REGARDS,
MRS M. SESE SEKO
So all you have to do is give your phone number and they will give you $30mil to safeguard for them or something. Let’s think about this. They know that someone will most definitely keep the 30 million and spend it, so they’re appealing to greed. Ok. I’m really tempted to give them a phone number just to see what kinds of ads will follow: sex sites? low mortgage rates? dvd burning programs? Who knows! I sure hope that spam will be illegal one day.
I Hate School Now
March 09, 2002
First, woohoo! Square is once again going to put those delicious Final Fantasy games on Nintendo, including the Gameboy Advanced. I will buy one when it comes out. Finally! A game worth getting.
Second, I am sick of school. I usually hate one class every term but now I hate all of them. My favourite this term has become the worst because the theory that my prof is using (which I believe he came up with himself) does not make sense to me. I don’t want to explain it because it’ll just piss me off more – it’s an economics equation that tells when a firm should export and when it would set up shop in the other country. His fundamental theory seems very illogical and flawed which makes all the rest of his lectures flawed because they are based on that fundamental equation. I really want to argue my point but the thing is, I haven’t collected a good enough argument to convince him that his research is garbage, nor do I want to do it in front of the class and make him embarrassed. And the other courses suck either because they are ridiculously difficult or they are extraordinarily boring.
Gone are the days of the “fun” elective. Actually come to think of it, gone are the days of school soon too.
A JVision Exclusive
March 07, 2002
My friend Daniel recently showed me a ghost picture that is just so cool. It’s probably not a real ghost, but hey, it’s just cool. I haven’t gotten him to tell me where they were headed or when the pic was taken, so that’s why I left those things blank. I scanned the picture for you guys to see and it’s located in the “Artistic” page (which must be renamed in the next design) or go directly to it here.
Cool huh?
A Cell Phone Gun
March 05, 2002
This is fucking cool and very scary at the same time. It’s something right out of James Bond. The next time someone’s phone rings, duck.
I was half studying and half watching The Hurricane (Denzel Washington). I remember watching it a long time ago but this time around I enjoyed it much more. It hit me at a deeper level. If you haven’t seen it, do it – you will not regret it. It’s the most powerful D. Washington movie that I have seen.
My honey is sending me some sort of surprise and this time I really can’t guess what it was. I managed to guess correctly last time because she started laughing right after I said it. I’m gonna get her something now that she will have no clue about. Maybe I’ll send her some of those Afroken rulers that Dennis is hoarding.
Can’t Update Enough Today
March 04, 2002
I was thinking to myself, as I take more advanced accounting stuff and learn more advanced topics, the more I realize that accounting is pure bullshit. What is accounting? Simply put, accounting is the classification of categories and records. That’s it, it should be as simple as that. However reality is that the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the American Financial Accounting Standards Board has created monster rules that numb the mind of business and create havoc in financial reporting.
The goal of using accounting in creating financial statements is to give a user (investor, creditor, government body, etc) a good picture of the company. It’s a great goal and without it, assymetric information would cause more risk involved with investments and business. Yet, to give a user a better understanding of a company, accounting uses the most complex rules and regulations to come up with numbers – many of these rules are quite arbitrary too. I’m sure if I argue this with any of my profs, they’ll scoff at me and tell me these rules are needed in today’s complex business transactions, many dealing with voluminous data or some other obscure reason. My feeling about this is that accounting has created these monster rules to keep the accounting profession alive. That is, to be able to do accounting, you must go through years of schooling to truly understand what the hell is going on. This means people who know the stuff can keep their jobs while people who want a piece of their pie must learn it first.
Let me give you a simple example. When a company buys out another company, something called Goodwill is sometimes created. Goodwill is, simply put, the amount you purchased the company for minus the worth of the company. It’s not a tangible thing but you will see it as a dollar amount in many balance sheets. Company A’s stock prices is at $100. The next day, the stock markets fell faster than a figure skater with a broken hip. A’s stock price is now $10. The company is still worth the same as it was yesterday, that is, it still sells the same stuff, still makes money, still has factories and machines and crap but now in the market, the company is now 10% of its original standing. So, a well-off company comes up and snaps up this company’s stock (it’s a big bargain). They pay $20 for a share. Under American accounting rules, the goodwill will be $20 – $100 = negative $80 (btw, goodwill usually is positive, negative goodwill is not badwill). However, in Canada, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants has arbitrarily decided that negative goodwill cannot exist- it must be zero or greater. The rationale behind this is that a company would sooner sell of all its assets at its worth instead of letting itself be taken over by another company and that managers would never sell for less than a company is worth. History has shown that in the face of a takeover, companies do not liquidate assets when price is less than worth – there’s simply a bargain available. Canada is the only country (I was told) that does this. This is just one of the many weird differences that Canada accounting principles differ.
This means if an American company sets up in Canada, they’ll either: have their accountant learn the Canadian system (not an easy feat in short time) or hire a local accountant – rationally, its cheaper and faster for the latter: thus preserving another job.
My vision of the future is that accounting cleans up and simplifies its complex rules and all countries adopt universal accounting practices – business would be so much easier. You might be thinking why would a guy in accounting bash accounting. Reason 1 – accounting was my second choice. Reason 2 – accounting is a tiny tiny part in general business – I look at the big picture instead. Reason 3 – I don’t understand any of this stuff so it makes me frustrated.
The Title of This Update Is Update Title
We played our first volleyball game since the “All Star Break” and lost both. One guy went back to Korea for good, one guy was sick, and another guy came to the gym and said he couldn’t play. I don’t mind that they didn’t come because they made sure I knew that they weren’t coming. Then one girl didn’t come because she said she was sick too… but she called another person this morning to say she was “sick” and wasn’t coming. I told them all to call ME if they couldn’t come. What sucks is that only 4 of us showed up and we need 5 to play. Anything less than 5 and it’s an automatic forfeit. I have given up on this team because not everyone is willing to commit. I am never joining another work team anymore unless I find really good people next time (we’re not good). We played one game for fun anyway and it was boring. Volleyball is so boring when it’s not competitive, it’s like batting around an old pepsi can for no reason. To hell with my team.
I updated the links, contact, and about me pages. Some minor tweaks really. Two people I don’t know have emailed me as a result of reading my updates. One is someone who asked me about something accounting and another is a guy with the same name as me. That’s cool. If I don’t know you and you’re reading this, I’d love to get email from you (I’m sad and desperate for attention). I also wanted to change the randomly changing pictures but I just realized my camera has been dead for a long time and I don’t know if I want to try to fix it or not. That really sucks.
I found my Mech4 cd’s and today Jeff grabbed them to… copy… them… so hopefully we’ll have a new multiplayer game. I finished Deus Ex yesternight. I haven’t tried all the endings but the two I tried are kind of shitty so I think I’m not gonna bother with it. The game is great, but once you know the whole storyline, it’s over. Replay value = 0. The same goes for System Shock 2. Actually, the replay values go back up to 9.5 when you leave the game in your storeroom for a few months and you forget everything anyway. Dennis should be finishing up his school stuff soon and so we can continue our system shock game.
I’m going out for dinner with Akito from Japan who’s been here a month but I haven’t had anytime to see him until now. Doh. He’s leaving in a couple of days too.
And my closing point for the day is that the way MSN Messenger and Outlook are interconnected really bugs me. Firstly, a contact on your MSN list will be automatically placed into your address book. That’s kind of convenient right? No because if they’re on your MSN list, they’ll probably already be in your address book but those two programs don’t recognize that they’re the same person and the end result is that there are double entries of the same person. I just spent a long while cleaning out my address book of people I don’t talk to, people I don’t know, and people who are on my list twice. Dammit.
And I forgot to mention
March 02, 2002
that I’m in the midst of not smoking again. It’s 4 days already. I even got past midterms without smoking. I fought and I fought I did. I figured, “If I can get through midterms without smoking, I can get through normal days without smoking”. And it’s true. Today, one of my korean friends who was leaving shoved into my hands a whole carton of cigarettes. That’s 20 packs of free cigarettes, or about $100 worth of cigarettes free. I took them, but then when he left, I gave it to another friend. I have never given up so many cigarettes before. And these were a certain korean brand of cigarette that I really like too. I’m proud of myself.
I think I’m really going to quit because I only had a couple of urges to smoke so far, all replaced with coffee. My eating habits are kind of screwed though, I haven’t eaten much in terms of breakfast or lunch lately, only dinner. I have been training my legs and my left arm because my back still hurts when I move my right arm. Soon. Soon I will attain my potential to break stuff again. I don’t know.
Dennis, finish your damn school stuff and get your ass in the Von Braun, those gaybots aren’t getting any more heterosexual you know, and someone’s gotta stop them.
Hi Folks. Here’s my prediction
The Dow closed up about 4~5% this week. I was waiting for this. I predict that next week, the markets will tumble 10%. Why? I’ll tell you later. If it’s true, I am a genius. If not, oh well, I’ll just be another one of those guys who make predictions, fail, and never be heard from again.
I’m in pain!!
March 01, 2002
I was working yesterday morning and then all of a sudden I feel a small pain in my back – the same kind of pain from an overworked muscle. I said, “Ow” and tried to just stretch it out. It got worse and worse all day and at night when I was writing my midterm, I couldn’t even reach down into my backpack to pull out another pen. Today it’s not as bad, but when I bend my head downward, a muscle stretching along the back also pulls and I feel that sharp pain again. It’s in my trapezius, on the right side of the back near the lower tip of the muscle. I think I pulled it a couple days ago but it suddenly became painful. I’ll need to stretch more before training.
Hahaha it’s 7:34am and this is just soo funny
I bet when I come home it won’t be as funny.
Ha! Take that royally screwey midterm!
February 28, 2002
Dennis’ update is his best update I ever read.
I think I failed my impossibly difficult midterm. Well, it wasn’t impossible, it just took really keen nerds who studied everyday to get it. Not me. Nosirreee! I have one more to take tomorrow (land law) and I will study now till sleeptime and then basically wing it. I miss my girlfriend, we haven’t talked much these couple days cuz we’re both crazy busy. I’ll make it up to her by hugging her brains out later.
I did manage to play some Deus Ex last night right before I slept (I never sleep right after studying – I must unwind somehow) and the plot has thickened. Actually, the plot thickens after every level. It’s so thick now. THICK
I will update a better update later. I vow it. Upon my dead puppy’s grave.
In My Mind At This Very Moment
February 27, 2002
eliminating entries are not the same as journal entries do not get them mixed up remember the orphan entry for years subsequent to the acquisition that 498 midterm was stupid oh well i finished too fast only upstream transactions are used to calculate nci%sni multiplied by their % downstream transactions don’t affect nci equity method journal entries involve 3 accounts where as cost basis i don’t know how many probably 2 and what is parent theory and entity theory and fuck this the net affect of all intercompany transactions over time will net out to zero so inventory transfers usually net out by the year they’re all sold by capital transfers such as buildings will take longer remember to get rid of investment in sub and sub goodwill because they both are zero in consolidated financial statements don’t forget to look for preferred shares before doing a purchase price discrepancy schedule or you’re more royally screwed than you are now i wonder what eri is doing oh cool dragonball is on but i have to study i hate accounting and there is another midterm about leases and land law and know what an easement and restrictive covenant is they have the same terms and a lot of interests in land must be registered or they mean less than accounting numbers and i am hungry and i didn’t smoke for a long time and i drink too much coffee
One Day Jerry… One Day…
February 26, 2002
You asses can dream about cars and houses all you want. Here’s what I want.
Canada Takes Another Gold
February 25, 2002
Hockey: 5-2 – Sakic 2 goals, 2 assists, probably will be named mvp. Sweet. Good game.
This is cool – it’s a time machine
My webpage through various times in recent history. This webpage shows you any webpage at given times so you can see its progress. It actually saved my very first webpage but missed a whole bunch else.
Fine ‘n Dandy like Sour Candy
February 24, 2002
As Dennis has mentioned, we have been System Shock 2′ing for the past few nights. It’s a really good game because it takes the best out of first person shooters, suspense thrillers, and puzzling puzzlers (i couldn’t think of an ‘er’ word for puzzles). Something that bothers me is that even when you clear out the level of all monsters, they respawn after awhile and come back and haunt you. Sometimes they respawn in front of your eyes (which doesn’t make sense). The worst are the gaybots – they run after you flailing their flamboyantly gay bodies and then self destruct taking you with him. The next worse thing are those damn monkeys. This game is making me hate monkeys, especially the psi-power throwing monkey. Then there are those midwives who run after you shooting lasers out of their uh… fingers I guess. Of course who can forget those lovely security droids who shoot slow moving plasma balls that resemble the bfg shot in doom in some ways (because they move so slowly). We’re more than halfway through the game and we’ll probably finish in a couple of days.
It gets harder to study with a computer.
Propaganda at its best
February 23, 2002
This is something you’ll never hear on your local news network.
Inspirations
February 20, 2002
www.dyske.com has a new, refreshing look. Another of dyske.com’s pet projects is this one. I really like the designs. I want a redesign. I think i’ll copy them and mush them together.
Vacation
February 18, 2002
It’s the last of my vacation days where I’m letting myself go through a day without studying or working. I miss these days.
I’ve been playing Deus Ex almost excessively these couple of days because it’s so much fun. So Dennis came through and didn’t overhype the game. It’s much alike to System Shock 2 where you can interact with the environment in many ways and you choose how you wish to complete the objectives. Be you a stealthy catlike secret spy agent who hacks into all the systems and silently retreat or be you the Terminator reincarnate with assault rifles inserting shells into the torsos of would-be defenders? I chose Terminator man. In fact, I always choose Terminator man when given a choice of fighting or sneaking. I think it says something about my psyche. So far, I’ve finished two missions and I didn’t leave anyone alive – I barely let the hostages live (load, save, load, load, load). It took my probably near 5 or 6 tries before the two damn hostages got out alive.
Once you choose your play style, there’s also the question of what to use. I am infallible with my sniper rifle. There’s a part where you climb onto roofs and ladders and such – my snipe took out probably close to 10 guys before I climbed down into the target building where this stupid generator is. I also try to keep some alive by using the stun gun type dealie, but it’s too boring. I quick slice with the carbine knife is just “cleaner”.
I like this game over SS2 not because it’s newer or more graphically enhanced, but because there are a lot of real world conspiracies happening that mirror our own. For example, Majestic 12 (MJ12 in the game) is really theorized as a secret agency, along with MIBs, the Templars, the Illuminati, and so on. The writers of this game did their homework.
That’s all! Bye.
Is This The New World Order?
February 17, 2002
What great news to wake up to:
Bush bashes N. Korea, second bombing in the Philipines, Afghanistan still having troubles, and of course, it wouldn’t be a real news day without another Jerusalem attack.
I believe in freedom and peace, but the only way to end war is either: annihilate your enemy to prevent any more attack, or conquer them and instill fear and oppression with an autocratic government system. Ironically, those two are the only ways to guarantee freedom and peace.
After Reading This, More Will Be Evicted
February 16, 2002
Yep.
February 15, 2002
H A P P Y
V A L E N T I N E ‘ S
D A Y !
You bastard!
February 14, 2002
Differences of Values? Or is it because they are just assholes?
February 12, 2002
I just read this. It’s basically about how Bush called Iran part of the new Axis of Evil (along with Iraq and N. Korea). In retaliation, Iranians are chanting “Death to America” and protesting and such and such.
Alright here’s my question: it’s ok to chant “Death to X” in many of these middle east countries right? We’ve all seen effigies of Bush burning in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, and all the other states that have been bombed by US as of late – so, is it ok to chant “Death to Y” in Canada or the USA? How come Canadians or Americans don’t hold parades where people have signs and burn effigies of the latest fascist and burn their flags?
My guess is that North Americans are too PC to do anything that demeans any particular group. It’s ok to demean an individual (ie. neighborhoods ganging up and stopping a convicted sex criminal from moving in, people make stupid webpages that bash a person, say a particular president) but not ok to bash groups (ie. gay bashing / anti-semitism / etc rallies aren’t very celebrated by society anymore). Of course, there’s also another possibility that these “troubled” countries just breed jerks. Or maybe they have so much progaganda that they become jerks. Maybe they think we’re jerks for not taking a stand!
My point from all this is: just shut the fuck up. No more shooting. No more bombing. No more hate.
My dream is to become the world dictator and force peace onto my kingdom. That will be my legacy.
17 Months!
February 11, 2002
Yay! I love you!
It’s a coming
February 10, 2002
Valentine’s is coming in 5 days and I was just thinking of the past Valentines Days I’ve had. I remember one year when I was single, everyone else had dates on Valentines Day so I felt so crappy and lonely that I asked a friend to go out with me for dinner. I even went as far as buying a single rose. Of course, I didn’t feel anything for her because she was just a friend but it made me feel better I guess. That was one of the few Valentines where I actually had fun. Another time, I felt really shitty even though I was with someone I really liked. I thought that since we were gonna spend the day together, I would feel awesome being with her. But it turns out I felt like the worst person in the world and yeah, it sucked. The best time of course was with Eri. Last year she made me chocolates instead of buying them and it was soooo awesome. She bought this small metal container and made the bow and the inside stuff. She and a friend bought some chocolates and took the wrappers and then made their chocolate and used the wrappers. No one ever put so much effort into something for me and that’s why I love her so much. I just bought her roses so there wasn’t much effort on my part. So this year, I spent a lot more time in that package I sent her. So even though I can’t spend Valentines Day with her this year (damn ocean), I won’t be feeling sad or lonely because she’s always in my heart.
Wow, that must be the mushiest update I’ve ever written. Tee hee!
Monkeys are possibly the coolest animals
February 09, 2002
Because they like bananas.
I just found out that I’m taking the hardest rated course in Commerce. It’s Comm 453 – Advanced Financial Accounting. Essentially, it just deals with consolidations. For our non-accounting visitors, a consolidation is when you basically add up two companies and stuff all the numbers on one report. The reason you do this is if one company owns another, it’s a legal requirement to report only the parent’s numbers. Nice to know that I’m not struggling in the other mediocre commerce courses like Comm 292 – How To Put Money In Your Wallet, or Comm 290 – How To Take Comm 290. Bah.
I have 2 weeks before midterms, one of which will be this hard commerce course, another in accounting, and in a land law class. Yay. I shall study like a monkey.
Screw The Banner Ad Plan, This Is How To Make Money
February 08, 2002
Now I’ll just need a few delicious looking femmes who are willing to enter into this joint venture with my company. Our project leader, namely me, will assist each of you in procuring the product and even assist in sales. Profits will be split 70-30 for me.
What If
What if I were to put banner ads all over my webpage?
– 12 visitors per day (average) x 30 days x 12 months = 4320 hits per year
– Average click through percentage is about 1~2%, so 4320 x 0.015 (average of 1 and 2%) = 65 click throughs (rounded up)
– 65 click throughts at $0.25 per click = 65 x 0.25 = $16.25 revenue
– $16.25 less personal tax rate of… 26%? (About there I think) = $16.25 – (0.26)x(16.25) = $12.01 (rounded up).
Assumptions: Every 100 times you see a banner, you will hit it once. You will keep visiting at the average rate as before (that is, the banner ads won’t annoy you so much you will stop visiting). I am immoral and evil. I desperately need an additional 7 days worth of coffee.
Conclusion: If I were to subject all my lovely visitors to the worst of the worst in banner ads for one year, I would have enough to buy coffee for 7 days ($1.66 per cup).
That’s pretty good, Dennis
February 07, 2002
His webcam shot eerily resembles Sadako from The Ring (“ringu” – nihon go).
A Tiring Kind of Day
February 06, 2002
That kind of header is a great set up for a shitty joke. I could say something like my car tires were flatted out but that’s not my point. Tuesdays are just tiring. It’s an 8:30 – 17:30 day of school and work nonstop. I enjoy it though, Tues/Thurs are my ‘fun’ class days while the other days are my accounting/challenging days. Whatever.
I have been watching that scary link that Justin put up over and over again. I love those things! I actually fell for this one big time because those stupid dreamy, cartoony drawings set you up and that Hikaru Utada song was the icing on the cake. Then the scream and the face comes on and I jumped out of my seat. Thanks to Justin for bringing those things back! See it here now!
I remember there was another similar thing that was a program… something like Pokemon Adventure and when you hit the start button, you get the face. It might have been Dennis who had it… was it? Do you still have it? I want a copy! Someone must have it!
Eri received my package yesterday and she’s quite thrilled with it. I’ve never spent so much time making such an elaborate package for anyone before but surely she deserves it and more. Mush factor 10.
Homework. Bye.
Three Updates In a Day
February 05, 2002
Quickie: Mutation photos of plants and animals from the Three Mile Island accident back in 1979. The two headed cow is cool. This my friends is how we will destroy our own race.
More Stuff
After my last update, I was looking at the webpage where I got the picture from and decided to put a list of these very useful resources:
And one more thing that was on my mind. I get about 5-10 spam emails a day. I never even look at them before mass deleting them but in order to do so, I must glimpse at the header. I’ve noticed lately that many of them have messages like “Do you want dinner?” or “Do you remember me?”. The funny thing was, these weren’t even porn ads (because in some sort of way, you can link a porn website to those kind of phrases right?) Think back to that last porn flick you saw… don’t deny it). The thing was, these were ads for Cal-Bay (Stock Symbol: CBYI) stock and one of those mailing list dealies where you send 5 bucks to people before you (I thought they were illegal). I mean, I understand marketing concepts, you want those stupid dinner and remember me sentences to make people read the email thinking it was your long lost girlfriend or mistress, but once you see that it’s a stupid junk stock offering, you’ll be so pissed off that never in a million years will you subscribe or pay anything! Right Right?!
Spam email has become what car alarms are to us now… meaningless. Think of the last time you heard a car alarm in your neighborhood and rushed out to make sure no one was stealing someone else’s car. And so, think of the last time you bought/subscribed/downloaded anything off a reference from spam. I hate spam. Well, I actually don’t have any beef with that can product (get it? Beef Spam? Muhahaha). But erggh. My hotmail account is even worse – the bulk mail folder averages 100 messages every couple of days – most of it porn ads. Why the fuck am I getting all these porn ads? I don’t subscribe to any porn website. If it’s other companies selling my email away, then I hope they all die and spend eternity in purgatory reading each spam message they caused to be delivered.
AARARGH NOW I’M WORKED UP IN ANGER I NEED MY PUNCHING BAG BECAUSE I LIKE SWORDS AND PUNCHING STUFF AND KILLING STUPID PEOPLE SPAM SPAM WHY AM I SCREAMING BECAUSE I PUNCH PUNCH ARFJEAJIOWAF…
Useless Knowledge Time
Did you know that a class package I bought contained 2 copies of pages 186 to 260? I sure hope I didn’t pay for those repeat pages. Did you know that Sunglass Hut is a subsidiary of Luxottica SPA? I found this out because Lux owns Lenscrafters and I used to work there. I got curious as to how their financials look and there I found that Sunglass Hut dealy. Lux has the most vertically integrated structure in the eyewear industry – from drawing on paper any frame design all the way to selling little disposable napkins in which to wipe the lenses. But their margins aren’t that great (consolidated that is, the margins on lenses is incredibly high). Did you know that while most scientists agree that arctic ice sheets have been melting for the past X years, one sheet was found to be actually thickening? Did you know that animals can ‘predict’ earthquake via changes in charged ions, subsonic vibrations, or that the animal God tells them in advance? Did you know that Punxsutawney Phil says there will be 6 more weeks of winter? Did you know on average, people eat 4-6 spiders in their sleep? Did you know this?
That’s all.
In Memory of a Great Teacher
February 01, 2002
To: Faculty and Staff
From: James A. Brander, Associate Dean, Faculty
———————
It is with great regret that I must pass along the very sad news that Len
Henriksson has passed away. The actual cause of death was a stroke and the
doctors now believe that Len initially had small stroke that caused the
original symptoms and then had a more severe stroke a few days later.
There is a memorial service tentatively scheduled for February 9 at the
Highland United Church in North Vancouver but we do not yet have
confirmation on the precise time. I will pass along the information as soon
as we get it.
I am waiting to hear back from the family regarding whether they would like
to designate a charity that people could contribute to in memory of Len. We
will also provide some form of recognition for Len at UBC.
If people want to send cards the address to send them to would be Mrs. I.
Henriksson, 990 Essex Road, North Vancouver B.C. V7R 1V9. This is the
address of Len’s mother.
I would recommend holding off on sending flowers until we learn of the
family’s wishes. It would also be best not to try to reach Mrs. Henriksson
by telephone. Needless to say, the family has a lot to handle right now.
In addition to being a very conscientious and well-liked instructor, Len was
a tremendously public-spirited person who did a great deal for UBC Commerce
above and beyond the call of duty. We will miss him very much.
—
Len was a very approachable, funny, and caring teacher and even though I thought the class he taught was very boring, the way he taught made many of the things interesting. He was the most eccentric teacher I’ve ever had, me and a friend call him Kramer because he really was like the Seinfeld guy. I remember he brought a keyboard in one day and started playing a song and somehow tied it into his lecture (he plays the church organ weekly I think). Then, he brought in excerpts of a radio interview he did on the Raith Mair Show (sp?). I think it was his fifteen minutes of fame but he squeezed all the juice out of it. And what I respected the most was that he genuinely cared about his students, which is something that’s lacking in almost every professor at UBC. He even took some classes to ‘teach’ us real, applicable stuff like job hunting tips, talking about his life experiences, and things that don’t come into context of Comm 394: Government & Business. His passing was a real shocker to everyone and I hope that everyone who has met him remembers how he made a difference in your learning. He made me realize that not all profs are emotionless monsters.
?
January 31, 2002
Ok I promise today will be the last day I use the question mark header. First, you’ve all heard of the satellite that’s going to fall. They’re still kind of sketchy on where it’s actually going to fall. In fact, they’ve only narrowed it down to about one-third of the globe. That’s like saying I will throw a dart at you (while you close your eyes) and i can only tell you that it’s either going to hit your torso or your crotch. I’m glad their screening process for hiring eggheads is so inferior that even stupid people get equal opportunities. Isn’t there some physics equation(s) that can calculate trajectories, velocities, and all that good stuff?
Secondly, there is no second.
?
January 30, 2002
Whoops. My point of a competent coworker getting the job is because – first, the position was open to us… but if no one applied, someone external would get it. I prefer anyone in our group over anyone from outside. Then, I would prefer a competent person in the group over a less competent person. Turns out both worked out for the better. That’s all.
?
Hehe, I’m using the same header as the last update so that if one of you loads my page and doesn’t pay attention, it’ll look like I haven’t updated yet. And if my devious plan works, that person(s) will be forever caught in my web of lies and will think I haven’t updated since Jan 20. Muhahaha. That my friends, is why people say Commerce people are evil ~ we come up with devilish delights such as that.
I need time to study, keep up with classes, assignments, projects, group cases, midterms, slave labour, digging mountains, and maybe running around the world. I wasted 3 hours on sunday at the volleyball games we were supposed to play (we defaulted the first but it wasn’t our fault and then the other team defulated the second game). I even went an hour earlier in the foot of snow and parked miles away (in the parkade) so that I wouldn’t have to dig my car out afterwards.
On a happier note, a competent coworker has been ‘promoted’ to a position slightly higher than mine. It’s almost the same job except you get a desk and way more administrative things. I didn’t bother applying since school is rapidly draining my life out of the vessels that protect it so.
And I played Starcraft with Andrew and Jesse a few nights ago. I of course didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t help at all, but maybe if I practice a lot I can get a lot better! Oh yeah… the no-time dealy again. Curses.
?
January 22, 2002
How did my update give me an air of superiority over others? Maybe my sentence didn’t come out the way I wanted. Never have I had an air of superiority. Contrary to that, I’m feeling rather … how do you call it… worthless right now. So instead of adding to my problems right now, don’t read too deep into my updates. There’s a lot more I want to say, but it’s gonna sound way too angry right now.
Fine I’ll Update Part II
January 21, 2002
Our two volleyball games were fun but as expected, we got whupped back into the stone age. Our first set wasn’t too bad, 25-21 but then lost 25-18. Our next game’s (back to back) results were 25-15, and 25-1X. Our team was thrown together quite haphazardly and we haven’t all played together before so we have to work out a lot of jinxes before we can win. I’m confident that we will win at least one game. Then I got a haircut.
Fine I’ll Update
It’s just that there isn’t anything to update about and I am the busiest I’ve ever been. For the past too many days, I’ve been going to school too early and coming home too late. If it’s not work, it’s some project, or that final that just wouldn’t go away, or some other garbage. I like this hectic schedule though, keeps me on my toes. It’s bizarre, even though I’m 10x busier than last term, I’m exercising more.
I didn’t update because… what’s there to update about… Dennis has a monkey fetish, Justin has the advanced webpage, Jesse has a monitor, David has still not finished his reinstall of windows, Andrew missed Benny’s birthday party yesterday (which was pretty fun), Michelle thinks I’m hung up on talking about Japan, and uh… Sunny is still celebrating Independence Day.
I joined the Intramurals Volleyball league with some friends and some ELI students. Last term, the ELI students were in the novice league and whupped every team and took first place. It wasn’t very fair because only people with no arms join the novice league. I never saw a game but a coworker who did said that they were smacking down hard on the wussiest of teams – he said it was pretty cruel. Anyways, so I wanted to play this term. They put me as captain because it was just easier for me to contact with the Intramurals office and them. 2 days ago, I was reading the rules and stuff again and I noticed that we were in Competitive League AA. We all agreed to play in the Competitive League at A level… but someone registered us at the AA level. That means the team is going to get punished for being so cruel to those handicapped teams last term. I think they call it poetic justice.
Now find a broom and shove it.
Is Robot Frank dead?
January 13, 2002
Robot Frank’s webpage has been down for about a month now and I’m really worried about his well-being. I remember the last thing I read on the webpage was that they were switching hosts or not being affiliated to whatever anymore but now I get an error message… It would be a sad day if the internet lost its most beloved robot (SCREW YOU AIBO). Today I played volleyball in the UBC Accounting Club V-Ball Tourney. I was thinking that for firms that didn’t interview me (essentially all of them), I’d make it my thing to bean each person to the most of my abilities. Damn was I surprised to hear that the teams are actually very competitive and some of their people were ex-varsity players and whatnot. I guess that makes sense. Not all of their recruits are commerce people. There are some arts people (therefore they’re in varsity volleyball). Anyways, our team, made up of execs, lost each and every game. I blame it on our suckiness. All in all, I had a fun time because it was, afterall, volleyball, one of my favourite activities requiring work. I busted my leg though.
That’s cool
January 12, 2002
I’m an idiot. I just found out that my Gameboy Advance can play old Gameboy and Gameboy Color cartridges. Here I was saying that GBA games are expensive and now 2 libraries of cheaper games exist. Actually, I haven’t played with the GBA since Japan but I think I will since I have damn 3 hour breaks on Fridays. Damn them to hell.
Corrected
Whoops. Here’s the links to the crazy website
This is taking it too far
January 11, 2002
Ok I love Dragonball z and all, it’s a great CARTOON. It’s a great story of struggle, good v evil, and beating the crap out of people. But it’s still a cartoon… right? Maybe not, because someone made a website on how to use those ki attacks. Beware! Now millions of websurfers have access to instructions on how to REALLY do a kamehameha. I’m serious, this guy even wants to charge $4 for his super techniques. He (probably a he) really thinks this stuff is true. Or maybe it’s a big parody webpage, but there’s nothing to indicate so.
Doh The Last Update Is Not That Updated
The update below was written yesterday afternoon, but I couldn’t post it because Blogger was down. As I forgot to post it at night, I just woke up now and went to Dennis’ page and saw that he updated. Doh, so now my update doesn’t hold. Actually, change the first phrase to “Seeing how Nobody except me and Dennis is updating as usual…”
Happy 16 Months Honey! That’s 1.33 years. That’s 5 seasons. That’s 4 equal parts of 4 months together. Ok there are too many ways of saying it, but it all just says I love her so much. Good luck on your tests honey. And Dennis is right. If you’re able to fart and belch and make all sorts of disgusting things in front of your guy or girl, you know you have a connection with that person. Some people, even though you love them dearly, will never be able to take a fart from you without making sickened faces. Dump those people.
I’ve been waking up at 2:40am everynight and thinking it’s morning already. Then I turn and see the time and think, “Woohoo, I can sleep a lot more until I need to wake up.” It’s been that way everynight now. I’ve been having long dreams everynight too, most of them include some sort of scene where I’m hunted or running from something. It’s a sign that I should stop playing quake with Dennis.
I have an easy day today so I will make it hard for myself by getting ready in 1 minute. Bye.
Jerry Takes Initiative – gets big raise too
January 10, 2002
Seeing how nobody is updating as usual, I’ll spearhead the whole Update Your Damn Page campaign. It’s better than working in those stupid company United Way campaigns.
I am feeling very good about myself today because since my return from the merry land of non-differentiated R’s and L’s, I’ve accomplished about 85% of my To Do List which piled into the 20′s (it usually never gets past 10). I’ve even caught up with, and kept up with, all my classes. That’s a milestone! Into the second week and I’m STILL caught up! Woohoo. All my classes have webpages which is weird. Usually some old crank instructor doesn’t know the difference between a web page and a wet blanket. Even more weird is that I only bought 1 measly $100 book instead of the usual $500 total. Thanks to Andrew for the Access book (it’s quite beat up for some reason).
I was negatively rich after my trip so I wanted to work extra hours to make up for the lavish living. I thought I would have to kiss serious ass for grunt chores like washing the work elephant and giraffe or tiling the mausoleum, but luckily, 2 new programs started and I’ve been instantly swamped with work (including tiling the mausoleum). This just means that my day will be super productive.
I’m getting about 6 hours of sleep a day now and accomplishing probably 14 hours of productive work but by the later hours, it really kicks in. This is only the third day too. How do some people manage to do this for months on end? Drugs perhaps. It’ll ease down a little by shifting productive hours into sleeping hours soon. YES!
I love Eri, pass it on.
Ugh Ugh
January 08, 2002
Finally, the time and concentration to write a full update. Today I manage to go to work at 7am and then managed to go to the two classes scheduled for today. Then I managed to complete 4 of the 5 things to do I had written down. Today was very productive.
Being back in Vancouver feels weird but also normal at the same time. I’m rather sick of answering, “how was Japan?” I know that people mean well but after answering it a hundred times today, it just gets sickening. I will just say that Japan is a very different place with very different lifestyles and that all that we hear and see about Japan in Canada does nothing to show what it really is about. I loved many things and hated many things. I loved how close people are compared to us. I hated how many more homeless people there are. I loved how work and home are easily melded together. I hated how I couldn’t communicate with people.
All in all, I loved my trip to Japan because I got to be with Eri. Regardless of whether or not I liked the country or not, I still would have loved my trip because of her. Fortunately, I enjoyed the country too.
I’m basically flat broke now which means I’ll have to squeeze in extra hours to pay bills and buy coffee. I’ve given a lot of extensive consideration about the possibility of me going to Japan for long term. I’ll have to learn the language first (at least to a basic communicative level, which I feel isn’t too hard). I might teach for a year too. The pay is pretty good. Although I don’t want to teach, I think a year would give me some experience in that country. Then I would look for a real job. Companies hire native English speakers left and right. Here, my English means shit to a company and my marks do nothing to separate me from the rest. There, my English is an asset.
Speaking of which, I’m supposed to be writing a report for an English class right now. I always update in the middle of homework, I attribute that to my laziness. Boo. My classes seem to suck and I know I don’t care about any of this stuff anymore. I think I’ll just become a famous rockstar and live the high life in Vegas.
Begone scoundrel.
To Dennis: woohoo, we finally got both webcams working and it’s so much fun. I so wanted to post a picture of Eri’s just-woke-up look. Thanks for starting it.
Ugh
January 07, 2002
I got back yesterday morning. The whole day seemed blurry and dizzying. Now I have to go to work I think. I’m still tired. Bye.
Wake up time
December 30, 2001
We got back from a three day trip from Tokyo this morning at 6am and then slept a few hours before getting up now. Tokyo is rather different than Osaka. The people seem more trendy than here. The city itself is so busy. And huge, did I say it’s huge? We took a bus there instead of the shinkanzen because it was about $200 cheaper ~ each. We stayed at the Hilton which was pretty nice, we got a free upgrade to business level for some unknown reason. For another unknown reason, I bought a gameboy advance because I wanted something to do on the 9 hour busride. There are really cool games for it, mostly RPGs, but what I failed to realize is that I needed to understand the language before i could play an rpg. So i ended up buying Wario for it.
I can’t wait for the new year because it gets crazy with activities around this time. New Year’s is a much more important celebration than christmas here – not a surprise since the major religions are buddhism and shintoism. I have tonnes of pictures I will show you when i return – about a week from now. doh.
Hello again my beloved visitors
December 24, 2001
I don’t know how many days it’s been, but the past few days have been so awesome. I went to Kyoto on Saturday and visited so many temples. Kyoto was the capital city of Japan back in the 13 hundreds, or 12 hundreds so many great landmarks have been built in that city.
We were shopping yesterday for my honey’s gift (her birthday is on Christmas, that is, tomorrow) and the vast numbers of people were amazing. Tiffany’s was packed to the roof. It took a lot of pushing and shoving to finally get to the counter. I can’t say enough that working here in retail must be a pain in the ass because you have to speak formally and act like you care. I found that most speak formally but without any passion for it. I don’t understand a word they’re saying, but reading their body language and tone of voice I can loosely translate their words as, ”Welcome to the store. Thank you very much. I can’t get a better job so I’ll put up with you”.
I want to wish everyone a merry christmas and especially my honey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
We’re going to eat now and I really need a cigarette so I will fill you in on more stuff later. Bye friends. Doh I just noticed that the times and dates are Vancouver based so while I’m here, just add 17 hours onto the update time and then you can understand why I am eating dinner now at 1am. Bye.
Ohayo Gozaimasu
December 21, 2001
Good morning people. Yesterday night we watched Harry Potter. It’s funny, movies that everyone say is good really suck, movies that everyone says is really bad, turn out really good. It’s a matter of expectations I guess. I heard this movie really sucked but I rather enjoyed it. You didn’t need to read the book to enjoy it. BTW, we watched it because Eri got these free tickets that were only good for Potter or Atlantis and Atlantis doesn’t look that good.
We saw the trailer for Lord of the Rings and it sure does look good. Dennis just gave it a pretty raving review too so it’s on my list to see.
We were in the webcam for about an hour yesterday and we got at one time 14 connections. I know 1 was my sister so were any of you guys there? Hehehe. We’ll probably be on later again for explicit adult situations.
Fack I made all my text into headers
December 20, 2001
Sorry about that, I’m using a laptop right now and the keys are all jumbled. Today I installed the webcam i got for eri so i think you’ll be able to see me in japan. what a treat. i went to this big ass department store that only sells electronic gadgets and whatnot. jesus! they have the coolest things. i looked at the pdas and they have so many more kinds. even the american made visors and palms are there (in japanese though). what really shocked me was that the prices were even cheaper than canada. i would have bought a pocket pc on the spot but they only came in japanese and i didn’t want to memorize what each icon was. i am having the time of my life here (mostly because of my honey though). thanks to michelle for emailing me and to people who haven’t, i’m waiting…
Greetings from Japan
December 18, 2001
Howdy folks. After a 10 hour flight, followed by a 3 hour wait, followed by a 1 hour flight, I finally met with my girlfriend and spent the night. Long flights really suck, especially when you’re travelling alone. That’s really all, I haven’t much to say. My condolences to Chuck Schuldiner’s family and fans.
The Arrival of the Beginning Is At Hand
December 16, 2001
There you have it folks. All that I need for Japan has been purchased. I have yet to pack or clean up the place but that will be done soon. This will be the last update for a few days… until I get internet access in Japan. So absorb my luscious writing and soak in it.
Please email me while I’m gone. I’ll check the account regularly:
I’ll have myself a nice, long flight and I’ll wish myself a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. Same goes to you too.
Fucking Winds. Fuck them to Hell!
December 15, 2001
My exam has been postponed to Sunday night because of power outages today due to the gusty gusty gales today. Oh yeah, I leave Sunday morning… there’s a problem here. Fuck. I wasn’t really prepared for it though so if I get to write at a later date I’ll have time to prepare but I absolutely do not want to study during my trip.
Interesting Times We Live In
USA withdraws from the 1972 ABM treaty which leaves all nuclear capable nations fearing that they’ll have no threat against them after they deploy their missile shield (which can not protect against orbital launches so I have heard, only intercontinental launches – IF the kill vessel is successful and it has a small success window). Russa subtlely threatens USA by calling their withdrawal a ‘mistake’. North Korea openly threatens the USA saying they’ll retaliate with war and we all know N Korea’s idea of war is not sending troops – hell, they can’t even feed their troops. They’ll send nukes. Russia is also ‘interested’ in Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal… China is a growing threat. Israel withdraws ties from Arafat and heavy fighting is happening. Bin Laden supposedly is recorded in a blatantly bad attempt at propaganda. Why would anyone record that sort of conversation? All his previous public appearances were of him making speeches. This video is just him talking to some gimp. And how convenient that is was found in some house in Khandahar. Several top level researchers in micribiology, specializing in deadly viruses (ebola, etc) have ‘dissappeared’. An ebola-stricken victim in Gabon is missing (kidnapped to extract blood? Even if not, that person can spread further outbreaks). There are supposedly over a 100 ebola camps along the Pakistani border. Need I go on? Is it just me or things like these happening with higher frequency?
In the local level, we are experiencing really heavy winds that have raged all night. I would know because again insomnica struck and I couldn’t sleep until about 7 or 8am. I had a really interesting/thought-provoking dream too. Insomnia causes cool dreams. I won’t go into it because you’ll all think I’m crazy.
Hanging By A Sliver of Life
December 12, 2001
No time for weeping
No time to fear
No time to mourn
The end is near
The battle must rage
Our life’s a fight
That we must save
By fists and knives
Can’t bring us down
Can’t kill our spirit
Can’t make us cry
Don’t even get near us
We shall prevail
Lest sooner come death
We shall repay
The pain you gave
Wee!!!
December 11, 2001
Oh I am delirious right now. I tried to sleep when I got home around 4 but couldn’t. I made it till 7:30pm before attempting to sleep again. I think I slept about half an hour. Wee! Then I got up and studied up until now. I know all the concepts of this financial accounting crap now but I don’t think I have the energy to attempt to do the practice questions (which basically count for all). I’m planning to wake up early tomorrow to do those, after what I hope will be a full night of real sleep.
I read the update I did this morning and the grammatical anomalies are off the wall … I spelled ‘shit’ with ‘hit’, I put ‘it’ as ‘IT’ so it looks like Information Technology or I was really accentuating the ‘it’, and there’s a really weird grammar problem somewhere else, but I can’t find it. That was interesting.
What I really wanted to update about is that today is the 15th month anniversary of me and Eri. Yay! Clap clap clap clap. It seems like a very short time. Well, compared to Dennis and Shannon who I think are in their 4000th month or something, it is short. Jesse’s surprise party thing was pretty cool – what a nice gesture for his girlfriend to do.
It reminded me of my surprise birthday party like 2 years ago. Only mine was 16 days before my birthday so “what the hell?” and I said the same thing when I saw my sister, cousin, highschool friends, non high school friends, and coworkers at the same place.. “Hmm interesting, they all came here to eat on their own, how weird.” Oh well. My birthdays suck ass anyway. Happy birthday to Jesse and my cousin Jeff and I think his brother too. If I forget anyone else, know that I am going to shatter like a glass doll really soon.
Oh yeah, my theory. Studying Exertion of Energy = 1.5 x Normal Exertion of Energy
IE. Studying for 10 hours will equal the energy exertion of 15 hours of normal activities (that are not too strenuous). I feel extra hungrier, tired, and sleepier when studying. For intense sports, it’s probably 5.0 or more, sex is probably 20 (1 hour of sex = 20 hours of normal activity? Maybe…. I’ll let you decide). I call this factor, the Jerry Constant. I always wanted something to be named after me.
Energy(A) = K(A) x Energy(N)
where N = normal energy exertion of each individual (probably N = f(x) = metabolism + weight + height + hours of sleep, etc etc)
where A = activity being looked at
where Energy = probably something like joules or kilowatts… no wait, that’s power
where K = Jerry Constant
I don’t know what my theory proves but I told you. I’m delirious right now. Soon I’ll make a whole database of Jerry Constants for all sorts of activities.
Really simple answer or a very complex psychosis
Since I was planning to go to Oakridge with my mom this morning to study (I absolutely cannot study at home so even going to the busiest place of all, a mall, let’s me study), I thought I should go to sleep a little bit earlier last night at 1am. I listen to my favorite radio show and before I know it, it’s 2am. Then it’s 3am. I said, “fuck. I’m going to wake up and read something for a little bit.” I surf the net for half an hour and go back to bed. Then it’s 4am. FUCK!!!! I have a full, super study session tomorrow and I can’t sleep.
I look again, oh… it’s 7:30am now. I must have slept for a couple of hours. It’s 8:30am. Fuck. Now I have to wake up. So I think in total, I slept about 2.5 hrs, maybe less.
Actually, I’m quite energetic even running on a 2.5hr charge. My mom washed the bed covers yesterday and I swear she did something to my pillows because they felt less comfortable… almost harder to sleep on. That’s the simple answer to my sleepless in vancouver night. OR it could be on an unconscious level, I am horridly afraid of the final tomorrow and my body is quivering subconsciously so that it can’t fall asleep. That’s a the complex psychotic reason. Which one do you choose? Turn to page 15 for simple, and 52 for complex. I also swear that I feel like I will collapse and shatter at any given moment. Really, I don’t exercise vigorously, I smoke, I don’t eat healthy… there’s a medical term that describes what happens to people like me. Oh yeah, DEATH.
I also had a short short dream during that 2.5hr charge. It was really interesting. IT was about some sick / mad scientist dude who invented some sort of video game or virtual reality where you create a human (this part was very video gamey). Then, you can create bionic body parts for him by mixing certain appendages with DNA of animals. For example, I made a squid head for him because this squid head would be superior to a regular human head. This guinea pig of DNA testing was to be some sort of adventurer/fighter dude in this game world or something. In the game, a flyer came out advertising about an upcoming martial arts tournament. Someone else in the dream asked me to enter and here’s what I said,
“Haha, no. I haven’t been in training for 3 years now and I even when I was in training, I would have needed an extra year before I would be enter”. That is exactly how I feel. During the last year where I went to every week of kung fu, a Tiger Balm tourney was held and 2 of the guys in my class took home awards. 1st in free style sparring and 3rd in forms. Now I know the dude who took the 3rd, he wasn’t that good. In fact, to be smug, I was superior in every aspect compared to him. That 3rd should be mine! (or maybe a first?) But the guy who took the 1st is a killer and I haven’t been able to beat him since we both started. Anyway, my dream did illustrate the subconsious about my feelings towards training for kung fu. Maybe I should get back into it… I mean serious training, none of this half an hour every odd day or so.
BTW if this update is weird, remember that I just got up from 2.5hrs of sleep. I thought it might be interesting to update the first thing in the morning to see how incoherent I am. Damn@ hit@ hell@ ass@ fuck@.
Nostalgia
December 09, 2001
I found Ascendancy for download last night. I’m not sure if it’s abandonware or not, but ah what the hell. No one would buy it anymore anyway. For those of you who don’t know, Ascendancy was a Master of Orion type game that was incredibly detailed for its time. It did rather poorly because of a lot of crappy parts, but the graphics and intricacy is amazing. I remember loving the game. In fact, I played till 3am last night because I just couldn’t get myself to quit. Luckily, I had studied big time before playing so I think I’m ok.
Dennis has an interesting comment about making a mark on this world. I agree with him totally that we are insignificant specks on this planet. I do want to make my mark, but I’ve come to realize that there are only three ways that will make you be remembered:
And also, you need to kill or save a LOT to be truly remembered. No one remembers the chum who clocked his brother because he stole $10 from him. Everyone will remember if that same guy clocks a federal building or something. Number 3 gets you remembered, but nowhere as much as number 2, and number 1 gets remembered the most. Eg. Adolph Hitler > Mother Teresa > Alexander Graham Bell. I wonder if our webring will produce any mass savers or murderers.
I update much don’t I?
December 07, 2001
You guys will just have someone new to read then! Maybe I should put banners all over the place to cash in on this boom.
My first exam this morning was scheduled for 2 hours. I finished in half an hour. It surprised even me even though I have a tendency to be the first person to finish. I stress that finishing first and achieving a good mark is NOT correlated. Well, sometimes it is. Today’s though, I can’t be sure. It was one of those exams where you bullshit everything and even you don’t know what you wrote. So either it’s a kickass mark, or it’s just a good kick in the ass. I studied a lot for this one so I’m not too worried.
Two more. The two worrisome ones though. Then two days after these two, the two (me and Eri), will be able to be with each other again!
If i had money and if I had a lot of time, I’d buy an XBox. Luckily I have neither.
What’s good is good. What’s bad is good for those you don’t care about
December 06, 2001
Hey, have you guys watched The Tick? Not the shitty cartoon that lasted a quarter of a season before the networks burnt the rolls, but the new series. I watched the first episode that I loved it. I forgot about it largely due to school and whatever, but I’m watching another one right now and I just want to tell you guys it’s good. I mean, Batmanuel, that’s so funny! “Oh heavens no, a lot of people work alone… all the lonely people…” I’m taking a break from studying.
Yesterday night, I played quake again with Dennis and this time another person joined in. Oh my god. Dennis’ friend, BLOODRED, kicked both our asses big time. The guy is good. Dennis, as usual, got wasted but I managed to hold my ground fairly well. Still, the other guy whupped both of us. Again, I stress that my memory for these quake matches are a little fuzzy.
This snow day was a pretty nice day
December 05, 2001
Having lived the extent of my life here, I’ve witnessed countless days of snow. To me, it’s just weather that causes numerous car accidents. I was at work today when one of the students (I forgot his name) mentioned about the snow last night. He was so amazed by the snow. He said it was one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen (he’s from a place that barely gets rain I think).
It struck me that through school, all the trash that’s happened in my life, and some other crap, I’ve lost that ability to find menial things like snow beautiful. I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed a sunset, or just sitting in a park, or just being happy for no reason at all. I was awestruck by the christmas craze in malls, decorations on houses, the glow that kids get around december but now, I feel nothing. It’s almost cynical that I scoff at people buying stupid christmas ornaments for stupid trees. It’s so sad.
I lost faith. I lost faith in whatever it was I had faith in. I grew up too quickly in too short a time and forgot everything. And I’m so sick of things here. I NEED to get out of this crazy city (and into the arms of my loved one). I hope I can find what I’m looking for while I’m gone, or at least lose what I’m carrying on my back. I think it’s time to get back to the basics.
—
That KPMG thing is ridiculous. They are stupid. I’m not saying that because they didn’t even interview me, but I’m saying it because they’re stupid. Stupid. And that flash intro gave me a seizure.
—
Santa 1
Santa 2
Dwarf – first they say it’s bad. Now they say it’s the law is bad. Make up your mind.
Birds – this happened to my car after my Victoria dragonboat trip.
we are covered in snow. 15 Inches of Pure White Snow
Dennis has the funniest update ever. I just woke up, was Messenger’ing Eri, popped up Dennis’ webpage, started reading and chatting, and then burst out laughing at the transformers thing. I tested as an Optimus Prime (I’d be a shitty Optimus Prime, for one thing, I’d never relinquish power to that idiot Hot Rod, and I’d make fun of Bumblebee too much). You have to read that update.
Yes we played Quake yesterday but as I remember it, I won all 4 rounds and there wasn’t much resistance… my memory is a little fuzzy these days. But I think I’m right. Even if I’m not, it’s whoever got the last frag that counts anyway. Haha. Damn that was fun shooting rockets and plasma and railroads again.
I have to be at work in in an hour so it doesn’t leave much time to get ready. (It means stop talking to me, I have to go now).
I love working with a clean new reinstall
December 03, 2001
Everything runs so smoothly and fast. No errors of course. I still have to install a bunch of stuff, namely the Adobe stuff but that can wait.
Yesterday I got to hang out with a couple more decade friends: Andrew and Jeff. Due to Andrew’s purchase of his new palm, and also that Dennis has his visor, and I think some of you guys out east also have palms or whatever, I think I’ll make a palm version of this page so you don’t have to have those pictures all over the place. I’ll do that soon.
Then I went to the casino with Jeff because I just suddenly had this urge to be impulsive. I played Let It Ride and lost $40. I took the $12 left (min to play is $15) and put it all on Sic Bo. Cool, I just doubled my money. I put all $24 on large this time. Cool, I doubled my money again. I was almost even at this point. Now, I could’ve just cashed out and lost $7 or I could’ve played more. Since my original intent was to be impulsive, I put I think $43 on small and $5 on a doubles (payoff is 11:1). I didn’t care if I won or lost because I know that stepping into a casino means I WILL give money to them. Conclusion: 6, 3, 2. Big. No doubles. Over. Oh well.
The key to being in a casino is if you lose, you lose. You can’t make it back. You’ll just lose more. So we left.
Then, we went to a gameroom and I played CS for the first time in my life. I love how nobody covered me and I was stepped on by 4 people at once. It was pretty fun but I don’t think it would be that good at home because firstly the lag kills and also they had a subwoofer for every computer in the room – the sound was just incredible. It was like a real warzone (not that I’ve ever been in a real warzone). Will I play it again? Sure, maybe after finals, and Japan, but then school starts so maybe after school. It was dirt cheap though. Everyone in that room smokes. Even though I smoke, I still feel really gross if I breathe in too much smoke. I felt sick at home.
I love Eri.
If I’m gone, please find me in Redmond
December 02, 2001
I’m going to reinstall windows tonight because I’m way overdue. I’ll be studying alongside so that I won’t be wasting too much time. If you don’t see me online all night, it’s probably because I’m going to skin some windows programmers down south and make them produce a high quality product. Hey, how is XP everyone? Is it worth upgrading?
Good morning crappy Saturday weather!
It sure is.
Most of you know, that in the 70′s, when Bruce Lee’s movies came out, they revolutionized the way Hong Kong cinematics were made (for action flicks anyway). Prior to the craze of the Dragon, most fighting movies were very simple with crappy choreography and visible wires that let actors fly around. Anyway, after Bruce Lee’s initial success of The Chinese Connection (released in America as Fists of Fury), MANY film makers jumped on the Bruce Lee bandwagon craze and created similar looking movies hoping to cash in on Lee’s success (he broke all box office records).
Thus were born the Bruce Li’s, the Bruce Le’s, the Bruce Ly’s, and any sort of play on the real Bruce Lee’s name. The actors were even cast to look like Lee. Being a hardcore Lee fan, I despise all of these copycat movies because they don’t capture what Lee was trying to convey – he wanted to show the world what real kung fu was like. These fake movies wanted to capture money. Needless to say, none of them did very well because why buy Kalvin Clein when the CK store was right beside you and the price was the same?
Anyway, I’m writing this because on Tuesday on the Drive-in Classics channel, they’re airing a tribute to the Bruce look-a-likes. They’re showing a few of these copycat movies from 9pm onward. I think I’ll catch one or two just to enjoy the pathetic attempt to be like Lee.
Oh yeah, they’re revealing what Ginger really is on Monday on Goodmorning America. I bet it’s just some sort of new blender with an anti-grav machine strapped on. Psh. Big deal.
Responding to people
December 01, 2001
Firstly, in response to Justin’s story of the stabbing at the BK, how is it that someone can stab another 8 times and not hit any vital organs? I mean, our chest is filled with them! I’m assuming the stabbings were in the chest because how weird would it be to stab someone’s foot 8 times or hand? Thigh… maybe, but if I were to stab people, it’s chest or nothing. Maybe it was the ear that was stabbed.
Then, thanks goes to Michelle for updating when I was bored.
Then, Dennis, it’s weird. I was gonna message you the other day to tell you that I installed quake and maybe we could frag each other later, but then you update about playing quake so now I’m just gonna say here, let’s quake later (assuming you finished your 10 page essay on automatic shopping conveyor belts for models or something).
As per my daily snooping around on the Art Bell site, they posted this ghost picture. It’s almost definitely fake but think how scary it would be if it were real. Just imagine for a minute that this picture IS real. It’s a good scare.
And that’s all! No more classes this year. Much more studying.
Oh how am I bored
November 29, 2001
Someone for the love of god update. I’m bored! I made this pact to myself that I would never feel bored because any moments that I do, I would either 1. train for some mighty martial arts action, or 2. draw or doodle a webpage. Right now I feel like neither because I hurt my knee somehow, nothing serious, but I just don’t want to aggravate it anymore. I don’t want to draw because I can’t find my drawing pencils. Yes, I have a set of really nice drawing pencils that I use to draw stuff with because they are pencils. I will keep doing that 100 punch thing although it’s getting to the point where it’s just like 2 pushups. I’m trying to throw them as fast as I can but still, it’s 2 pushup work level. Dang it.
Today was really cold out and I’m someone who usually wears t-shirts in December. But today, even I felt chilled. I like winter though. The dry cold air is just so amazing. Nothing beats the feeling of finishing class and stepping outside to take a big big whiff of that dry cold air. It fills the lungs and swirls around and cools the surrounding organs (and dries them because the air is dry!). I am updating like Fighter today because I like swords. I like to fight. I like to fight with swords. Swords is good.
OH DEAR GOD! Even the Simpsons isn’t holding me down. I must go punch stuff. Bye!
I love my honey. (Honey = Eri)
Who’s it gonna be?
Who’s gonna be my 10k hit? Who’s ma bitch…
You ruined it!
Dennis you ass! I was saving that 10,000 for my honey! Just kidding that would be too hard to pull off. Actually I was betting to see which of you guys would be the one to reload the page to get the 10,000th. Voila! Congratulations you win nothing. Well, you get a hearty thank you for the support you’ve given the webpage over the 2(?) years. I bet half the hits are from you.
Why does our webring always write about subjects without a right or wrong answer? Wasting time is so subjective. I see no waste in playing some video games. I see no waste in many many hours of video games. At least you’re doing something with the time. The only way time is wasted is if you sit there and stare at a wall. *MAYBE* that is wasting time, but it depends. And if we spend all our time maximizing the usefulness out of time, we’d all be automatons. Boy it would be kinda cool to be a T-1000.
Yay! David is an updater. Now if only Sunny would get back to his page.
Today is a cause for celebration. There are officially only 2 more classes left before I am out for this year. I’m updating from work which is not really true because i’m not working. So i’m updating from somewhere.
Woh 2
November 28, 2001
I just re-read my update. I want to clarify that my comment about Jesse’s old pages being all right angly was a poke of fun at my very own pages. Just in case you didn’t catch that (by you I mean everyone).
Oh yes, I love my honey, my honey is EK! That was for my honey’s coworkers who made a mean remark about how I say I say “I love my honey” but not mention who my honey is. So… I love her! Her coworker’s are mean. Mean they are.
Woh
Dennis is right, Jesse’s has exploded! But I really like it. Jesse has been coming out with these really cool designs these past few redesigns. I remember his pages used to be very linear with right angles everywhere, but now… woh! Keep it up dude! It is kinda hard to read, but who cares, they’ll get used to it. Oh yes, is the background text some sort of picture? I’m sure it is but I can’t seem to see it (it better not be one of those magic eye things. I hate those things) And Welcome David! I see the Blogger phenomenon has caught him too. Hehe.
As for the time thing. I’ve thought about that a lot before. I spend a lot of wasted time when I could be exercising or learning or whatever, but I find great pleasure in doing those small little things like reading websites and whatnot. The free time I have, I like to maximize the pleasure, not the usefulness (as in learning or reading). So basically put, I do whatever I want to do because I live in the moment. What really bugs me are people with set schedules for everything. Someone, who shall remain nameless (not anyone who reads my webpage anyway), had a schedule in highschool that says, “3:30 – 3:45 return home and have a snack. 3:45 – 5:30 do homework…” etc etc. They set out a really boring but efficient plan for everyday of the week. Although I thought it was a great idea, I would never be able to do that because I am not a robot.
I want to say more about this but I’ll save it for later. Bye.
Ok ok fine
November 27, 2001
I didn’t catch Justin’s sarcasm in his update. Look at my update time. I didn’t have my coffee yet and my group who was beside me at the time was pissing me off (actually it was just one person who is horribly hard to work with). So sorry Justin! To make up for it, I updated the links to you guys’ webpages. Now that I read the update again, it is pretty sarcastic. I need coffee every morning you see.
I am in an incredibly good mood because this morning, I finished the last major project this term. I am going to plan a study schedule because I must do well or die trying. I’m just planning the plan, so I will relax tonight and maybe get around to finishing that damn puzzle that’s 52.54% complete.
You guys, next time there’s some sort of parody, dispute, or sarcasm, PLEASE spell it out for me because lord only knows I’m not the brightest stone around. My dad’s store sells parody’s all the time. They talk funny.
Oh My God You Guys Suck
I don’t understand all this stuff about not wanting to update anymore. First Andrew, now Justin, and I suppose Jesse? WTF?
Firstly, if none of you guys ever visited/read my updates, if only me and Eri ever load up this URL, I would still update. Why? Because I update for me (and possibly for my honey too). I’m assuming that you guys aren’t updating because to some degree, Dennis’ update pissed you off or made you feel uncomfortable or made you cry or something. But seriously, that’s Dennis’ opinion, why should it affect you so much? If Dennis said you suck, it doesn’t mean you suck (sorry Dennis, for putting you on the spot). If I said Dennis sucks, it doesn’t necessarily prove that he sucks either. Actually, I just re-read Justin’s. Lack of support? Ok… I’ll go to paypal right now and send you a dollar. ??? If I took everything that Dennis said too personally, he would be my mortal enemy – making debaucheries of me and my favourite guy named Bruce, my singing, my fake surgery? I would have to kill him (or sing him to death).
I will be dissappointed that you guys won’t update. It’s not like we ever talk so your updates are one way I can keep up with what you guys are doing. Now I won’t even have that. That’s ok I guess. It’s your webpages after all. I just hope Dennis will keep updating in light of all this running away from things. I for one will update forever until I hate my webpage and decide to make it into a pay for porn site. Wow this update sounds too angry. It wasn’t meant to be that.
I’m giving up updating too!
for today.
I’m sorry, no matter how i think of it, it’s still funny
Hey Episode I wasn’t that bad
November 26, 2001
I rather quite enjoyed it. Jedi Knights are so cool. So feared, so courageous, so lucky that they have that light sabre. I’m just wondering why Palpatine appears as a normal human being in one instance and then as the Skeletor-like robed figure in holo-transmission. I guess we’ll have to wait till next year.
Did anyone see that R2D2: Behind The Dome thingy? It was funny.
If you’re emphathic, you’ll notice I’m a lot happier right now because I just finished that project on EA. Our recommendation is to sell because according to our forecasts, it’s trading at more than twice its discounted cash flow. Well, the P/E could be that high, but who knows. Analysts are projecting 113% growth the next year, and 25% long term. That’s crazy.
I love my honey.
Episode I is on tonight
Just in case you’re like me, you might want to watch Star Wars tonight because you didn’t catch it in the theatres due to all the people saying it sucked. But since it’s free on tv, it’s all good. What’s the lowdown on all this parody/anger thing that’s going on? Seems like our webring always has one of these every so often. Oh well. It’s better than not updating at all. (now don’t all go sensitive on me because of that remark)
Wow
November 25, 2001
This Colorquiz personality test really matched my personality traits. The results weren’t just general statements like “You dislike problems” or “You like being happy”, but actually revealed parts of me I don’t let anyone know about (the deep dark inner workings of Jerry).
Dear Myself
Dear Myself,
How are you? I’m good. Logically, that means you’re good too. I’m glad you’re good. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that this past week has just been assignment after project after case study. Thankfully, after Monday all the major assignments are over and I’ll have time to study for finals. I’ve reconsidered my stance on my future in accounting. On Thursday, I attended a CGA Luncheon / Info Session and found that the highly underrated CGA designation is worth considering. Firstly, they don’t require a potential student to be articling in a registered firm. A student requires relevant work experience, but they are very flexible in terms of what company, what you do, how long you do it for. Plus, they have a great employment referral system (so I hear) that’ll make job hunting more efficient.
Although I think every potential accountant views a CGA and a CMA designation to be less prestigious than the coveted CA designation, I found that the training and curriculum practically mirrors that of the CA’s. In fact, the CGAs go more in depth in finance. Also, the program is only 2 years long, with 4 modules, compared to the CASB program of 3 years with 7 (or 8?) modules. This basically means you can get the designation faster with less hassle.
What impressed me the most was the guy who gave the presentation. He represents the organization and goes from campus to campus selling the CGA program. After the lunch, I asked him a question regarding courses and marks. When I returned home 2 hours later, he already emailed me a reply. I couldn’t believe the professionalism and speed of his presentation and his replying of my question. This counters the view of CAs that I’ve seen.
In fact, I have yet to meet a CA who is happy. I have yet to meet a CA who is real. By that I mean that everytime I meet any in school or wherever, they are always on “office-mode”, that is, the cheerful, friendly, fuzzy bunny kind of people. I just know they have a personality that’s screaming to come out. Well I guess I’ve met 2 CAs who are real but they don’t really count. I met a CA who quit his practice to teach english to foreign students because he was unhappy.
What’s different about a CGA is that I believe most CGAs work in industry rather than public practice (actually I don’t know how many CAs are in industry, but I think there are more CGAs than CAs). Public practice is not for me, with the big liability and all.
So Myself, a CGA is definitely on the list of possible things to do.
Sincerely yours,
Jerry
Poor Dennis
November 24, 2001
That sure is a funny update ahahah. I doubt he’s still there, but just in case he is, let’s all pray he will be released from prison, I mean school, soon. I can’t imagine staying at school so late. I can’t actually, the angus building locks up at 11:00pm. Today is my great class followed by volleyball day. I’m excited.
I was talking with Aaron – you know, that guy from highschool that dissappeared off the face of the Earth? Well, I realized I’ve known him for 9 freakin years! That’s almost a decade! I think I’m going to call him my Decade Friend. Me and him go way back to the days of hockey, Kids in the Hall, uh, butt-shaking Mr. Simms, and so on. We should celebrate this past decade with a re-show of Bambo! (inquire for an explanation of Bambo, you’ll love it).
They’re hot on the trail
November 23, 2001
Bandit Hurling Hot Coffee Robs Florida Eateries
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – A man has robbed at least four fast food restaurants in Florida this month by throwing hot coffee on the clerk and snatching the cash from the till while the injured worker recoiled in pain, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The man, said to be in his 20s with a preference for cream and sugar in his coffee, has struck fast food restaurants in Boynton Beach, Boca Raton and other southeast Florida cities at least four times since Nov. 9, grabbing between $21 and $200 from the cash registers.
Each time, the robber ordered coffee and sometimes a pastry, then hurled the hot liquid on the clerk while the cash register was open. With the clerk stunned, the man jumped over the counter and grabbed the cash from the open till, police said.
Anyone who likes coffee with cream and sugar and also sometimes orders a pastry is a suspect, oh yes, in his 20′s. Hey… that’s me! Oh my god, the FBI are at my door. [here]
Tee hee
November 22, 2001
I’m on a roll. I just finished one assignment and I’m going to start another one right after this update. Very soon very soon – the campaign will be over. It was supposed to be over tonight but an 8 page report on EA is due soon and I stupidly volunteered to write it for the group (the benefit being they would plan the presentation which I totally do not want to do).
I’ve been thinking about the next design of my webpage and I’ve concluded that ever since I began making my webpage, I’ve tried to make every section of my page align to one single design. Then I thought why should every section look the same? So the next design will be made up of different looking designs. As for the netiquette of having same-looking designs, screw it. conventions are made to unconform with. Besides, each section is an independent part of the bigger whole anyway. So the first page will be some sort of portal, followed by different looking parts. Did I just say that in 15 ways? I also need a new logo.
Dennis’s update is cool. I do feel bad for Shannon though, she must spend a lot of time at the chiropractor to realign her spinal cord after he violently snaps her neck back. I like french kisses too, but I don’t think I’ll ever snap Eri’s head back because whiplash is not a nice gift.
I would just like to take this time to say that I finished my case for tomorrow
November 21, 2001
Are We Civilized?
Michelle has a great update which I would link but since it’s such a big secret, I can’t (her webpage that is). Aargh. Here’s my opinion. Are we civilized? We think we are but in my eyes, I see ourselves nothing more than a mere species of animal. All our ‘advances’ are just an evolutionary extension of our monkey relatives. Vocal speech can be compared with being able to spray crap out of your ass a la skunks. Opposable thumbs – ability to jump 15 feet in the air. Etc Etc Etc.
We celebrate our superiority and then revel(sp?) in the fact that sometimes we do bad things to each other. So if we were so great, why do we do these things? Thus, we are not great at all. Don’t reply to this because I really don’t want to know your view about this. After all, it’s my opinion.
It turns out I’m adding something else to my 5 Day Campaign but at this point, another assignment is just a drop in the bucket. I get to see my girlfriend in less than a month. Sorry folks, no drinking party this year.
Eek. Day 3
November 20, 2001
I finished my homework. Not really. But I stopped anyway. I don’t see why I should care now that I’ve decided I’m not going to pursue accounting anymore. I still love that strategic management class though.
I was in the midst of writing this essay, you know, just for the hell of it. It was a simple idea, it was a narrative of a kid whose grandpa told him a lot about his day and the technology he had. Only thing is that his grandpa is our age. So if your logical processing is anywhere near as complex as mine, you’ll know that it’s placed in the future. I wrote about 2 pages when I suddenly got frustrated and just deleted everything. I don’t know why I did it. It was pretty interesting too I think.
Ack. I’m just feeling so confined lately. Confined to school, confined to money and the lack thereof, and confined to whatever the hell it is that’s holding me back from becoming great (great at what though?). Could it be that I’m in one of my slumps again? Could it? The last slump ended really quickly so I didn’t really learn anything from it. This one has stuck around for the last little while. I’m still learning nothing. Crapulence.
Oh my god. It’s 11:30 already. I think I just time travelled forward because I don’t remember the past 2 hours at all.
“Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
Day 2 almost over…
November 19, 2001
4.5 hours today at school. 1.0 of it could have been reduced had the group… well, one in particular, been more efficient by joining us instead of running off to do something. Oh well. Group dynamics are what make group projects so *great*. Actually I do like group projects if the group is good. If only I could hand pick group members instead of just taking whatever comes my way (or having the teacher assign groups). I would create a supergroup capable of blowing the minds off of the assignments. Run scared little project, for SuperGroup is here!
I just need to study for a quiz tonight and Day 2 will be done.
I forgot what else I was going to say. Good day.
Day 2 of the 5 Day Campaign
It’s the 5 Day Blitz of 2 Projects, 1 Quiz, 2 Assignments, due on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So yesterday marked the beginning of the campaign. We met at Bread Garden from 11 to 3, I got home at 3:30 and typed my part until 5:30. Then rested and went out to dinner with my dragonboat team until 9:30. Then did some of another project. Today I will continue with that other project probably until dinner time. Then come home and study. This is a long campaign indeed.
It appears the Taliban are offering an unconditional surrender. I guess bombs make you change your words because now they say bin Laden is not their “guest” anymore. Funny how might works.
If you always wanted how to fold those origami things, here’s a great page to learn how. I go now to eat then to the crunch of things.
Yay I am in a good mood again
November 17, 2001
First I had my strategic management class again. Although most of the class is spent scrambling to jot down the notes the prof warps through, the rest of the time is spent discussing relevant business things. I love this class, the prof, and the 8:30am’ness of it. After that, I spent some time at work just wasting time (wasn’t working, just hanging out with people). After that, 3 hours of continuous volleyball!
I’ve decided that after martial arts, volleyball is my second favourite sport (are martial arts sports?). I’ve been wearing those ankle weights while playing for about a month now and i think it’s paying off. I went through 2 hours today and decided I had enough and took them off. I felt so lightfooted I almost took off. It’s so great. The people who play are getting so much better compared to the beginning of the term. I on the other hand seem like I haven’t gotten better. The only advantage I have is that right after I take off the weights, I get about 30 minutes of incredible speed. After that, the legs get used to the normal weight again and I return to normal mode. Doh.
My punch training is paying off in volleyball too. My serves are among the hardest in the gym. Although my accuracy isn’t that great (I estimate maybe 6 or 7 out of 10 make it), when they do go where they’re supposed to, not many people can dig it. Granted, most of these people didn’t play competitively before (like I did much). So skrew basketball from now on. I will just concentrate on volleyball.
I’m happy right now. I won’t be for the next few days though. There’s project after project after assignment after quiz next week. Plus I’m speaking at some forum for a bunch of chinese business people from Guangdong. I just throught I’d brag because it sounds like it’s something important (it’s not).
Blargh Blargh
November 15, 2001
Today was dizzying. I crawled out of bed after only sleeping 6 hours and angrily got ready for school. Bad Mood. On the half hour drive to school, I was listening to a really wise person speak about his career as a funeral preparer or something (taped chinese ghost show on the radio). He was really wise and kind and the things he said about being a good person really reached out to me. Good mood. I had my strategic management class. Good mood. I had my financial statement analysis class. Bad mood. Audit class. No change in mood. I stop by at work and play some games. Good mood. Go to group meeting after. No change. Drive back home. Bad mood.
My marks are crap, even by my standards. I don’t understand why. I’m studying as much as before, the material isn’t that much harder, and I do care about these marks. But it’s all crap. I don’t care if I expect bad marks because I didn’t study or whatever, but the sad thing is, I really thought I did ok. Nope. Denied I is. Me thinks on a subconsious level, I know I won’t be in accounting so studying accounting right now is a waste of time. I think so
Oh well. I did finish that puzzle. Only 6 days! I haven’t finished a puzzle by myself in over 15 years I think. Sad as it sounds, it sure beats going out. I don’t like going out anymore at all. It’s boring. It’s costly. It’s not with Eri. So I prefer to stay home.
I’m boiling with negativity right now. I will take it out through punches and kicks now. Bye.
Show’s over folks
November 14, 2001
The last picture on the webcam is of me feeling the glory of finishing the assignment. In my hand is page 1. That graph there took more than an hour to do (there’s a lot of little calculations within those cells, along with attached assumptions and notes to go with those little cells). I feel great! I think I’m going to finish my puzzle in a day or two! Woo ooo hoo.
For your Voyeuristic Pleasure (Sick Obsession, etc)
Here is me doing my financial statement analysis homework. I will probably be here crunching numbers for awhile so if you want to watch me do my homework, please! If I make kissy faces, it’s because I was talking to my honey. Oh god! I am ugly, Fugly even. Oh well. It could be worse.
Here I go! Question 1… forecast operating free cash flows by forecasting a comprehensive set of financial statements and deriving free cash flows to debt and equity holders from the income statement and cash flow statement… oh god.
It finally works
November 13, 2001
After a few months, I finally managed to get the lovely Quickcam that Dennis and Shannon got me for my birthday to work. Actually I didn’t do anything. Logitech came out with some new drivers and I thought I’d give it a try and lo and behold. It works. I really don’t know how to get things working right now so I just tried some free-trial service with Spotlife. So here is my webcam page if you’re interested in what my living room looks like. The quality isn’t very good because I can’t get a good focus on. Doh.
That wasn’t finished
November 12, 2001
The story from yesterday wasn’t finished. It had another part and ‘to be continued’ but that part was mysteriously deleted for some reason. No matter. Dennis keeps insisting it is fanfic, as in fiction, this is not fiction. It happened last week during my audit class
Yes, remember last week a girl mysteriously died after Halloween night and police issued warnings about the candy? Well a toxicology report showed no poisons and the police lifted the candy warning. So my previous point that terrorists won’t target small urban neighborhoods (or something like that) still currently holds true. I bet the parent killed the child somehow
I think Star Wars the Phantom Menace might be on tv tonight. I think if it’s on I’ll watch it and also work on a new puzzle I bought. “Now with Perfalock!”
Things To Do List
November 09, 2001
- Whisper sweet everythings to my girlfriend
- Continue the nightly 100 punches before sleeping
- Watch Star Trek: Voyager (just kidding, it sucks)
- Listen to Drops of Jupiter by Train for the umpteenth thousand time
- Submit Dennis’ email to porn mailing lists
- Discover that his email is already in most of those lists
But seriously, his update is worth reading. Spam is the cankersore of the internet (viruses being… uh… viruses). I get so much spam even though I love consolidating my loans in easy monthly payments. Also, I’m pre-approved for visas every day now I think. I love feeling so special.
My cat’s breath smells like cat food
Hi. Hi. If you don’t like your job, then here’s a really good alternative for you. That must be the best job out there, think of how satisfying it must be to really help those poor animals. On another note, I really don’t understand these people. Here they are getting everything they have bombed to shiz and here they are celebrating the downing of one measly helicopter. Of course, the “good guys” deny any helicopter being shot down, but it could all be propaganda. This update is jumping all around now. I’m going to the art gallery again tonight. Bye.
Can someone answer this?
November 05, 2001
I changed something on this webpage… what is it? $10,000,000 goes to the first person who answers the question
“I know! You changed the randomly generated picture and phrase thingy
You got it whoever you are, the money will be sent to you soon! I meant to change those pictures and text on a regular basis but I got sidetracked since summer. Tonight though, having no want to do homework or study, I decided to finally put up something new. The theme here is stuff that is amazing but 99% of the time is untrue. I have some other pictures lined up too so I think I’ll change them every month or so. As far as I know, I can only select 3 pics or text to randomly choose from at any time but that’s ok because the phrases are supposed to somewhat fit the picture. I mean… “simplicity in art” will not fit for the big mars face picture… right?
My poor baby is sick and forgot to go the dentist. Doh. I will buy her limitless amounts of white chocolate mocha. Be warned, Starbucks.
Lyrical Genius
November 03, 2001
now that she’s back in the atmosphere
with drops of jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
she acts like summer and walks like rain
reminds me that there’s time to change, hey, hey
since the return from her stay on the moon
she listens like spring and she talks like june, hey, hey
tell me did you sail across the sun
did you make it to the milky way to see the lights all faded
and that heaven is overrated
tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
one without a permanent scar
and did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there
now that she’s back from that soul vacation
tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey
she checks out mozart while she does tae-bo
reminds me that there’s room to grow, hey, hey
now that she’s back in the atmosphere
i’m afraid the she might think of me as plain ol’ jane
told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land
tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
and head back to the milky way
and tell me, did venus blow your mind
was it everything you wanted to find
and did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there
can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
your best friend always sticking up for you even when i know you’re wrong
can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour
phone conversation
the best soy latte that you ever had… and me
tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet
did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
and head back to the milky way
tell me did you sail across the sun
did you make it to the milky way to see the lights all faded
and that heaven is overrated
tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
one without a permanent scar
and did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there
now i understand why my great artist friend loves train so much. I love this song to death.
Boy was I wrong
Geez this morning I woke up and heard on the radio news that a little girl died and her mother suspects it was from poison candy given out at Halloween – authorities have yet to prove it. Supposedly, she became violently ill after Halloween and of course everyone is pointing at the candy. I seriously doubt it was someone who supports the terrorists but they’ve (the police) told kids from a certain neighborhood not to eat their candy – how is that possible? I hope this doesn’t blow up into something big. That’s all for now.
I forgot to say
November 02, 2001
Oh boy, updating is so easy now! I forgot to say that yesterday was definitely the strangest halloween I’ve ever seen in my 21 years of existence. The strangeness was in the fact that I was home all night and NO kids rang my doorbell for candy. Even though we turn off the porch light, every year there usually are a few kids who try anyway. Last night – nadda. I’m wondering why all the kids have dissappeared. Is it that the 4 anthrax deaths have caused all the mothers in my neighborhood to lock their kids in the cellar? I mean, on average, 20000 people die from the flu each year. 4 anthrax deaths doesn’t amount to much in the big picture. Plus, I’m sure terrorists aren’t going to send out anthraxed mail to Joe Smith, 52151 Main Street, Anytown, USA (or Canada for that matter). I mean, I’m quite sure they want maximum effects if they were to commit a terrorist act. How scary would it be to attack an old lady in the name of Jihad right? So… only big public places need to worry really. Urban neighborhoods, I’m quite certain they’re ok. Oh yeah, here was a prediction for the next terrorist attack – scheduled for oct31 at the yankee game. Even though it fell short of “being correct”, it’s still interesting.
And now I should sleep for tomorrow is my training day. Ie, it’s the day I play 4 hours of volleyball wearing 10lbs on my ankles – it’s amazing how light I feel after the four hours and after I take off the weights. Goodnight my sheep.
Ok i think everything should be ok now
The sense of accomplishment achieved from setting this thing up is amazing. I almost feel like a computer nerd now. I still need help with more complicated html or java or the other crap that GoLive does for me but that’s ok. The most important thing is I still get to write my wonderful updates that you crave so badly. Don’t deny your body of such pleasures. Here, have another bite… mmm…
I don’t have anything insightful to say today because I’m so drained from setting up this stupid thing. Rest assured that after tomorrow, I will.
Here are some things I found on the www that may interest you:
- Bin Laden song – this is hilarious look at the way Bush looks so much like a little monkey!
- You think our legal system is stupid?
- A very long read regarding 911 and a theory of its real roots (i haven’t finished reading it yet, it sounds really farfetched but it’s interesting).
I can now update anywhere… muhahaha
This is going to be painful. Not only will I not be able to put those cool little icons of my eye anymore, but now I have to put in those stupid tags everytime I want to update. It’s almost like I’m writing in actual html. Almost. It took all night to set up this thing and the archives and it doesn’t even look at great. The benefits are that I can update anywhere that I have internet access which will be much more convenient and it automatically archives everything into nice little monthly files. Still, it’s not tweaked perfectly so there’s bound to be some errors or broken links. And that icon at the bottom is kind of ugly. I’ll move that later.
I also have to remember all my header settings.
A Different Kind of Update
October 29, 2001
I had a revelation today about my way of thinking.
Firstly I guess it started when I got back my auditing midterm and i see that I got 62%. That really shocked me because I could have sworn I knew the answers, but I guess my answers were not specific enough to warrant marks. That’s ok.
Afterwards, I felt rather depressed because I truly studied for the test. I really did. But my effort paid off in the form of a 62% and that really made me think. Well it’s no secret to you folks that I don’t fit accounting. I’ve mentioned that so many times. The accounting firms seem to agree because only 2 gave me interviews and the possibility of a job seems miniscule. Something else I’ve come to notice is that the school I’m in is not exactly for me neither. It just doesn’t seem right to me and I do mean only me because the school itself is great.
That really burst a big bubble because ever since I was 14 or 15 or something, I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be involved in business and possibly equity markets. I figured that UBC Commerce would be the way to that road. I thought if I studied really hard, interviewed really well, I could jump on that train headed towards wherever it was I wanted to be.
The ultimate goal of all this was to make money. That was my prime goal. To get a good job, sure, that was really just a means to attain money.
Ever since I got into accounting, I thought that the money would be there because accountants make pretty good dirt. I then realized that even though the money was good, I don’t think I would be very happy working in an accounting firm. But still – it was money.
That was my mistake because this thinking constrained the possibilities. I was feeling nauseous that since my marks weren’t cutting it, I wouldn’t be getting those jobs and therefore wouldn’t be making the money. Well I was thinking of this all day and feeling self-pity for the boy who just couldn’t cut it. It was about 8:00pm when I realized I’ve been going about all this the wrong way.
I’ve been thinking that money was the goal and that a job or a career would be the vehicle to get there. All this time I’ve been thinking backwards – it’s the other way around. It’s the job that is the goal and money is just really a side effect. The only true way I can ever be happy is if the job I’ll be doing is something that I truly think is right. Then I thought about that. I always thought the ideal job would be something to do with trading or investing or financial planning or some other crap but with this notion that money was just a side effect, those jobs seemed meaningless now.
I’ve heard so many ‘success stories’ about successful people in the business world who would go around chanting that the number one priority is love your job. I’ve heard it so many times that it just fades into the background. The fact remains is they were in the 6 digit salary figure and that was the big trumpet blast I heard.
Now I thought about what job would make me be happy. Being happy is being passionate about something. No, “teaching english to japanese people” (anonymous) is not something that makes me feel passionate. I have many things that do so finding a way to make a living out of them is only a matter of time.
I feel a big monkey has been clubbed off my back because now I don’t have to worry about getting into the corporate world and making corporate monies. I now want to do something because I believe in it, not because I believe in the side effects of it.
The wheels are in motion.
Woooohoooo
October 24, 2001
One more midterm and I’ll be in the freezone for awhile. The one today was harder than I thought, but I didn’t do too badly, I whupped a substantial amount of the thing. Woooohoooo.
My elbow is really hurting now. I think this is what tennis elbow is. I now know that after overextending the elbow playing volleyball should not be treated with more overextending of the elbow with more volleyball. I’m playing volleyball this friday too doh, but I’m planning to to serve or spike. My serve really sucked last week because I was holding back as to not hurt the elbow too much. But today, it was grueling because every time my arm bends in a certain way, a sharp jolt of writhing pain shoots up the arm. Ouchie.
Tomorrow I have an interview with a smaller sized accounting firm. I don’t expect to get a second interview but I’ll try my best. I have another one on friday. Wish me luck but not too much luck because I’m still not sure if accounting is my thing.
I got my ticket confirmed and in less than two months I’ll be with my baby once again. Woooohoooo.
This is a MUST see. It is hilarious. It’s The World According To America. I don’t know who made it but it was sent to a friend of mine who sent it to a friend of mine who sent it to me.
I have much more to say but I’ll save it for later. As for tonight, I will enjoy the non-studying I will be doing. I earned it.
What happened to that Uncle Cracker song that was on 25 times an hour?
October 22, 2001
I don’t know. I like that song because it was so simple and catchy. Dennis‘ latest update is so full of energy – he must have really gotten better because he was almost reaching out of his webpage and shaking you by the shoulders. YEEAARGHHHH or something. I need some energy now.
I’m going to complain about my midterms again. Tomorrow I’m going to get back the one I wrote last Thursday. I know it’s bad. I’m not talking about people who say they do bad but pull 80, 90, 95%. I’m talking about, I know it’s at most 65%. Ok I’m fine with that, I can’t change whether I do well or not anymore so it’s a by-gone. There’s one on Wednesday that I just can’t bring myself to study for. It’s on 6 chapters, basically a memorization and chatty chatty midterm, and I read 5 out of the 6 chapters before already (yeah I actually did some reading this term). So there’s all the motivation for studying. Then there’s one next Monday that I don’t give a rat’s ass about.
I suck in school. I remember when I got 2 B’s and the rest A’s in high school. Now look at me. It’s 2 B’s and the rest… < B’s, maybe. But high school didn’t mean shit anyway. I learned something that I could have if I went to the library or a bookstore by myself. In fact, 80% of my courses now apply to that theory too. Too bad libraries don’t test for knowledge and hand out papers with M.BA stamped on it.
Emails
What would be the most memorizable email address? The one I give out nowadays is jerry*jvision.ca. So when people ask, I say, <jerry> <at> <jay> <vision> <dot> <see> <eh>. Still, it’s kind of long. I guess for me the best email would be jerry*leung.com, but I’d have to register leung.com but it’s already taken by a guy called Jackson. Incidentally, his email is jackson@leung.com. Maybe I can buy an email alias from him.
My jerry*jvision.ca is probably the best email I have. Compare it to leung*smartt.com, jeleung*hotmail.com, or my work address leung*mail.cstudies.ubc.ca (which is really an alias for an easier jerry.leung*ubc.ca). Doh.
Oh yeah, replace the *’s with @’s. I’m just afraid some bot is going to crawl around and copy down those emails and spam me big time (none of you go do that ok?). But my contact page has those emails anyway. Doh.
Some Links I Found
Spammimic – hide secret messages in spam messages that look almost like a real spam message. It just shows how easy it is for terrorists to communicate and make it hell for authorities to track. They say Echelon and Carnivore ignore spam, so voila, hide messages in the stuff they throw out.
Martial Arts TRICKZ – teaches you how to do cool kicks that do wonders at exhibitions but don’t work shit in a real fight. Pretty impressive though – you have to be super fit, flexible, and strong to be able to pull of some of this stuff.
Lastly, a Martial Arts FAQ – this thing is huge. It’s the most comprehensive writing about martial arts I’ve ever read. Actually I haven’t finished reading it. If you’ve ever wondered about something about MA, chances are it’s in here.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I am back in training a bit – my elbow is still killing me. I wince in pain every time I twitch it at a certain angle. People stare at me and think I’m crazy but the pain is real.
My head hurts
October 21, 2001
First let’s look at my ra2 adventures. After my last update, I lost something like 4 or 5 games in a row. I think what happened was once my rank number somewhat settled in to an equilibrium, the server was matching me with harder opponents who proved too hard. My rank fell to 11,000 something. Doh I thought. Had I already levelled off? Well no. I played a couple more times today and my rank is now 7700 something. I found out the reason why I sucked. Almost all those losses came from maps involving islands. This means in the game, you’ll have to figure out ways to get your guys onto the other side’s island. In a regular map, you just roll/walk your way there. I don’t really know how to play islands so I got rocked.
Ok that’s enough of that.
Crapulence surrounds because I haven’t done any studying this weekend. I figure there’s time later. I’m piling up things to do and all day long I watch tv and play ra2. I don’t even want to go out anymore, not without my girlfriend. In fact, it’s been awhile since I ‘went out’. I feel fine though. I get my social interaction at work.
Ok let’s take a peek at my T2DL (things to do list):
- work on the art project (doh, there’s only 1 page finished)
- work on the work webpage (actually I did that today, but I can’t get into the ftp site for some reason)
- work on the acct club webpage (i’m getting really tired of this)
- study for 2 midterms (nah)
- practice martial arts (i would, but I hurt my elbow playing volleyball so I’m allowing it to rest)
- go for a job (nah)
- clean up the place (it’s not messy enough to be worth cleaning up)
- think about aftergrad (too scary)
- update this webpage (woohoo, I am doing this now!)
- worry about things (nah)
- think about my honey (yay! I am!)
I guess the only ones that matter are studying and the webpages. Boy am I sick of all of those right now.
I got another interview with an accounting firm. That makes 2 out of 13 or something. I beat my record last year by 100%. I hate this. I’m tired of the system. I’m tired of everything, except dreaming.
I skipped my 8:30 class because I was too tired”
October 19, 2001
I say that every Friday. Anyway, first will be about that midterm yesterday. Aargh. There were 4 questions that test 3 topics. I didn’t finish in time. Damn it. I studied every night for at least 3 hours since Sunday and during the day yesterday. I’m expecting maybe 65% if the ones I did are ok. Well with that completion it means my stress level is cut by 65% too because I have 2 more midterms that I don’t really give a rat’s ass about.
To Dennis:
This is weird but I was just thinking after your update on the 16th that you should go into graphics. I thought this because you have been tinkering with graphics for awhile. I remember you talking about some opengl something something a long time ago (I didn’t understand then so it’s just a fuzz to me now). I hope you do get that job because you deserve it. I have never seen anyone work as much as this boy. Have fun running around in the rice fields when you’re in China.
To Michelle:
You can’t usurp my 8900th position because after my midterm last night, I played the game and was killed by a guy far superior to me. Damnit. But that’s ok being 8901 is still pretty good to me. And when you mention, ‘the boy‘, it reminds me of Curious George…
Curious George was in the park with, ‘the man‘, with the yellow hat. George and, ‘the man‘ with the yellow hat were having a great time…
See? Hehe. You mention the boy in every one of your updates now. No one I know mentions their boyfriend or girlfriend in their updates, except maybe Dennis too.
I love Eri, who just messaged me that she’s sleeping now right when I wake up. Doh. Since no one else is updating, I won’t write any more personal messages. Poo to you.
This will be an update about RA2
October 17, 2001
Red Alert 2 that is. Sorry Dennis, as much as I would like to get my ass kicked in Rocket Arena by you, I’m hooked on Red Alert right now. Man it’s so damn fun.
(I know I have a midterm tomorrow, but I deserved a break. I studied 5 hours straight today. I’m very sick and tired of debiting interest expenses and finding gains and losses on debt extinguishment and all that other jargon.)
When I started playing on the 15th, I think I was ranked maybe 30,000+ something. I played about 10 games in total so far – I only lost once! Woohoo. I think I’m doing pretty well for a newbie. The game keeps track of your stats for you and assigns you a number ranking based on points and what rank your opponent was. After these 10 games, I’m ranked 8900+. I think that’s a pretty big jump (for a newbie that is). I don’t know what ranks the people I played were but I think half of them are crappy people because the server automatically matches players around the same ranking in a Quick Game.
What’s great about the game is that it’s not micro-management biased. Sure it helps, but the benefits of micro’ing are minimal (maybe the top rankers will beg to differ). But for me, it’s all about strategy. After my first game/loss, I learned to somewhat mix different units up for a better attack. I even managed to fend off different kinds of rushes too (I’m especially proud of that because in starcraft 2, I still get pissed off thinking about the time when one of my friends sent 4 zealots and killed me and I had to wait 45 minutes before they played another game. I had to play stupid Rainbow Six while I waited.)
And I’m surprised that the other players are nice. In Quake 3, when you waste people, many of them start acting nasty and call you a cheat and start stupid flame wars. I’ve played tonnes of really nice people who didn’t care that I was a newbie that beat them. Heh heh heh.
I know I’ll eventually get bored of it, but since time is limited right now due to midterms, each game will be so much fun. After the midterms though, I give it a week before I quit.
Ok, my resting hour is up. Back to the books. Bye bye bye.
That is some intense action
October 15, 2001
I just played my very first multiplayer Red Alert 2 game today. I lost, but not as bad as I thought I would. It’s so intense. I did everything alright I suppose except my most fatal error was massing on one kind of unit. It killed most of his forward defenses but he was prepared for it. By that time, all the resources were drained and we were both relying on 8 oil derricks for resources which doesn’t go very far. I THEN realized that the secret was covering all the bases but it was too late. He was already air raiding my split-off which wasn’t too heavily anti-air defended. He even built anti-air ships on a map that didn’t have too much water – but I now know he did it because Aegis Cruisers are probably the best anti-air available.
I made one more rush and I managed to kill of 4 of his oil derricks before losing all the forces, but then again, so did he and he had about 5 tanks left over. I had small stationary defences that wouldn’t hold and I was out of resources. I surrendered. It was so fun though – my hands were freezing cold and I could feel sweat running down my back. The only other game that did that was Doom II (you know, the one where I whupped Dennis everytime, despite what he’ll say on his webpage… probably later tonight… hehe).
But anyway, if you do play Red Alert 2 and if you want to play against someone who has a 0-1 record in his whole RA2 career, please email me or ICQ me or Messenger me or whatever the hell we have.
Since 99% of you don’t play, maybe I’ll write about something else
The Sims! The Sims are great. Just kidding. Dennis is busy drawing a labrador retriever or something on his computer and Michelle is probably rolling around the floor scheming on ways to take vengeance for not wishing her a happy birthday. And I guess those are the ONLY two who ever update their webpages. You know, no one is updating at all. Hint hint Jesse and Justin.
By the by. What are your feelings about air travel now? Obviously people are scared since airlines have reduced earnings forecast and friends of friends of friends have been telling people there are many empty seats on their flights. But what about YOU? I don’t know if this is correct or not but wouldn’t now be the safest time to travel by air due to the increased security and controls? Fares are somewhat cheaper too. There have been more anthrax cases. I’m sick of hearing the word Anthrax. It used to be a cool sounding word but now it’s just annoying, much like ‘Not’ or ‘Like’ – two words overused by stupid teenagers.
Time to study now. Here I go.
Some Deep Reflection [00:05]
Actually I’m writing this fifteen minutes before the stated time but by the time it’s finished, it should be 12:05.
I wasted an entire day today. I’m very not proud of it but I needed a day of relaxation. Let’s take a look at what I did today. I played a lot of The Sims. That game is awesome. It’s not even really a game. There’s no explicit goal – you can make your Sim become a successful career person or you can create a crazy, lonely, toilet-lacking Sim. It’s great. Currently I’m tending a couple who have just bought a nice lot and created walls for a dream house. Sadly, they ran out of funds and their nice house has no carpeting or wallpaper. The house is so big that they use up a small bit of energy just walking from their room to the kitchen area. I plan to make more people live in it later.
—
Since I joined that Blockbusters ‘Rewards’ thingy, I had $2 off a rental this month. Since I was planning to waste today anyway, I went out and got Little Nicky – Adam Sandler. It’s not very good. It has a few funny moments when he gets hit by trains and stuff but… blech. I guess I’m comparing it to the Happy Gilmour / Waterboy par line.
—
I mentioned to Dennis that material things don’t make me happy anymore. I’m glad that I’ve transcended this shallowness but in a way, I don’t like it. Why you ask? Well, I look around me and so many people find pleasure in buying something new. I like buying things for the utility it will provide, but other than that, I’m not really happier. I wasn’t like this before.
I do find pleasure in simple things though. Enjoying a poutine once in awhile is bliss. Leaning on a tree in the summer is pure heaven. I’d trade anything I own for a nice sunny day where I can be doing the things I enjoy. But it doesn’t go the other way.
I’m finding it gets harder and harder to keep myself happy. I mean, if I could just buy something and poof here comes the happiness, that would be great. But I need substance more than glitter. I need to know that what I’m doing is right and worth the effort. That makes me happy. I enjoy the means more than the ends. What was that old saying?
The journey is its own reward.
—
I heard that the band Anthrax is considering to change its name due to the recent awareness of the bacteria with the same name. They don’t want to be linked to something bad or some crap like that. Kind of stupid. They should name themselves the Fuzzy Bunnies with Pink Noses because then they’ll never be linked to bad things. (Unless Al-Quaida trains fuzzy bunnies with pink noses to crash planes into buildings).
—
I wonder if somewhere out there, there are similar people with similiar thoughts. I think I’m a freak because I don’t think like ‘normal’ people. I take some pride in that I guess. The status quo scares me. It’s filled with bright colors and sparklies that will eventually fall apart under its own weight. Muhahaha.
—
Don’t you love how I segment different ideas and separate them with —’s? I guess I’ll whine another time. Bye.
PS. I love my girlfriend. This is to prove that I do talk about my girlfriend in every update.
Doh I guess I did forget…
October 14, 2001
Hi everybody. Michelle was right. I did forget to wish her a happy birthday. So, I want all my webpage’s visitors to wish her a happy belated birthday (which would be just Dennis anyway I think). I guess I’m only 31 minutes late… doh. [sorry!] Happy Birthday!
So I was doing homework all day again… kind of. It was one of those days where I set out that I would finish the assignments for one particular class. In this case, English. I had to write two things – an expanded definition about depreciation and a report proposal for a formal report. Plus I read the book to see how specifically to go about on these two things. Had I worked straight without breaks, I think it would have taken me maybe 4 hours? Maybe a little less. But in reality, it took me from 3:00pm to 11:00pm. Minus a 1 hour dinner, 2 hours watching Happy Gilmour and parts of The Patriot, 1 hour playing Red Alert 2, 2 hours playing The Sims, and some time talking to Eri, bathing, and a few insignificant things (like looking for my wallet). I guess it works out to be around 4 hours anyway but I feel I just wasted so much time on it.
That’s why I hate studying at home. I don’t study. I wander off and waste all my time. This damn computer is usually the biggest magnet of them all! I have to study tomorrow for real.
—
It looks like I was correct in assuming that my future in accounting was basically over. I got one lousy interview from the mass of job applications. To make it even sadder, that one interview was secured because someone who worked there helped me get that interview. I’m going about assuming that this one interview isn’t going to be a successful one too.
I blame this on two things – firstly, I don’t want to be an accountant and on some unconscious level I must’ve screwed myself over to avoid it and second, my grades sucked cow which must’ve made me look really stupid to those big big companies. That’s ok though. Better I not get in and waste a bunch of years. But now I have to really look at what’s to become of me. I really want to get in to the whole investing thing. I’m not too happy with equity investing so I think I’ll learn a lot more on debt and then see what happens.
I haven’t done anything else to my big secret art project because time has been a bitch that has been avoiding me all this week… and probably the next three. Lousy ungrateful time.
—
Anthrax is a lousy thing. I love Eri.
That wasn’t too bad was it?
October 10, 2001
Before I update, after I updated about the pictures of faces in the smoke in the wtc attacks, I found this webpage. It’s filled with these faces and filled with even more speculation. And if you’re looking for a way to vent your anger towards Bin Laden, here’s a great little activity.
Ok.
I guess I’ll start this update for real now. It’s not even close to my birthday, but if you’re interested in buying me something because you’re struck by my charm and good nature, then here’s something I really want - 20lb weights that can be strapped onto the legs or arms I guess. I’ve been working with 5 and 10lbs and they’re too light now. Only $28US!!! Buy a set for me and I’ll show you some results quickly.
Yesterday and today have been two of the hardest working days for me in terms of school work. I think I accomplished 5 out of 6 objectives (the unfinished one is cleaning my desk). I read about 3 hours today – I’ve never done that out of exam time. Tomorrow will be another mad homework night, but I think I’ll be able to get used to it soon. 1 Midterm / Week for the next 3 weeks. Not bad.
Dennis’ laptop is the only one I’ve ever known to be running Linux. I never even knew it could happen. Sounds cool though. No one who browses at his laptop will know what he’s running. I know people who don’t know what Linux is (and I only know of it, I don’t know too many of the commands).
I went and bought two books about conditioning today – against my thin thin wallet’s wishes. One of them is for sports and the other is more martial art oriented. I love them both. Once I’m free from the shackles of homework, I’ll be putting those books to test. Today I spent an hour on the nice and heavy punching bag at the Birdcoop. My knuckles are so raw and I shredded skin big time. It hurts like a cow but they’re glory marks… glory for … beating up a punching bag.
And I’m still working on that art project – it’s not really moving too far. I’ll tell you one thing about it – it’s entitled Visions, kind of like my webpage. I wish I can show you the final result now, I’m quite proud of myself for just thinking of the concept.
I’ll end with a link to a really nice desktop design webpage that’s super helpful for idiots like me.
Happy Thanksgiving I guess
October 08, 2001
Do people even celebrate Thanksgiving anymore? I mean, how many turkey dinner dealies still exist for Thanksgiving in Canada? I get the turkey on Christmas or New Years, but I don’t think I have done anything out of the ordinary for Thanksgiving.
I got my long long hair cut off. It feels so good to not have hair poking in your eyes, or your mom telling you that you can make a small ponytail. Yeah. Thanks for reassuring your son’s masculinity (and Dennis owes me a purse).
I’m sick of reading accounting books. I’ve been doing that since I got home today in the afternoon. One more chapter tonight and that’s it. Then it’s writing a group project… nay, patching a group report from other member’s contributions. Blech. I’m tired.
Then I have this drawing project to work on. It’s going to be so great. I love it already. It’s not often that an accounting student gets creative bursts such as this… muahaha, if Picasso could make balance sheets, he would be me. I’m assuming you are wondering just what this ‘project’ is. You probably want me to tell you.
Anyway, 2nd airstrike today. Nothing new. I’m really tired of hearing about this stuff. I wish it would all go away and we can get back to our real news of how ducks are stuck in sewers and our local heroic police department valiantly rescues them. You know, real news that really matters. <cough cough>
Isn’t it great that I’m updating daily now? It feels great to be back baby.
“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow” – Aesop (~550 BC)
I’ve been aware that many people have been seeing so called demons or faces in the smoke that billowed out of the wtc towers. Many of these pictures have been posted on artbell.com with even more comments. Here are two pages of just a bunch of them on the site [one & two]. This isn’t the first time faces have been seen anywhere. People see images of Mary or Jesus on windows, billboards, clouds, everything.
The human optical system forms familiar shapes and images when we see abstract things. It’s just the way our brain works. Many psychology books have examples of this. Aren’t these shadow faces just a more complex example of this phenomena?
I don’t know. That’s just what I think. Some people should really just reflect on this before screaming to the world that some divine being showed up on their picture of smoke or in their mash potatoes.
“We are ready for jihad.”
October 07, 2001
Fuck. I hate waking up from a comfortable sleep to find out some horrible thing has happened. My mom tells me, “They’re at war”. Fuck.
I guess it was unavoidable. The states have been moving in troops and planes into the region all month. It just hit me that now they are really fighting. I really didn’t want a war. I don’t think that killing more people will solve anything. This fighting only leads to more hatred and more killing that will never bring back any person who died at 9/11. Justice? I don’t know if killing off the governing body is justice.
Someone in Pakistan mentioned that the States’ attack is a terrorist attack – that is weird huh? I guess whoever’s on the receiving side will always view it as a terrorist attack. The only noble attack to me is if each country sends one fighter. They go at it, no rounds, no time limit, no weapons, and to the death. The winning side takes all.
They’re hitting the ‘personal residences of the Taliban’. Great. Piss them off even more. We’ve seen that these extremists are able to pull big shit off. I don’t think bombing their houses does much to prevent future calamities. Of course, much like Yugoslavia, they bombed off their power right away. And my god, Afghan’s anti-air can’t even reach the altitudes the US recon planes fly? That’s pathetic! They are so going to get whupped. They are so going to find Bin Laden and execute his martyr ass (or terrorist ass, depends on which side you’re from). But then the thousands of other terrorists seeded around the globe will go into religious berserker mode and wreak armageddon upon us. I bet that one of you has an extremist living close to you. I bet.
Here’s a surprise – stocks were up.
Byebu
October 06, 2001
I saw Eri off yesterday at the airport. It has been a month already doh. It was super fun of course but I neglected my schoolwork completely. I am so backed up with work and reading that I will again have no life for at least a week. I mean literally all reading and homework. Doh. It’s worth it.
My digital camera has been screwy for the past week. I havea a feeling it’s the rechargeable batteries no longer operating at optimal – they were bought at Radio Shack… hint hint. They only lasted a year whereas other brands I’ve tried lasted years and years. Or maybe it’s my camera that’s busted after only one year of use. that would suck shit seeing I don’t have any money left to buy something like that.
Dennis has released a song from his band. As a person who enjoys metal, I have to say the guitaring is superb. Fast paced, high energy makes-me-want-to-smash-stuff feel: that’s what metal is. I’m actually listening to it right now to see what else I can say about it. My favorite part is where I can’t understand what the vocals are about. (hehe) This band is going places.
And I’m starting to clean up my place again. The living room is half clean – I can see the carpet now! It’s amazing how some books and papers can make such a big heap with such little materials. I had this great idea for this drawing book I’m starting. That’s all.
What a shitty update. I don’t have anything better to say except I just felt like writing about what I did today.
That’s all.
“Fits in your Wallet”
October 03, 2001
I hate things that fit in your wallet. I was at blockbusters yesterday and they now have some sort of “rewards” dealy where you pay $10 and you get $2 off a rental every month, a free rental on your birthday, and they’ll forgive you twice if you return something late. To top that off, the movie I was renting at the time was also free. I got the damn thing because there’s 2 free rentals in it which almost makes up the $10 anyway. Besides, I NEVER go out on my birthday anymore so I might as well get a video. That sounds so sad.
Anyways, they give you a little book that “fits in your wallet”. It does not fit in your wallet unless your wallet can handle something about 0.5cm thick. I mean, the book will go into one of the slots, but after that, the wallet feels super chunky and heavy and not comfortable to put into your pockets. Does that count as fit? We have too many things that fit in wallets nowadays. All those ID cards, credit cards, library cards, wallet-sized pictures, coins, paper bills, and all that stuff. Our wallets are overstressed! Who’s going to look out for our wallets?
You know, the girls have it set. They have those big wallets and those purses that they use to carry a whole lot more stuff than we men do. When are we men going to wake up and realize we need those big wallets too? Right now my wallet is split by functionality. The left side is my identification side – anything that can be used to ID me is there: driver’s licence, birth certificate, student card, SIN, etc. The right side is my everything-else side: blockbusters rental, hallmark stampy card, bubble tea stampy cards, etc. If I used one of those big wallets, I’d be able to sort both sides even further… like… uh… school-use stuff, entertainment stuff, eating stuff, etc.
So I see three solutions to this problem.
Make bigger wallets the norm of society
- They don’t even have to be huge. I think those executive portfolio things would be the perfect size. They’re about the size of a binder and usually have nice leather casing and zippers and places to hold business cards and whatnot.
make wallet items smaller OR bigger
- Either make it so that we can fit twice as many library cards into the same compartment or make library cards so big that we won’t even think about putting them into our wallets. I like the latter idea because it seems kind of fun to have a bunch of novelty library cards that REALLY work!
multipurpose card
- This card will be a credit, bank, drivers licence, social insurance, and anything else important on one card. Maybe put a few buttons on it and abilities to communicate with databases. So it would be like, “Hmm, I think I’ll pay my visa now.” <<zap>> “Excellent, that button I just pushed on this card just paid my visa bill.” This would mean my wallet would shed so much weight. The environment would be saved because no company would be cutting down trees to print library cards anymore. (This card would be plastic or perhaps a light alloy)
This message is for Dennis [12:21]
I’m really glad that you’re updating again. I mean, I like reading your updates and all, but I’m really unimpressed. Why you ask? How dare you!
I am usually the one that says no one is updating! And I AM the one who usually updates the most! You usurper! How dare you update more than me! That’s blasphemous! I will regain that crown of glory now! You swine!
A new unrelated update [12:22]
I just updated about wanting to update more than Dennis.
Another unrelated update that just sprang up in my head [12:23]
Woohoo, that’s 4 updates now… even though they’re in the same 20 minute timeframe.
Yeah. [12:24]
You get the idea now. Muahahahaha, I again update the most. Dennis, you never update anymore.
Can’t Sleep
October 01, 2001
I do my best thinking in the time span between jumping into bed and falling asleep. It’s my critical thinking time, I think. It works best when after the thinking I fall asleep and put those thoughts into dream cycles to run different scenarios to find different outcomes.
I am a machine.
Like all machines, I sometimes malfunction and here I am at 2 in the freakin morning updating my forsaken website.
I am a machine with issues.
Not big psychological deep-down-hire-shrink issues, but I guess the word would be ‘hang-ups’. They cause me to freeze in life and everything that ever was to me would become stagnant – much like the economy we live in.
I am a machine with issues on down time and I need coffee.
Yes. But I’m not alone. Eri can’t sleep too. She decided to pop a video in the video machine while I update on the webpage machine. I get the feeling that sometimes I update too much about things that go wrong, or things that suck, or things that just plain piss me off. I might be pulling off the wrong impression that I’m out there to find sympathy from you, the dear reader, who might, on some inner level, know what I’m thinking about and say, “Hey, Jerry, you’re right. I feel bad for you and I wish it goes better.”
No. That’s not my goal. Right?
No. I write because I write. You read because you read. I write, you read. Simple Simplicity. No matter. My problem: I’m not advancing in anything. I’m in the same position where I was a year ago, or 2 years ago, or maybe even 3 years ago. I’m same. I’m not moving. I’m not evolving. I’m not improving.
In other words, I’m letting everyone/everything else improve while I remain same, which means I’m actually getting worse relative to everything else. I hate that. I make all these great ambitious plans and set short/long term objectives that are somewhat attainable but just need a lot of work. I know I can do it. I just can’t get past the first step of doing that lot of work part. I’m a LMF. Ack.
For example; I bumped into someone from my highschool who I spoke to on occassion (which means I never spoke to him). I didn’t care about him before. He was one of those who melded into the shadows and not a soul would ever notice him. <Vanity>I always thought of myself as somewhat better than him </Vanity>. Yet, here we are, 4 years after high school, and he comes over and talks to me. He knew my name and it took me awhile before I realized it was him. I mean, god, this boy has changed. And here I am and I haven’t changed. I’m still stuck in this rut.
Now here’s what I will do.
I don’t like being complacent (sp?). I don’t like people who complain and bitch without planning action. In my mind, all the answers are already there, waiting for me to do them. I will do them. Soon. I think I’ll begin when my significant other returns home and I’ll have a lot more free time. I know what to do which is a good thing. So, there’s no need for you, dear reader, to message me with some sort of moral or <gulp> anecdote about some past event that I probably don’t really want to know anyway. I’ll get by. I’ll survive.
Thanks for reading. Here’s your reward – it’s my inspiration.
PS. I wonder what happened to all my visitors I used to have. Oh well.
Oh yeah baby
September 25, 2001
When I shoved those CACEE forms into the cubby holes at the commerce carrer centre, all the week’s stress went in with them. I spent a long time on those damn forms but it’s finally over and I can get on with my life.
So, whether or not my future in accounting blooms or blows depends on whether or not these forms get me interviews, and ultimately, jobs. Cross fingers?
The media only talks about the terrorist attacks and terrorist attack-related things. Although it’s exciting in some ways and very important as it’s a global issue that impacts everything, I’m getting pretty sick of it. I have been wanting to play Red Alert or RA2 a lot lately. Damn media.
If we think some concept is good and another’s concept is bad, and at the same time, that other person thinks their concept is good and our’s is bad, then who’s to say what is really good or bad? And if we can agree no one (neither us or them) is really better than the other, then the whole concept of goodness and badness falls apart. If so, is it plausible to say that nothing is good and nothing is bad? I guess it’ll only work on a macro level because I’m quite sure it is bad when a vulture starts pecking at my eyes. But then again, it is good for that vulture because it derives nourishment or entertainment.
I just confused myself.
Ugh
September 23, 2001
Holy fuck what a week again.
This time, it was my personal life. Or the lack of it anyway.
The big thing was club week last week. I had to sit there like an idiot promoting the accounting club. It’s great and all, but I just got a little tired from saying the same thing over and over again. I also had to get the webpage updated. Now, I’m already behind again from not updating for a few days. I gotta get that done tomorrow. Then there was homework. Luckily all the assignments so far haven’t taken that long to finish. The most tiring thing was the 4th Year CA Night on Thursday. That is basically a night where about 100 students who need an accounting job come out along with about 50 real accountants from different companies. The students start shmoozing their way to try to get jobs. I admit I did some shmoozing myself, but I made it a point not to lay it on too thick like some people did. It was tiring, but I did meet two reps from a small firm that seemed a lot different than the rest. Hopeful I be.
Tonight, I was busy finishing up the CACEE forms for Tuesday. They’re so tedious. They’re so subjective that filling it out is similar to writing an essay that you want your teacher to grade generously. So, you have to write in some things they expect you to write but at the same time be creative ~ these two things conflict sometimes.
Thankfully, after Tuesday, my life will come back to me… slowly. I’m a zombie to the chores at hand right now. Soon, soon I shall regain life and spend all of it being with Eri. Yes, I do mention her name every update. Muhahaha.
I’ve finally come up with a plan about my future which was foggy until now. I will firstly graduate [duh]. Then, if I haven’t secured an accounting job as an articling student by then, then I shall go get a DAP of Finance. It’s only a year or so and it will open up more portals of workdom. After that, then I don’t know. That’s beyond my plan. But at least I have come up with an IF, ELSE statement so far. If I do get a job, then I will attain that CA designation in about 3 years – after which I will probably stay with the firm to broaden my experience.
When I feel I have enough experience, I will consider doing that MBA in finance or accounting, then maybe travel? This area is too far to think of.
Blah. I don’t want to graduate so fast.
Perhaps a poor icon picture
September 17, 2001
Holy fuck what a week.
I don’t really want to talk about it here because if I do write about it, I’ll write way too much. I’d rather talk about this in person with friends. I’ll just say I waited 4 hours at the airport to pick up Eri. Pretty minimal in consequence compared to what people at the WTC felt. Holy fuck.
But I’ll just say let’s all pray or whatever you do in your religion/belief system for not just the victims and their families, but for all of humanity at large.
This has been a weird week too. I feel bad because I have been having fun with Eri who’s been here since the day of the attack. But seriously, we must go on right? Move on. I feel bad, but this won’t be the last time innocent people die.
I’ve been busy as hell all week and will be until half way through next week. Doh. Basically, I go to school and finish everything I need to, rush home to be with my honey, then do homework or whatever commitments that’s on my To-Do. We did happen to find Simant though! It’s not as fun as I remembered it to be.
I’m working on updating the UBC Accounting Club Webpage. It’s been on hold for the longest of time so I just added a few exec bios and whatnot. I think it needs a redesign because it took forever to add the Message Board link to every freaking page and not every page looks the same (that’s partially my fault). Who knows. Maybe post-midterms will be a new look for it.
I’m also taking a month off work. I don’t know if I said this already. I’m doing this because primarily, I wanted to spend all the available time with my honey and secondarily (is that a real word?), there’s so much stuff to do for school, I thought a break from work would be necessary. Yup.
I’m having that feeling again. The one where something is going to happen. I’ve had this feeling before – namely beginning of last year, but nothing important really happened. Then through the summer and school, there was lull. Ever since school started (before those WTC attacks), I’ve had the feeling come back. I don’t know what the hell it means. Probably a bad case of gas or something.
I love you all and if I die, then I probably won’t update for a while. Bye.
If you fear nothing, you love nothing. If you love nothing, what joy can there be in life?
September 10, 2001
I fear, therefore I love.
And, I love my honey! It is our one year anniversary today! Yay for us. We are going to celebrate well. She will celebrate on an airplane heading for Vancouver while I will celebrate by reading up on auditing and financial accounting. D’oh. Sorry ladies, my babe is back in town (like you commoners ever held a glimmer of chance).
I am smug.
I found 6 more job opportunities with big big investment firms that look really appealing but aren’t really up my accounting alley. Leaning more on the Finance side, they look like really really fun and interesting jobs. I’m still going to apply for them ~ accounting and finance are similar in many respects. So that makes it about 16 jobs that I have to send resumes or CACEE’s. Of course, each one should be unique to the job being applied for. Crapulence.
I have one class tomorrow then I’m off to the airport to pick up my honey. Sorry everyone, but I’m am going to the realm of non-existence for the next month because I’m spending every available moment with her. (Still need to go to classes though).
After being told of World of Warcraft by Jesse, I was amazed at these screenshots. This game looks like fun but will probably eat up real life since you’re in a fake (but fun) life. Here are those screenshots.
If you haven’t already, you have to see Robot Frank’s page. It is the best. I’m still reading the diaries – they crack me up!!!
Why am I typing like a retard? Don’t answer that.
(edited: no title)
September 09, 2001
Woh. I’m playing Betrayal at Krondor and it’s pretty cool. I’ve had the game for years now but never played it before and seeing how I was so bored today, I installed it and BOOM. It’s fun! A little complicated seeing how I have no instructions or anything. Thank god for the miracles of internet. I found a good page with item lists, weapon data, and WALKTHROUGHS! Woohoo. I didn’t really get too far though. I didn’t realize how weak those bastards are when you first start.
I really should be doing homework instead. Tonight. After Simpsons. I swear it.
I wish I had something more to say. But I don’t. Really. Don’t. Nope.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, just judge the person buying the book
September 06, 2001
I love my financial accounting class. It was the second lecture today, talking about bonds and the pricing of said bonds. Simple, mindless finance equations. I learned most of this in second year already so it was basically review. But it was the way the prof taught that really made it ‘fun’.
I have to admit, I had judgements about this prof before I took any of his classes. My impression of him wasn’t very nice – this based on a 5 minute conversation I had with him when we were both smoking outside. Ever since that conversation, I always thought he was … not as nice as I thought. So, when I found out he would be teaching the course, I thought to myself, “oh shit. This will be great…”
So, I am very wrong. He’s a very good teacher – he gets to the point and he teaches at a quicker pace. I hate slow teachers. In my mind I’m completing their sentences while barely keeping awake. If they spoke faster, I’d actually give a crap about what they’re saying.
I bought my books today. If you’re a UBC’er, you’ll know that waiting in the mile-long line used to take >1 hour. They’ve streamlined this bottleneck a lot now because I waited about half an hour. I’m guessing there were about 100 people ahead of me.
Anyways, I find it very awkard waiting in that line because it snakes and turns all over the place. You find yourself staring at people waiting in line who are facing you (snakes and loops so many times). You don’t know them and vice versa. You stare at their books while they stare at yours. You both make an opinion based on each other’s books.
Today, I saw some guy holding a first year philosophy book of Plato. Most likely it was a collection of excerpts from the Republican. I then looked at this guy. He was sporting a white hooded sweater with some blue logo and blue jeans. Clean cut hair-do with a face that knew only about 3 emotions. My thoughts were he was a first year guy doing an Arts degree but hating it because he really wanted to do something more fun but his parents made him. I thought he will never be happy at UBC.
There were so many more of these examples. That 30 minute wait takes forever. I wonder what people thought about me. I had a basket of books like Business Analysis & Valuation, Strategic Management Theory, uh… some book about Auditing, and an English book. I bet everyone thought I was a mindless stiff when really I’m filled with millions of different colors and swirls.
“You will one day work for us” – commerce slogan as understood by Michelle. Is this true? I hope not. I don’t want any of you working for me. You’ll hate me by day 3. Guaranteed.
Self-indulgence
September 05, 2001
Well, here it is. It’s all up except the art. I haven’t drawn in a few days so there’s no art to speak of. It’s all school now. Ok ok, it was only the second day today, but 3 1.5hr classes in a row is tough. I didn’t manage to eat until 3:00pm today. I’m genuinely scared of my courses because it’s proving to be massive loads of reading and homework. Luckily, my revamped life is proving to be more courageous and confident in taking on this challenge.
Did you know that if you click on the icon at the top of each section, you will go back to the main page? I don’t think it’s very obvious but I didn’t want to add to much navigation to any page. What I do is program the wheel of my mouse to be the Back button (when you press the wheel, not roll), so it’s very easy to go back on pages. If not, then you can point to the back button or just click the top icon. It’s not that difficult.
I’m a little stressed out because there’s one accounting course that I didn’t know I had to take. I went to the ever helpful undergrad office and they made me fill out a sheet. Then, they told me to check the web in a couple of days. So it’s like telling me: ok, maybe yes, maybe no. But spend two days worrying about it and then we’ll tell you. I love admin.
More stress also comes because I found out a couple of days ago that for grads, applications for the accounting firms are due in 3 weeks. I thought they were due in 1.5 months. So now I have to blaze through the CACEE forms. (Can’t they use regular resumes???) It’s a thankful coincidence that I work best under stress.
I love my girlfriend. That’s all for now.
I’m a short fused little boy
August 31, 2001
Everything is making me angry and frustrated. Everything. I catch myself making pretty mean remarks at people who I love to be with. I’m asking myself why I’m so mean lately and I’ve narrowed it down to 2 things. Number 1: I haven’t had a single cigarette since Sunday night, and Number 2: I’m a bitch. It’s not that am always a bitch, it’s just that something has been dwelling in my mind for the past little while that is just ooh… making me bitch at everything. I’m SO damn cranky lately.
Even people who don’t know me that well come up to me and say how tired I look. I crack a fake smile and tell them I didn’t sleep much last night when I really slept 8 or 9 hours. I hate being a fake asshole.
I wish I can scream out the thing that I’m dwelling on but it’s really nothing. Self-fabricated what-if’s that are rubbing it in each and everyday of my miserable life. Plus, if I do scream out this thing, some lives will be forever changed. It sounds really drastic but it’s really not. But, like the old saying goes, oh fuck the old sayings. Fuck it all. I’m really annoyed.
I’m glad however, that I’ve quit smoking. I have the urges to go out and buy some, but then I realize that I don’t even want to smoke. It’s all primal urges now – yes, the urge for tobacco is a primal urge. I figure if I can kick smoking, I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want. Believe me, quitting smoking is no walk in the park.
I know things are changing in my life. Weird but wonderful things. The artistic side is coming back to me. I want to get back in shape – nay, I WILL get back in shape. My school schedule is practically perfect as it fits a great work-out regime in.
Things are stirring in my life. The old paradigms are melting away, revealing new and exciting shapes by which I will live by.
WOOHOO!!!!
(too bad for the crappy stuff though)
I’m really hating this webpage
August 29, 2001
Really! It’s just really pissing me off now. It’s been awhile hasn’t it? I guess that being pissed off at just looking at this webpage makes it harder to update.
I have been well, physically. Mentally, I’ve been in rollercoasters of crazy ups and moody lows. All caused by my stupidness. I feel I’m just a freak sometimes, thinking of these stupid stupid things that don’t concern me at all, and never will. It’s really bugging me! Why can’t I be one of those simple minded fools who laugh and skip around all day? Their lives are free of the anguishes of mental torture that torment me in every waking moment of my life (and sometimes in my blasted dreams too).
… AAAAAnyways…
I bought myself an acid-free sketchbook made out of recycled paper, a set of 6 different toned pencils, a new eraser, and a sharpener about a week ago. I’ve been sketching various things since then. It’s my new hobby. Actually, it’s my re-discovered hobby. When I was really young, I used to draw so much. Then came high school and all that drawingness went away. Now it’s back! I’m not very good with shading ~ it’s the one thing that I’m working on the most. Hopefully by the end of the pages, I will see a big improvement.
… AAAAAnyways…
I was in Whistler last weekend – I really needed it. I spent some time on Saturday night lying on the grass staring at the stars. There are literally thousands more stars visible from Whistler than Vancouver. And I can only see the milky way from Whistler (you know, that faint white gassy stream). This time though, I only saw 2 shooting stars compared to the 20+ I saw last year. Still nice.
I’m glad school is starting next week. I need a break from work. Isn’t it weird? Starting school will be my break from my summer break. That’s weird. It’s weird I tell ya!
… AAAAAnyways…
Yay!!! Eri is back in 13 days! YIPPEEE!!!!
that’s 2 days in a row of updating. something must be up at this webpage.
August 12, 2001
You bet it is, mister!
Hi friend. Welcome back. What an interesting day today. Dragonboat practice in the afternoon which resulted in the losing of my voice (oh, I’m the caller now), a nice late lunch, and then the rest of the day was spent playing around in photoshop.
Then some friends came over and we watched ‘Ring’. If you haven’t heard about this movie, then you must have had your fingers in your ears and eyes blindfolded and you were living in a dark cave on Mars. It wasn’t as scary as everyone says it was. I didn’t find it scary at all really. Some reasons for this is because there are so many chinese movies that copy scenes from that movie in a bastardly, somewhat comedic way. I was surprised that I knew of so many scenes in this movie without ever watching it. Another reason is because I predict things that happen in movies and horror movies are just way too predictable nowadays.
I have to work super freaking early tomorrow morning (until 10 at freaking night), so I will just display my work here and go to sleep.
Did I say here? I really meant here.
postmortem preressurrectional gambit
August 11, 2001
I’ve decided to postpone a redesign because I noticed I get bored with a site, kill it, put up another, and repeat. It’s an endless mad cycle. Frustrating. I think I’m going to play around with photoshop some more instead, not making webpages, but just making art. Jerry art. Not for you. For me.
I think I’m at a point where the storm has gone and I’m rummaging through a lot of old stuff. It’s not so much one problem anymore. It was a collage of problems, some not even mine, that amalgamated into a fine mess that splattered all over me. (I’m trying to use them perty big words eh?)
My mini-project will just to take pictures of ordinary things around my house and make it into a picture of some sort. Should I post? Maybe. I think it’ll be fun. I’m sure the first few pieces will just be terrible – blurs, some dots, some lines, some gradients – you know, that’s all I’ve ever done.
I’d like to backtrack and talk more about problems that affect me that don’t even belong to me. It seems I’m like some sort of radar dish when it comes to negativity. Lately, I’ve had no personal life. It has all been work. That’s not true, work has become my personal life. It sounds really pathetic to most people, but then again, my job is nothing like a normal job.
Firstly, it’s fun. It’s hard work at times (S~T~R~E~S~S~S~S), but we work hard and we play hard. Which is great!!! Then there are some animosities that are created from all this stress that goes around. And somehow, I absorb all of this, even when most of it has nothing to do with me, and let it get to me. Sucks.
But that’s alright. 99% of my coworkers are too cool for words. It’s the best team I’ve ever worked with that’s for sure. I compare many teams now with my work ‘team’ and the latter runs circles around all the others. So I feel proud to be in that team. <GLEAM>
I have a lot of links saved up but they’re all old now since I haven’t updated in awhile, so screw them. The only one worth putting up was that the guy who played Mr. Belvedere died at age 60 something. I liked that guy. He seemed like a good man. RIP.
(edited: no title)
July 30, 2001
What a long time, friend.
Many have asked me why I haven’t updated lately. Well, 3 people anyway. The answer is that I don’t want to.
In my last update, I mentioned trying to get the webcam to work. Well obviously I didn’t. Something’s wrong with the detection. Anyway, I swore I’d try again the next time I had a day off. Sadly, that wasn’t too soon. The previous previous paycheque, I logged 96 freaking hours. The last one, was 88. These are all two week periods mind you. Some of these were 10~15 hour days. I love my job, but it’s making me really tired. That’s reason number one I haven’t updated.
Number two is not to be disclosed as it is not something I want posted up on a webpage. Number two is still being resolved.
Number three is I just didn’t feel like it. Didn’t have anything to say, much like right now.
A new webpage is in the works. Right now, it’s all pencil & paper concepts but who knows. 1 month? 2 months? It’ll be coming. This look just sucks now.
Don’t judge a book by the price difference between US and Canadian prices
July 15, 2001
because it’s the same book at both prices. I never liked soccer. Well that’s not true, I used to play soccer everyday with some older kids in elementary school. I guess that was about 14 years ago now. Since then, I’ve never touched it, watched it, followed it, nor touched it with a 10 foot pole. I liked hockey better.
But today, I saw my first ever soccer game in a stadium and it was quite exciting. The Vancouver Whitecaps (formerly the 86′ers) whooped the Portland Timbers 4 – 0. It was a joke. The Timbers got about 2 good shots on goal by my count. The Whitecaps basically kept the ball the entire time. Plus, TWO penalty shots in the game. TWO!!! That’s like winning the 649 and then losing it all and then winning it all back in the same day.
Conclusion: I enjoy soccer a lot more now. Probably only live at a stadium because i still think watching it on tv is still stupid. Go Whitecaps!!!
—
As some of you know, my
Most of all, I hate how that particular date is made to be something special just because I happened to be born on that date. I didn’t have any say on whether or not it should be that date. It just happened. I mean, if I discovered the cure for male pattern baldness on that date, it would give at least some meaning to celebrate. But causing my poor mother to go into the worst pain most women will ever experience is just not the right reason.
Even though I feel so blah about b-days, Dennis and Shannon got me a great great gift. It’s my own webcam! It’s like they read my mind! I was going to launch my second webpage, http://www.sexlikethere’snotomorrow.com and I needed a webcam. Lo and behold! Here’s one lying on my couch when I got back home today. Tilt your head slightly to the right to see the future position of live, rapid updating sex scenes! (I need to get USB something something before I can use it). Thanks d00ds!
I’m still watching that Bruce Lee movie, Justin. Thanks!
—
From now on, I’ll just post somewhat interesting links in this section. The blue box will be for other crap.
- since Justin posted that duck story (which he stole from me!), I’ll post this cat story. It’s heart warming too. [here]
- now, would you rather have a gasoline tank explode, or a tank filled with hydrogen explode? (Remember the Hindenburg) [here]
- don’t take meat away from an angry chinese butcher [here]
- if you voluntarily run in front of a stampede of bulls with sharp sharp horns and one happens to run that sharp sharp horn through your left thigh, you won’t get any sympathy from me. [here]
- here’s what they found (picture to the right) [here]
My God It’s That Expensive?
July 12, 2001
See the headline? The headline is back. The headline was hard to get back, but it’s back. Hurrah for headline.
I’ve been at UBC for 3 years now and every year I pay for a parking pass. Every year it’s the same price basically. This year the total comes to just over $600. When I saw this, I thought to myself, “Six hundred fucking dollars to park at a fucking parkade?” For some reason, this year I decided that $600 was just too much. I still bought the damn thing, but I just think it’s too much.
The reason for this is probably because we’re halfway through the summer now (I know… sad) and parking everyday at B-Lot or the Pacific Spirit something Fraser Lot at $3.25 and $4 seems a lot more economical than the $600 for the year. Also… I was informed of a secret parking area that’s always free and never empty. It’s a little farther away than B-Lot and it’s a little more secluded. I found out about it through a student who was amazed that "you’re a canadian and you don’t know this?" No. Sorry, not all canadians know every nook and cranny in Vancouver. Idiot.
—
Thanks goes to Justin for a pirated copy of a Bruce Lee flick. He bought it at a chinese vendor somewhere in the chinese area of Toronto, you know, Chinatown. Geez, I’m getting a strong suspicious feeling that it’s an imposter in the movie.
—
I want to go back to school now.
(edited: no title)
July 08, 2001
Yay! A Sunday and I’m staying home. I really miss staying home. Not to say that I haven’t been home for awhile, but it feels like it. Too much work and no play make for an insane mass murdering machine gun toting maniac (literary devices are fun like carnivals to use and a million times easier).
No dragonboat practice today, on account that everyone is gone. Yay. My body aches. Happy birthday Dad. What a short update huh?
(edited: no title)
July 05, 2001
That’s too long without an update so here is one.
I’m dead tired. I was just looking at what I did this summer and I noticed that I’ve been working and dragonboating everyday since June 9th. Which means, that for almost a month, I’ve had no days off!
The Banff trip was really good. Fun was had by all (and in some cases, too much alcohol). Some things that sucked were the 9 people in our room, the 3 girls who drank too much and we had to haul their asses back to our room, the stupidity of myself when I slipped on some dirt and scratched my ear, cheek, and area right above my eye with a hanging branch, and lastly, the one hour delay our flight encountered. The good things were the students were awesome this time around, I got lots of hiking in, tonnes of scenery pictures (i don’t like taking pictures of myself), and a big party on Canada Day – which was when the overdrinking took place.
I didn’t sleep much over the trip, maybe 4 or 5 hours max per day. Then the day after I got back, I worked a 10hr day, and then another full day. Today was my first short day for awhile. Tomorrow is short too, a couple meetings and some planning.
I’m really bored of this webpage. It’s too ugly now.
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June 27, 2001
My computer is too slow. The hard drive is running out of space. And still, I’m too cash strapped to buy anything. But that’s alright. There are zero games on my computer right now.
I even uninstalled System Shock 2 because I just don’t have time to play it anymore. Maybe it’s time to buy another cheap game.
I’m off to Banff again from Friday through Monday. Nice little 4 day paid getaway I guess. Then after that it’s more work more work more work. Work is a lot better lately.
Um… I’m doing a lot more reading too lately. I dug out accounting books from my first financial accounting class to review all the basic concepts and how to do certain stuff. Fun fun. I’m reading/learning about different investment possibilities. Did you know bond returns fluctuate too? Even though they have fixed interest, their real returns can be almost as volatile as stocks. I never knew that.
And I got some photos from the dragonboat weekend but since I haven’t posted any pics up on this webpage yet, I’m not about to begin. Oh well.
I’m tired.
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June 24, 2001
Sigh…
sigh…
Today’s dragonboat racing was very disappointing to say the least. Really, it was painstakingly painfully painful. In our race, we had the fastest time out of all the boats so we were in a very good position to win that round. If we placed 1st or 2nd in that race, we would have made it to the final round.
So here’s what happened.
The race started with a bang (literally). We pulled to a very early strong start and were in the lead. By the mid point or so, we realized the race had been halted. We were really pissed off because we were afterall, going to win the race. Anyways, our team shook it off and headed back to the start line. We waited for the race after us to commence before we restarted.
Finally, it was our re-race. Bang! Again we pulled a very strong early start and were making big leaps. We were really ahead of the next boat. We were going to win FOR SURE. Then… then… sigh… then we hear the announcers yell “Hold the boat” – basically it’s like putting a stop sign in front of a car. So our caller tells us to stop. We do. In fact, when we didn’t paddle, we were still in the lead for a good while.
Then after what seemed like a long period of confusion, our caller told us to go for it. But this time it was too late. 2 other teams had gone past us already. We had lost that race.
So here’s what really happened.
In the first race, one of the boats collided with another. The refs restarted because of this. In the second race, the same boat collided with I think the same boat from before. But the thing is, a restarted race cannot be restarted, so it was to continue.
What pissed us off were these points:
- The caller yells out, “boat number X, hold the boat”. When you’re paddling, it’s REALLY hard to hear what the caller is yelling, even with a megaphone. So I guess our steersman just head, “hold the boat”.
- The first race, when the boat collided, the race was restarted. So, in the second race, it’s not too farfetched to think that if the same boat collides, the race would once again be restarted, right?
- Lastly, when our team captain went to dispute this, they asked for a $50 protest fee. What kind of sick, money hungry fuckheads run that festival? It’s not like we’re complaining about $5 hotdogs that suck (which by the way, is true). This is a serious problem that costed us a position in the final race. Fuck that!
Our whole team wasn’t in a good mood. Most of the girls were crying, most of the guys were really pissed off. I blew up at someone.
Anyways, our guest team from L.A. were really nice to us and even made an archway with their paddles for us to cross under. We soon cooled down and spent the rest of the afternoon knowing that race was ours and we actually won a race.
(edited: no title)
June 23, 2001
2 updates in 2 days. That’s a first in a long time.
Today was our team’s first race day. Our first race, all novice teams, we placed 7th out of 9. Our start really sucked but our finish wasn’t bad, we pulled ahead a lot during the end. Our next race, we placed 4th out of 9. Our start here was really good but our finish didn’t seem that good. Our times were 2.15 and 2.11 respectively. Not bad for a newbie team. The funny thing was, in our second race, we did a lot better even though they bumped us up to the next tier. We were supposed to be in Novice, but we were bumped up to Recreational B (higher than A, goes up to E before the next tier). Neato-riffic!
Since I woke up at 6:30am, here I am feeling really really tired at night not wanting to do stupid webpages for a certain ubc club. There’s tomorrow. Actually there’s a paddler’s party after the races tomorrow. Ack.
(edited: no title)
June 22, 2001
Good afternoon my pretties. I believe I will start this update off with another bitch session. They’re more interesting than my normal doses of writing, are they not?
It all began yesterday. Yesterday I worked 11 hours. We had this big party last night till 12 at the Grad Centre ballroom. The whole thing was awesome. Tonnes of people showed up, more than the 250 tickets we sold. There was a bar and an enclosed area for all people who are drinking because there are some regulations against having minors in area with alcohol.
Ok, here’s where another asshole shows up. He sits next to the railing that divides the alcohol and the non-alcohol. My coworker tells me to watch this guy and 10 seconds after she says it, this guy leaves his cup behind the railing, walks around to the non-alcohol side, and leans over and grabs his cup again. Wrong move buddy.
So I go over and ask him to either go back into the ‘pen’ or not drink here. He starts yelling and saying this rule is stupid because it’s the same place (he moved basically 2 feet to the other side). You know, he’s right. It is a stupid rule. But you know what? Rules are rules. If the ELI were to be caught breaking this alcohol rule, we’d get in deep shit. Chances are, if we were caught, all future events like these would be cancelled indefinitely.
Anyway I was really nice to this guy. I told him that I understand what he was feeling because I think it’s a stupid rule too. But I told him that we have to follow these rules and etc etc. He mumbles something nasty and stomps away. What a loser.
And then I go back to the coworker and tell her what happened. She then tells me that he told her off earlier – “Fuck off!” he said. What a fucker! I felt so bad for my coworker because it was her first time really working at this job and it’s such a pity that she meets this asshole on her first day.
So then I tell another coworker who decides we need to tell our supervisor. Heh heh. Then he (supervisor) tells us that any student who is rude to a staff member can be expelled from the program. Heh heh. I love that rule. It basically means any student I see must be nice to me or else they could get kicked out. I never knew that.
I knew this guy for awhile. I picked him up at the airport earlier this year. I of course was really courteous and showed him nothing but hospitality, but this guy isn’t friendly at all. The fact the he blew up towards a girl over a small rule shows what a little little man he is. He is quite little too. Funny thing is, it seems that he thinks quite highly of himself.
Now let’s talk things other than nasty people. I’m going to Banff for work on June 29th through July 2nd. Yay! Good pay and get to get away from Vancouver. I always like to get away. And this time, we’re only bringing 36 people max so the stress level will go down a lot. So yay for me.
I got up at 3:30am on wednesday morning to register my courses. I didn’t get everything I wanted but still got a pretty good first term. Earliest 8:30, latest 1pm – only 2 8:30′s too. Term 2 isn’t that good but I get Friday’s off. In my 3 years at UBC I’ve never had a weekday off until now. Yay.
Still, I’m shaking in my boots because I have 4 accounting courses (compared to 2 last term), 2 managements, 2 laws, a mis, and an english correspondence. Ok I’m just scared at those accountings. Something like Financial Acct Advanced II, Financial Statement analysis, Principles of Auditing, and Tax Something Decisions Something something. The two laws are Business Associations and Land law (money in real estate!). The rest I don’t really give a rat’s ass.
I’m excited though. It sounds like a good mix of business stuff which I now love more than ever.
Oh yes. Today is the first day of the Alcan Dragonboat Festival, but the races begin tomorrow. Our team (Dragon Along @ UBC) races at 9:24pm (lane 10 I think) and sometime afternoon. I want to see all my friends out there yelling out my team name and cheering us on. If you’re there, I will be happy. If I’m happy, I tend to be more generous. If I’m generous, I tend to buy drinks for my friends.
It’s been a crazy few days.
(edited: no title)
June 19, 2001
I would like to take this update and do some serious bitching about people that really make me mad.
Yesterday, I was in charge of this beach volleyball barbeque all day. A small team got everything together and hauled a shitload of stuff down to Jericho and set everything up. We started our big-ass coal grill fired up at around 3pm, in anticipation of a 4pm arrival of people. It does take about 1 hour to get that grill really going so it was perfect.
What wasn’t perfect was that at 4pm, not as many people came as I thought would so our really fabulous fire was burning for nothing but maybe 20 people. By the next wave of people at 6pm, our fire was dying and we didn’t have any coal left. We quickly went out and bought a few more bags of coal right as the next maybe 50 people came.
Of course, cooking for 70 people is a lot more hectic than 20. And of course, because our fire was dying out, we stopped cooking to replace coals. Of course, because these new coals weren’t lit up yet, people had to wait longer. Most people were really nice about it because they knew we were doing the best we can given the situation.
So here we are, waiting for the coals to really start burning instead of just flaming, me and another coworker are kind of stressed because there’s a bunch of people crowding around the grill waiting for their half cooked burgers. Then I hear these 2 assholes talk.
“They should add more coal.”
“Yeah. They don’t even know how to do a barbeque.”
When I heard that I felt all the blood in my body go inward towards the organs – an instinct that protects the vital body parts by keeping blood circulation. Basically, I was really really pissed off at these assholes. One of them was a bitch mind you. I was pissed off because they don’t even know what they’re talking about. When a pile of coals are starting up, you don’t hurry it up by adding more coal. A similar picture would be like adding more water to hurry up water that’s trying to boil (I know, adding coal won’t really decrease the temperature much, but you get the idea).
And the fact that we are here, cooking for them, really made me angry. When someone does something for me, I don’t complain at what methods they use as long as they get the work done. How rude would I be if I were to go to someone and say, “the way you’re doing that is wrong. but thanks for doing that for me.”
I know the guy, but not well. He never seemed to be such an ass during the times that I’ve talked to him. The bitch however, was always a bitch to me. She sports this big big attitute problem that just screams, “I’m better than you.” But she’s not. She’s nowhere near what she thinks she is. I don’t like myself for it, but I honestly hate her. But since I’m working, I have to put up with shit like her.
Anyways, I spoke to them in a kind of pissy mood. Saying, “I know you guys have been waiting a long time, and I’m really sorry. But we can’t hurry this up so just please be patient. We’re doing the best we can” or something to that effect.
Aargh. Maybe it was just stressed. But I really hate those two now. Oh well
(edited: no title)
June 15, 2001
Hi. Ack. I kept having this feeling that something was going to happen today – June 15th. But there’s half an hour left and nothing has happened. Oh well. It wasn’t a good feeling anyway.
There are 3 dragonboat practices left before the race weekend. Tomorrow will be the last 7:30am practice for at least a month hopefully. I hate waking up at 6am. I really hate it. If I had it my way, I’d bring the practice to my bed or maybe everyone allow me to sleep while they paddle. It’s amazing how many people I see during the mandatory practices. I saw so many people that I’d never think dragonboat that do. I saw some people I haven’t seen since high school who dragonboat. Dragonboat is some magical, mystical force that brings the past to the present. Really.
After two weeks of not working much (I’m not bitter), things are once again picking up. My agenda is filled with dates and times and scribbles of things I need to do. And I need to register soon. I have no idea what electives to take. Everyone is taking weird courses like Family Studies or Astronomy or Astrology or Toe Clipping. I don’t want to take courses that I won’t benefit from or that I don’t have interest in. Maybe I’ll take a biochemistry. Hahaha that’d be the day.
Geez this is a boring update. I guess it’s better than NOT updating (hint hint you guys).
(edited: no title)
June 11, 2001
I don’t update much anymore. Lack of interest really. There’s just not much to say anymore about the things I used to talk about. But here’s another episode nonetheless.
I haven’t worked much this week. I don’t know… lately I’ve been feeling that it’s time for me to move onto another position. It just feels like I’ve been there long enough. But this job has made me very picky now – I looked at a whole bunch of postings everywhere and it seems nothing compares to this job.
I’m getting really sick of this design. It’s just boring. I never liked it to begin with and it doesn’t work properly under many browsers/computers. I’m going to change it. I might as well, I have all this time lately.
I’ve been reading this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it’s a very good book. Totally made me realize things that I knew, but never understood. It’s a book that teaches about money. It’s quite broad in that it covers a lot of concepts so it can’t really be summarized well. I suggest this.
This book is so good that it has re-energized my reasons on why I should go to school and why I love what I’m studying. Last year, I just didn’t give a rat’s ass about my studying (and hence my less than acceptable grades), but now I have the motivation I need to jumpstart things. This boy is going places – you heard it here first.
I’ve also been playing System Shock 2. It’s an amazing game. It’s and fps in the most general sense: you’re looking through the first person view and you do shoot stuff, but that’s where this game and a fps end being similar. This game is scary. It is very scary. Playing with the lights out at night and speakers turned up makes even the bravest souls wince with fear and delight. It’s absolutely awesome. It took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 or 18 hours to complete (not in one go). Incidentally, this game only costs about $10 in its EA Classics form. I suggest this.
some stuff
June 01, 2001
This is kind of fun – Bejeweled
And then here are some interesting links
- This is embarassing
- So… who’s wrong here?
- I have a baseball bat instead
- Console RPG Cliches
- Weird comics
These spin doctors suck
Here it is. Royal Bank (my bank) is increasing prices on some services. Their line to make this price increase sound good?
Bringing Better Value
That’s ridiculous! How can they bring more value on existing services by increasing price??? Value is basically the best amount of goods/services you can get for a set amount of money. So increasing their price really means lowering value. Any B.Comm student knows that. Right?
I hope those spin doctors get fired for that.
Things to see
- Even monkeys are scoring more than me
- I don’t want a porsche anymore, I want this
- This hacker story is good. I don’t understand much of it, but it’s still interesting
- View a webpage through the eyes of a colorblind
stopping a country from having sex
a href=”http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010712/hl/sex_3.html”>Good luck Kenya!
- My favourite radio talk host, Art Bell, is once again in some trouble. Here is another story on why legal boundaries should be set up for the internet and its myriad of communication methods.
- Another fun game at MSN Gaming Zone – Atomica. It’s not that I spend all my time on MSN, it’s just that I’ve found some spare time that’s enough for MSN games, but not enough to install something and spend too much time on. Crapulence.
- On Stomped.com, the headline for this one was, "ouch". And you know what, that’s exactly what you’ll be saying once you read it.
First The Cover Story—
This is the most heartwarming story since the days of Homeward Bound and its predecessor The Incredible Journey. How warm and fuzzy is this?
Then A Barrage of Other Crap
- This sounds so cool, but what will happen if the bacteria go through the pores and start eating the oils and stuff inside the body?
- If I won a million dollars, I wouldn’t drive a Pontiac either. Unless it had rockets mounted to the body that would autoaim at assholes who drive assholely.
- This only happens to stupid people. This happens a lot supposedly.
- And this game is still so fun! I keep wanting to beat my best score.
- This stupid undeclared war is getting out of hand. Something that will happen: US/NATO interdicts and sends in their masses. This won’t happen. No one wants to piss off Israel. So, they’ll just keep fighting until Israel gets really pissed off and sends in their big troops. Israel has a sizable army. I don’t know what the Palestinians have, but it better be more than suicide bombers.
(edited: no title)
May 30, 2001
Tee hee! A giddy giggle goes out to those who hit my page all the time but read nothing new. Sorry to those people. Wait… why do I apologize? I don’t know. Well a simple sorry goes a long way in manipulating people I guess. I’m sorry. See? You’d let me get away with that wouldn’t you?
… … anyways …
Happy Birthday goes to Aaron who’s now 21 plus 4 hours because he’s stuck in some frenchy city way east. Actually, his birthday was yesterday AND he’s NOT bitter. Not at all. Well maybe just a little. Aaron, I hope that singling you out in an update is personal enough for a birthday greet! Yay! Woohoo! Three cheers for Aaron: hip hip hip hooray hooray hooray. When you get back, I will get you a dinner.
Oh yes, everyone has updated! Dennis, Jesse, even Justin, all have different combinations of words on their webpages! (My theory is, everyone has about 300 different words that we use in our webpages and all our updates are basically different scrambles of those words. Well, it’s true for my webpage anyway). And Andrew’s was hacked by some loser. What’s the deal with that? Does that person feel better? And the sad part was that on the hacked page, it said something like “shouts to my girls” or something like that. That’s so sad. “I am man. I hack pages. Me mate with you now!” God at least buy a girl expensive clothing and jewelry instead of impressing them with your l33t haZ0r skilz or whatever.
Pissed off? Go ahead, hack my page. I’ll just back it up and make fun of you some more. Pissed off even more? Come to Vancouver, Justin will introduce us, and we can slug it out. I like fighting.
Yes. Now I’m bitter. I just feel bad for Andrew.
And congrats to Dennis who scored an editor position at Gnosiszine. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but it seems cool anyway. I guess you have to be a metalhead to fully know what the site is about. I’m into boybands and Britney’s so I don’t know.
I guess this update will be me referring to different people. Jeff, when are we going to that boxing place? I want to punch big heavy sand-filled bags. I really do. I feel weak and girly for not punching big heavy sand-filled bags for so long. Punch Punch!
And Hi Eri! Honey! Yay. I’m having too much fun with my new phone emailing my honey. It’s gonna cost me big at the end of the month. Oh well. She’s worth it. (I’m in love and I’m DAMN proud of it!) Ok, byebu!
I like swords.
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May 27, 2001
Yay! I’m updating. Apologies to you if you’ve been reading the same old update over and over again, not realizing it’s the same one. But fret no more friend! This update will be different! (Note: All my updates tend to be the same anyway, so it’s actually not that different) Confused yet? Yay!
Let’s see it’s been a week since my last, and what has happened? Worked all week as usual. Brian’s party thing on Friday was fun. I drank a little bit too much. I got home and my toilet was punished. Then the day after was Brian’s dinner thingy. That was fun. Then went to another friend’s party thingy the same night. That was fun. So funny to see totally wasted people start dancing and stuff (I should talk…)
And there was dragonboat today which I just came back from… oh god that was tough. We paddled the racelength for the first time today and the first 2 times was ok. By the 3rd time, everyone was killed. I had to force myself to push harder. The power 10′s were crazy (power 10 is when you paddle 10 strokes extra hard for an additional boost of speed – used sparingly).
I got meself a new phone after like a year of using crap. My old phone was more like a pager that didn’t show me messages. So if you called me and I didn’t answer, it was because my phone didn’t let me know you called. Or maybe I don’t like you. But now it’s different. If you call, I will answer!!! Unless of course, I don’t like you. Har har har.
Jesse updated! We need to keep updating! Keep our pages alive!!! Update! Yay.
I’m too hyper today.
Bleh.
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May 21, 2001
Ahh, such a wonderful day of no work. Well technically, dragonboating is not work, but I consider it work since it’s with a bunch of work people and it’s as tiring.
On Saturday, we brought a bunch of our students to a pitch n putt for a day of golf. The weather worked in our favour even when in the morning, showers made everyone scared. “Wet grass” they yelled, but I knew better. I checked for the weather days before and I knew the sun would creep out in the afternoon. As it turned out, the day was great and I got burnt… sunburnt that is. Then that night I took my mum out for her birthday dinner. Yay. I love the look of chinese waiters as the young man of the family hands him a credit card instead of the older, paternal figure.
And as I mentioned, Sunday was dragonboat practise. I didn’t eat breakfast, brunch, nor lunch beforehand and by the end, I was on the verge of collapse. Plus, I was soaking wet. Later that night, I got to meet up with Sunny, Jeff, and Andrew for bubble tea and pool – 2 things that I haven’t done for awhile (save the 2 games I played with my cousin). We only played 2 games of pool too – it was just too boring.
And here we are today, a lovely Victoria day (glorious be that long dead queens are remembered by freeing people from the reins of work). But I still did some work today. I planned a bit of a Gotcha fundraiser for tomorrow, I updated the accounting club website a tad, got the forum working (I think), and even had time to update my own site. Then there’s the work site that needs to be worked on later tonight. I’m busy!!!
The forecast for the rest of the week is working everyday for awhile. Yay again.
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May 17, 2001
It’s been 4 days since the last and a lot of stuff has happened. The Liberals kicked the NDP out with all but 3 seats… I think. Dennis has started a free live sex webcam site featuring monkeys. I singled out your non-updates due to the interest factor I have in your updates. To my surprise, I come back and TWO whole updates!!! MORE I SAY!!! MORE!
Anyways so let’s talk about that retreat I just came back from. It was so much fun! It was at Loon Lake in Mapleridge. It’s a chunk of land owned I believe by UBC Forestry. It’s right beside Goldenears (sp?) Provincial Park which meant… NO SMOKING!!! I didn’t think I would make it, but… let’s just say I didn’t go too long without smoking. Heh heh heh.
There were 21 of us and we split up into 5 ‘meal teams’, each team responsible for preparing one meal. Our team got Tuesday’s dinner and we went overboard – we took like 3 hours to prepare an elaborate, but very good meal of vegetable sauce pasta, salad, garlic bread, and mushrooms stuffed with marinated salmon. Sounds so simple, but try cooking for 21. Making pasta takes a lot longer when making not just for yourself.
Sadly, the rain stopped us from having campfires and smores, but we had this marshmallow fight – my team of 5 vs everyone else. Plus, some marshmallows had spaghetti bits sticking out like caltrops. We were making a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti for this team building thing. Our team had a kickass tower that engineers would be proud of. The other teams… well, they had sort-of-towers. One person said, “let’s see how many marshmallows it takes to knock it down.” That’s when the war started. Our tower died, but it created the best game out of the whole retreat.
Then we got the standard charades, talking, joking, ‘team-building’, yada yada yada.
And I’m too tired to talk some more so I’ll just go to sleep now.
Oh yes, Justin, yes I am going to play SC/BW hardcore or whatever now. I will play 19 hours out of 24 everyday for the next 6 months. And where’s that update you said would be coming yesterday?
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May 13, 2001
Howdy friends! Welcome back. No updates recently due to massive work loads at … work. Working frantically everyday last week and will continue until at the least, next Saturday. So my next day off is one week away! Yippee!!!
W0W I have a lot to say. Firstly, you may have noticed I’m a lot more excited in this update! This can be shown through the gratuitous use of exclamation marks!!! Yay!!! Yippee! The reason for this is because I hauled my ass up today at 5:45am – that’s AM to get to a mandatory dragonboat practise. As sleepy as I was, the two hour practise went by as quickly as the seal we all gawked at today.
Even though I’m tired, I’m still excited because there’s nothing like getting up at 5:45am to do some exercise! Luckily, the weather was pretty good this morning, unlike now (noonish).
I played 4 hours of basketball on Friday, well, probably 3 hours with an hour of volleyball. Result? Paddling when your whole body is already sore makes your body feel ultra-super-duper sore. But!!! I’m still happy!!! !!! !!! (Did anyone watch that Seinfeld episode about !!!’s?)
Ok ok. I’ll calm a bit. Tomorrow I’m off to my work retreat, so if you need me (I’ll pretend at least some of you out there need me), … well, as sunny put it, “sorry”. Where’d Sunny go anyway? I didn’t hear anything about him going somewhere. Ah well, it’s what you get for not updating. I’ll be looking forward to a 3 day wild ride of mixers and probably workshops made by idiots, for idiots. Yay!!!
Goddamn! “hotsexgirl” just messaged me a URL entitled “Sexgirl,hotpicture,adultImages over 10000,FREE DOWNLOAD!!” Well gee let’s all hop in and head there! (Please detect my strong sarcasm here… contrary to what Dennis always spreads, I do not look for porn on the internet… I look in stores… but that’s a different matter). Anyway, that peeves me, ICQ’ers messaging randomly to anyone advertising their stupid porn sites. I bet they don’t care what age their targets are. But then again, I bet every person who has an internet connection has been to a porn site… EVERYONE. Even Ned Flanders (maybe).
Oh yes before I forget, Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!! (See? My excitement goes strong – even my hallmark comments contain 3 exclamation marks) To all the JVision visitors who have kids and are of the female gender, may your day be filled with exclamation marks!!!!!
I’m not on drugs.
Or am I??!!!!!!!
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May 08, 2001
I am totally back in the updating mood now. First off, last night, because I was kind of sick of playing SiN all day, I opened up photoshop, opened this free cd filled with dumb photos of animals and plants and crap, and made a new wallpaper for myself. It’s to the right on the “Stuff” section. It was made for me but hey, if you happen to be a big fan of my work (who isn’t?), then by all means use it. It’s a blue rose! Not a regular red crappy one.
Today I had a pretty fun day at work followed by dragonboating. You know how I said it wasn’t tiring? Well I take that back. Today was strenuous – possibly because my body was still stiff from Sunday. Who cares! It’s fun.
So tonight, with my tense shoulders, I think I’ll just relax with some hot tea and oranges catching up on my Seinfeld and SiN.
My idea for a design is still stuck in my head in a big To Do List. My brain is slow at these things.
That’s all for today! Bye bye bye!
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May 07, 2001
Has it really been this long? I guess it’s time to get back into the loop. Oh updating, how I’ve missed you… come to papa baby. Since my last update ~ almost 2 weeks ago, many things have happened, mostly insignificance.
Many people asked me how I was after Eri returned to Japan. It felt like someone close to me had died and people were condoling (sp?) me. Weird. The first few days weren’t that great. I come home and find myself lying around wondering what to do, something that wasn’t a problem when my babe was around. Then afterwards when I got used to it, things weren’t bad. I got my fat ass around to jog and do some kung fu.
I started dragonboating which is surprisingly quite refreshing and not as tiring as it looks. I’ve practiced twice with the ELI team and I like it. It’s funny seeing everyone get off the boat wearing t-shirts and shorts that are half soaked on the side which they were paddling.
Oh I forgot to warn you folks, this is gonna be a pretty long update to make up for the 2 weeks of my hiatus.
Ok then there was Andrew’s birthday where I drank myself silly at Shenanigans. Andrew was sleeping a lot that day.
I got my first ever full house at a casino playing Let it Ride. Sadly, I only came up top $30 after covering the losses earlier that night. I’m not a gambling addict as my dad so eloquently puts it. (Going twice in a week does not constitute a gambling problem).
For the rest of this little while it’s gonna be all work and little play. I’m off to that retreat next week – Lake Loon or Lake DeadTeenagers or something. Sounds like a nice getaway.
And on the entertainment side of things in my life, SiN is the game currently being loaded on my computer. It’s pretty damn good. If you liked Duke, you’ll like SiN.
I’m working on some designs (in my head) just for fun. This page will be replaced someday, but not soon. These new designs are something I just want to do. Hopefully one day they’ll be completely out of my head and onto magnetic disks that spin round and round.
That wasn’t too long an update was it? Last bit. Robin Williams’ movie, Patch Adams… I’m sure all of you saw that. Well the REAL Dr. Patch Adams will be on the Coast to Coast AM radio program that I listen to avidly. Be sure to catch it because I said so. And now I leave you to go watch Seinfeld.
Doh? doh doh doh
May 01, 2001
- RPG Maker – make rpg’s. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like fun.
- One person comes to mind – guess who?
- This hurts
and there’ll be more.
Time Passers
- I wonder how sucky this game will be
- I really think flash sites are just… blah – I mean, what am I doing here? But the designing is incredible. If I knew what this site was about, I’d vote it for the coolest site in the world. If.
- This is a cool site – drawing with other people! It’s actually quite fun
Magicly Delicious News Stories
- Monkeys have it made
- This makes me loves spiders even more
- For the disgruntled – if you want to send one to me, be sure to lick a lot of stamps and slap them onto the plutonium. Or better yet, lick the plutonium and then slap stamps onto it.
- Hey, if a blind person gets a guide-dog, does a blind dog get a guide-person?
Pop Your Amygdala
Activate your hidden potential power of your brain my “popping” your amygdala forward like a toggle switch. Guaranteed to make you sit there for minutes figuring out where your amygdala is! More specific details are yours to look at!
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April 25, 2001
Well. Eri is gone. It’s quite different around here now. I unlock the door and walk into my messy messy living room and the place is somber and somewhat gloomy. At the airport this morning, many of the Rits people were crying like crazy. Me and Eri weren’t really that sad throughout the thing until the departing at the gate. She cried a bit. And some sand went into my eyes… twice. And so for the next few months looks like I’m back on the grind alone. It’s not too long, she’s back soon.
4 out of 5 exams are done! Yay for me. Boo for my marks. I didn’t study very much. I didn’t give a crap about it. Fail, pass, whatever. One more 2 days from now and then it’s… doing nothing for awhile. Work, quit smoking, work, that’s it.
I really don’t feel like updating. I’m running on 4-5 hours of sleep per day since last Thursday. I miss my baby. Away with you.
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April 18, 2001
Triumphantly returning to updating after a week long absence, here’s me! After being addicted to that hattbaby video for a couple of days (it attracts me to watch it over and over again, noticing the intricate details and meanings ever time), I realized I needed to start studying. So I downloaded a few old nes roms and started playing – dragon warrior 1, 2, etc. I read a few chapters here and there and that’s about all I did.
I just didn’t want to do anything nor study.
I still don’t want to update because I have really nothing to say, except my honey leaves one week today which is sad. I’m already missing her even when she’s still here. Weird. Jerry? In a relationship? In a REAL relationship??? Wtf?
So I don’t think I’m gonna update for a little while – well maybe.
But here are some funny things to see to kill time between my updates:
:: Boo! And the 100 Other Dumbest Moments in e-Business History
:: Israeli Internet geek adopts name of his Web site
:: The Official Dilbert Webpage
sorry, it’s all I’ve got at the moment. Bye.
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April 11, 2001
The 24 spy plane pilots have been returned. Thank god. Two superpowers standing off over one of them spying over the other. Jesus. As if spying is a good thing… and to keep 24 of your own men at the ‘enemy’s place just because you’re too vain and proud to say you’re sorry for spying, for causing the death of a pilot (whose body was never found… how convenient eh?). Then there’s the other side. A blatant attempt to win face by making the world’s most powerful nation come forward and apologize. That’s just asking for trouble. Politics. If it were up to me, I’d be the single ruler of the world and do my best to be a just, righteous ruler. But that’s my p.o.v.
I haven’t updated because I didn’t want to. Been working these few days. Sun – all morning – afternoon, Mon/Tues at 7:00am until mid-afternoon, today just the afternoon. Now time for some studying.
I’d like to say hello to Hiro!!! He told me he visited my webpage for the first time. You crazy crazy guy.
I haven’t studied much. I just don’t feel the pressure yet. Which means when I do, I’ll be screwed big time since my exams are clustered together. But I think even if I study every day from today I still won’t finish everything. Ack.
I finished Battlezone II over the weekend. God that’s a good game. I don’t know how good it would be for multiplaying (I don’t think it’s good at all), but for single player, wow it’s good.
I’m addicted to that Hatten song. I have no idea why. It’s stupid. It’s very stupid. But I’m catching myself humming the tune a lot. Eri’s being driven to the edge of sanity because sometimes I just start singing the hatt-baby part to annoy her. Haha.
If you’ve ever wanted to know if you’re psychic or not, or you know and want to prove it to someone, here are some scientific tests. I now know that I’m nowhere near psychic. I wish I were though. Visit the Boundary Institute’s Online Tests
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April 07, 2001
Where to begin… ok, let’s start with yesterday. I had my first visit to Scrape Records, where Dennis works. Boy he seems to have too much fun there. Working somewhere where you’re passionate about is awesome. It was the first time I saw Dennis since… uh… probably the beginning of the year so it was awesome. Had an awesome poutine of course. Hope you enjoy the reading you’ll do on the bus. Heh heh.
Yesterday, Eri pulled an all nighter doing some essay or something. I went to sleep at 2am and when I woke up at 6:30, I saw the lights still on and thought, “holy shit, she’s still working?”. Poor baby.
And yesterday while driving, I made a solemn vow that on Saturday I WOULD STUDY. I then said if I didn’t, I hope I die. True to my word, I studied for about an hour – reading a chapter out of a thousand. At least I won’t die. I’m way too drained to keep studying. Blach!
This should be in the Spotlight, but I really want you guys to see that N-Sync video so I’ll keep that one up for a little bit more. But here’s 2 things you should see (after the N-Sync video).
First is the trailer for Quake: The Movie (warning: 22mb). It’s fucking amazing. The time spent on this thing must be horrendous, but the end product will blow all minds away – even non-quakers (pshh… UT’ers).
Then is some little Easter thing (thanks Benny for sending it). Amusing. Cute. You know the stuff.
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April 05, 2001
That’s it! No more classes as of today! that was what the counter was: days of classes left. We’ve had guesses as to what that counter was for – days until my one year anniversary… well, that was the only guess actually. But it’s over!
Arts County Fair was on today except it was pouring like crazy. I don’t think as many people as usual went. I didn’t. I was enjoying my afternoon off doing nothing.
The stupid Transit strike is making my drives a little bit longer than usual, like 5 or 10 minutes. That I can stand, but the one thing that really drives me nuts is that with more cars, comes more idiot drivers. I had one guy run a red at a 4-way stop today – almost ramming me broadsided. I got pretty pissed off because he pretty much ruined my afternoon ride home. So I drove after him, honking and middle fingers up. The guy braked a little and stared at me through his mirror. I kept my finger up like a flag. Then after there were two lanes, I drove beside him, still flagging my middle finger. Then I cut him off.
Rash and impulsive I know, but I was really pissed. I wanted to go after him some more but rational thinking finally set in. I had better things to do than to go after old fat guys driving pre-90′s compacts sporting some sort of Internet company logo on the side. Well, it would have been fun following him and scaring him or something, but … Battlezone II awaited!!!
I’m about halfway through the game now, having not touched it in a week. A big twist – the general that commands you is behind some sort of secret plan and now you’ve just joined the enemy sides. Basically you learn how to use the enemy units now which are way cooler than the earth ones.
It’s time I get a new processor. My celery just isn’t cutting it. I hear p4′s aren’t as good as the new durons (or was it athlon or peon or hardon or something). $$$ is needed. Dammit.
I’m tired. Seeya.
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April 03, 2001
On sunday, I got a nice brunch half-paid by the accounting club. The locale was at cafe pacifico at pan pacific hotel. It was not bad. Tonnes of seafood. It wasn’t as great as I thought it should be. But it was half paid so that’s good.
Then after brunch, some of us had to go to another’s place and there we spend the whole day and night working on an accounting presentation due the next day. It wasn’t fun. It took much too long. When I got home, I had to do a case for another class also due the next day. I didn’t sleep much that night.
But now that those 2 are done, I only have 1 more case due for my logistics class. I’ve finished my part so that means I am done. Yippie.
The strike is on, you all know. They’re talking again so hopefully it will be resolved oon. It actually affects me too. If the strike is still on next week, then I probably won’t be working much until it’s over because a lot of activities, the students need to bus to wherever it is.
I found out what the secret work thing was (had to book off a few days in May). It’s gonna be a retreat at a camp near Lake Somethingsomething in Maple Ridge. I hear it’s gonna be all out – hiring conflict resolution people and such and such. I’m gonna bring a lot of beer and cigarettes. It’s gonna be a blast. I just hope the new people they hire will be as fun as the current ones.
School is over soon! Summer is here soon! Work is much more fun in the summer.
Till the next update.
Actual Excuses of School Absenses
April 01, 2001
- My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.
- Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
- Dear School: Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.
- Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating.
- Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.
- John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
- Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.
- Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.
- Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side.
- Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.
- Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre) (dyrea) (direathe) the shits. [words in ()'s were crossed out.]
- Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his boots leak.
- Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.
- Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father’s fault.
- I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don’t know what size she wear.
- Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.
- Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.
- My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the Marines.
- Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.
- Please excuse Mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.
- Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.
- Please excuse Burma, she has been sick and under the doctor.
- Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn’t the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.
- Please excuse little Jimmy for not being in school yesterday. His father is gone and I could not get him ready because I was in bed with the doctor.
Really Good Video
The new N-Sync single is out. Normally I wouldn’t really care about their songs, but this one is just so fucking good. Seriously, I didn’t expect so much talent from a boyband. Go see the video now. It’s good. And the video is so cool too. The chick in the video is so hot.
Psycho Ex-girlfriend
This must be one of the funnier/more demented websites I’ve seen this while. It’s so funny. What is it?
Imagine a guy. Imagine a guy breaking up with his older girlfriend. Imagine the girlfriend calling constantly, leaving message after message of harassing, verbal assaults and such. Imagine the guy getting pissed off and putting all those messages in small mp3 format and putting them up online.
Why is it that when a girl is harassed by an ex-boyfriend, it’s scary and sick, but when a guy is harassed by an ex-girlfriend, it’s funny and sick?
http://www.psychoexgirlfriend.com
I’m a lazy asshole
March 03, 2001
I have zero motivation to do work that needs to be done and I skip way too much now. I even skipped my extracurricular Japanese class today because I was just too lazy. Did anyone find out why the power went out twice this morning? Did another e-quake hit? Did a bird perch itself on a hotwire?
And what’s with this, All your base are belong to us thing? It’s all over the web and it’s not funny. I don’t understand it. Is it fake? It is a real game? Is it made by foreigners or a retarded dyslexic? Why is it funny? Bad grammar isn’t funny. Fat chicks in party hats is funny. I just don’t know anymore.
I need time.
It’s unprecedented
February 26, 2001
that this webpage goes without an update for 10 days. Ok ok, there was an unofficial update via Sinned’s Realm – many thankyou’s to Sinned for that. As you might have gathered from the update there, I was visiting porn sites on the pay terminals in Banff (you’re a loser Dennis). The 4 degrees or something in Vancouver feels like Mexico compared to the ski runs. I guess overall the trip was fun. I met and got to know a tonne of people who are crazy. I improved my skiing a little, but still stuck to the green runs although I’m quite sure I could have managed the blues. I went drinking everyday which was crazy but so freaking fun. And of course I didn’t manage much sleep those 4 days but it’s quite alright, I’ll make it up in class.
I’ve drawn up a design for my domain which will be used until the ultimate master plan can be made. This one, titled “The Pre-dawn of JVision” will be up maybe by this weekend or the next – so basically really soon.
I have a copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Stupid Lion Eating Dragon or whatever it’s called in cantonese so that’s my after dinner treat. That and studying.
And that’s all I’m going to say for now.
Woohoo
February 16, 2001
I’m done. I’ve finished all my pre-reading break midterms! Wooohooo! I then played basketball today, I’ve been going every friday this year (almost). It’s great. I feel great. I feel tired, but great! I’m going shwoop shwoop shwooping tomorrow (that’s skiing for you non-Friends watchers). At least I hope I am. I faxed in credit card information on wednesday for 27 tickets but haven’t gotten any confirmation from cypress. The person I contacted never picked up the phone today. I hope it’s all ok.
Then I’m working everyday except this sunday from now until school again. Woohoo! I love not being lazy. I hope to squeeze in time to move this site over to the other site. I hope.
Oh yes, US/British planes attacked some Iraqi targets today. Woohoo! War is great!
This update is brought to you in part by Sarcastovision – subdivision of Jvision.
“Cuz 2 out of 3 ain’t bad”
February 15, 2001
I’m sneaking in an update before starting to study for tomorrow’s 3 and final midterm before the break. Yippee! It’s an elective course so I’m basically at the border of “I don’t give a damn” and “I’ll study because it’s more productive than waiting for snow”.
I’m going skiing this saturday for work. Sweet. I’m going to Banff next Thursday for 4 days. Sweet^2. Banff means more skiing. Free skiing. Sweet^3.
We succeeded: Eri and I have finished the 2000 piece puzzle. It sits on the carpet right now, waiting for some way to be put up on the wall. It was so glorious. I took a picture of it, but I’ll put it up later.
I don’t update much now (but more often than all you other webpagers) because of school – studying all week, and work – worked about 25 hours this week. I haven’t gone out in about 2 weeks. So, after tomorrow, I’m going to paint the town red and then paint the town’s dog red.
But for now… books. Bye.
Another midnight update that’s too long to read, but irresistable
February 12, 2001
because you just know what a darn great writer I tend to be when I update about nothing. And so here’s the latest episode in “What Jerry Did” episode 152 volume 4002. I’m working too much. I’m studying too much. I’m not doing the things I like to do enough. That was my week. The end.
My group assignment week went by rather easily in that 1 group project I voluntarily wrote the entire thing (but the info was thought up by all of us) , all 10 pages or so. The other group thing turned out to be ridiculously short and easy. The last one, well, we were accused of cheating (re: 02/07/01). So it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. What was bad though was that those assignments took up too much time leaving me not very much to study for midterms this week – 3 midterms, 2 homework assignments, and 1 case write up in the same week. I call it the 3-2-1 combo. It’s the greatest knockout move ever.
Justin: I’m glad you consider me part of your elite. But what can I say? There’s only 1 way to solve a problem – act on it. But you’re smart. You’ll figure a way to deal with your stuff.
I haven’t done anything in terms of my new webpage, but I have an idea that seems like a fun and ambitious plan. I don’t know when this fun and ambitious webpage will be done. I don’t even know when I’ll start… well, maybe on Sunday. I’m going skiing next sat after my 3-2-1! Yay.
Fuck. I had so much to say about stuff that I read/experienced/saw over this week but it’s all gone now. Fuck it all.
Piped where pipes shouldn’t go
February 07, 2001
unless you’re the kind of guy who likes that kind of stuff, but that’s for you to know and me to never find out. My story. Remember that webpage I made for work? As amateurish and unprofessional as it was, I still made it. The important thing is, I spent time working on it and even worked on it on my own time because I enjoyed it. The quality of the work for this story is irrelevant – had I made the perfect, flawless, most beautiful webpage or something ultra ugly, the outcome would have been the same.
I have been shafted.
Big time.
I think I told about it a bit… about 2 or 3 weeks ago, my supervisor went to some webpage meeting and I assume one of the ‘issues’ they discussed was the new design (of which I thought was a lot better than the old one). He talked a little bit about the meeting. At that point, I thought that my design would be scrapped because UBC has about 2000 miles of red tape and about 1 mile of it belonged to webpage policies.
I was right.
But my supervisor then mentions last week that I should go to another meeting held today and sit in and whatever. Ok, I go there, I find the room after some difficulty, and I listen.
Result: the page that I made is effectively to be stripped, raped, beat, and have its throat slit. It was rather uncomfortable sitting there listening to them speak of what they will do to “improve” the page. Firstly, every page will have a graphic that I estimate to be about 800pixels wide by 200 pixels high. Then, they’ll have a side navigation menu about 150 or so wide. Then their brilliant idea was to use both side navigation AND the icons that I made. That was the most retarded thing I have ever heard – 2 navigational interfaces on the same page. I’d rather they use something they design totally on their own instead of trying to almagamate my fun, cutesy webpage and their professional, clean, cutting edge webpage.
Imagine Pikachu and Alan Greenspan merged into one. Pikaspan it would be. If they said, “Yeah, dude, we’re gonna just delete your page. Sorry about that”. I would have been, “sure… that’s fine.” But the fact that they’re going to take it and modify it to suit the stupid ass UBC policies is like taking a piss on someone after beating them up.
I think I left the impression on my supervisor that I was kind of unhappy about it… well, I actually said to him, “well, I’m unhappy about what they’re going to do…”. It’s totally not his fault. It’s not the fault of those 3 webpage people there too because they’re just doing their job. Who’s fault?
Well actually, those 3 webpage people get some blame because it would have been nice if they fucking told me about the guidelines of webpages for Continuing Studies instead of telling me AFTER I fucking make the thing. Then the blame is with UBC for all the red tape they wrap around the red tape they impose on everyone. Then I just want to say fuck the system because it fucks people like me over.
Anyway, they’re going to do the revisions all on their own, without any input by me. Again I feel bad for my supervisor because he wanted me to go to the meeting so that I can have some input. I pretty much sat quietly listening to them kill it. Goodbye…
So… shafted… oh yeah, my group in an accounting class was accused of copying (we didn’t, obviously)! 2 things – 1 of them, it was partially my fault; another guy was printing out my part and he accidentally picked up sheets from another group’s. 2 – the idiot girl in the group sent her file to her fucking idiot friend and that idiot friend copied her work. I hate group work.
I am bitter.
Hi Gene
February 06, 2001
As a b-schooler, here is my take. What you say is, in a way, correct, but fundamental analysis relies on the theory of efficient securities market (semi-strong form) to hold true. I’ll assume you know what this is, but for the less financially minded, the ESM theory basically means that the prices of stocks reflect all pubicly known information about a company.
So, if people are buying stocks because others are buying because of released information, this price change wasn’t the result of the information. That was unclear. Clarify. X Co – releases info. Drives their stock price from 100 – 125. 125 would be the stable price based on all publicly known information. Then, tech analysts would see this increase in price/volume and buy. This drives the price to, say, 135. The extra 10 increase was not based on publicly information – it was ‘artifically’ increased.
Assuming that the ESM theory holds true, the stock price would return to its ‘real’ value of 125 – certainly, some of the tech analysts would lose on that. Then there are market movers who basically do this on a large scale.
What I personally feel is that price changes in a stock are due to the information known about the company, market noise, and basically, some randomness. If someone is just looking at the charts, they’re taking some risk in that the price changes may not reflect the actual state of the company. Well, I don’t know if this is true, this is just what I’m guessing.
Financial institutions and accounting firms do all that analysis (25 hours in a day – sounds about right… really!) to find the present value of cash flows. It’s all that matters in finance. From what it seems, tech analysts buy a stock because of its prospect of a capital gain – buy it lower, the price raises, they sell high, keep the difference. Inversely, they can short when the prices look to drop. Etc. Etc. So what the actual company does doesn’t matter. They could all be selling rocks and this method still works.
Hmm… I don’t seem to be coming to any point in this ‘argument’. In many ways, I agree with Gene that b-schoolers are doing all the work for nothing since there’s so much theory involved. But there seems to be something intrinsically wrong in investing based on how the price moves.
Ah yes, my first and only finance course – any opportunities to make money when selling (termed arbitrage), are so quickly snapped up by the market that it’s pretty hard to get those profits. Eg. if a price of a stock is underpriced based on its current state, you can be sure that the price will truly reflect its state in less than 5 minutes. That is, assuming that ESM is true. Similarly, if a price is overpriced, it will come down to reflect its true value.
I think that is what happened to NASDAQ. What was it, it was at 5000 not too long ago? Now it’s at around 2600? I think everyone knew it was way over its real value and was DUE for a drop. Based on charts, everyone would have bought something in it, or maybe an index when it was 4500, 4600, whatever. Now its 2600… many lost big $$$.
Fundamental Analysis may be boring, but I feel it gets down the nitty gritty find the real value and not some artificially inflated value.
But that’s just what I feel and since I have 0.00 experience in actual trading, I will shutup now.
Ahh, a fresh new page for me to ruin
February 01, 2001
I gotta do something about my date system – it’s too confusing. Dennis has updated! I think he updated twice, or maybe he forgot to upload the 2nd update because i never saw it until tonight. Even though I’m not a computer guy, I think he’s right about c++, i hear c++ everywhere. As for the new things like java, and all that – they seem like buzzwords to me because of the hype of e-commerce (which is as overhyped as last year’s NASDAQ mind you). Although it wasn’t for me, I still had some fun learning about variables and if/else functions.
Anyway, my view about e-commerce is – it won’t work for many many products. I think I might have said this before, but I like repeating myself myself. Humans in their nature are inquisitive. When someone buys something that’s not a durable or a perishable (see your econ100 textbook for definitions), they want to be able to touch, feel, test, taste, drop, poke, slap the product. On the net, you see a few pictures, hear some testimonials from customers, and read all the tech mumble jumble.
So, things like Amazon.com – they’re prey for the 21st century’s biggest crumbler. They sell books. That’s their forte. Yes I know of their expansion into other retail sources. In fact, at Amazon, you can buy pretty much anything now. Result? What’s their EPS? (Earnings per share) – not good. They buy and buy and buy up business but they don’t have a backbone to support them.
When Amazon first came out several years ago, I had high hopes about them – they sold books. They sold it online. It was new, it was cool, it was at the time a great idea. But now? Sure they’ve built up a name for themselves (good marketing team) but they’re like everyone else… online buying.
Anyway what I’m getting at is… uh I don’t really know. I haven’t really formed a good enough argument in this update to sell any point.
My prediction: Amazon will shock the world when it announces its debt structure has been messed up and it turns out they were much worse off then they claimed they were. As a result, it will send one of the internet’s biggest commerce names into the drain. Prove me wrong Jeff Whoever.
Now time for some bitching
I have 3 group assignments due next week. I’m working fri, sat, sun, mon, tues, wed. Time is my constraint. The optimal use would be to do the work constantly with no breaks. Qualitatively, it’s impossible. I don’t like these times.
And I feel like I’m stuck in a big rut. Everyone (well, you guys anyway) have their coop jobs that seem to prep you for your careers and whatnot and here i am stuck in this big hole. I don’t have any plan. I have vague notions of what I want to do but notions don’t get you anywhere. My notion consists of graduating, attaining the CA or CMA designation, enhancing my japanese, and begin my career in japan. There’s so many jobs in japan that pay exhorbantly high. That and Eri lives there. But it doesn’t feel right… something is wrong.
It seems like all this stupid commerce stuff feels secondary somehow. I just can’t figure out what’s the main big concern that drives me. I know one thing, it’s driving me crazy – it’s like a rock in your shoe while you’re driving. You squirm around trying to get the rock to shift to the edge, but it just won’t move from under the ball of your foot. It feels like it’s poking right through your foot. I can’t stop the car and take off my shoe to remove it too.
Oh yes, to top off this update – it appears that my work on the Cultural Assistant page may be for naught (nought?) The meeting was today and I’m just waiting for my boss to tell me that it has to conform with the ELI page – meaning big ugly English Language Institute bar on the top. I’m not in a good mood.
I think I’ll just ramble some more because I’m stressed and this writing nonstop helps me somehow. Did you know that it takes 2 calories per minute when you’re typing? Bet you didn’t.
Our 2000 piece puzzle is about 70% done. Yay. My new design is non-existent and will continue to be so until the reading break at which I want to go to Banff for work. That means it may be delayed some more. I’m going skiing in 3 weeks which is just too exciting and unbearable for waiting. Uh… I’m going to toronto for 4 days in about 2 months. Uh… I’m going to Japan in just under one year… and uh… I’m going to sleep soon.
Greets to Dennis on his Visor!
Dennis has just informed me of his 13 hr workday tomorrow and that he will read this update on his visor. So hello to Dennis! You must be looking forward to a great day today! Well you seem to be enjoying your work so that’s cool.
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.
The Competition: A Look Into Who’s The Bigger Geek
October 18, 2000
10/15/00
Dennis shouts out the warcry : “OK, how about this? I’ll try and update everyday. Just to make up for my lack of updates. Some days will probably have nonsensical one sentence updates, but it’s worth a shot.” This came after a very long absense of updates from everyone (except me, I still updated once every 3 or 4 days).
Jesse updates about Dennis’ declaration of everyday updates. Kind of a non-update about non-updates. This update is his unofficial registration into The Competition.
10/16/00
Justin surprises everyone (well, me anyway) by updating and completely changing the look of his webpage. He’s the last to join The Competition.
I extend the challenge and come up with the standings of BIG LOSER #1, BIG LOSER #2, and BIG WINNER BUT BIG GEEK. The idea is who will update everyday for the most days.
10/17/00
Jesse declares an added rule that : “no updates that are to the effect of “this is my update for the day: i updated my webpage” or “i have nothing to say today.” He also adds BIG LOSER #3 standing since Justin is now in the race.
Justin calls Andrew BIG LOSER #1 even though Andrew was never in The Competition. If you noticed on my update, I wrote “I’m referring to Dennis and Jesse, who update much more frequently than the rest of you)”. I never included Andrew into The Competition cuz I know he wouldn’t last 2 days. Dennis points out Justin’s update sucked and waited for that day to finish but Justin updates more, thus saving his ass.
10/18/00
This logbook is created.
10/29/00
Justin is BIG LOSER #1 because he did not update on 10/28. Dennis and I stayed up until 12:00 that night to make sure of it. Using DST won’t save you dude.
He doesn’t take it well and calls us geeks. Yeah we’re geeks. Good one Justin. You zinged us geeks good.
Michelle wants to be BIG LOSER #1, but to piss her off, Dennis proclaims her BIG LOSER #2. Take that you geek.
It’s down to the final 3. I like being a geek, we don’t have better things to do.
Instructions for Life in the new millennium from the Dalai Lama:
October 02, 2000
Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others and, Responsibility for all your actions.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Spend some time alone every day.
Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality
Be gentle with the earth.
Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
My Life In A Nutshell
May 30, 2000
I really feel that my life can fit in a nutshell. For some time now, I feel my life has been stripped one sliver at a time and now all I have left is the core of my once illustrious life. I don’t know why I feel this way because everything in my life is to a degree, going smoothly. School is done, work is great, I go have fun many times a week, I eat right, I sleep long hours. I don’t get it.
For those who read my every word, you’ll remember that I mentioned once that I need direction in life or else I crumble into pieces and fail miserably at everything I do. Do I have direction? I really don’t know now. I mean, there’s the usual, do well in school, get in shape, be happy, and the generic stuff but so what if I achieve this? Does it really make me a better person? I used to think so but now I’m rethinking these issues.
Like the many times I redesign this webpage, I think I’m going into a redesign of my life. Things have changed a lot in the past 8 months, most of them out of my control. My old way of thinking isn’t working too well under these new conditions and I fear if I continue like this, I’ll fall into a hole I once lived in.
What does this all mean? Well, I’m unhappy. I’m very unhappy. I smile at work, I laugh with friends, and I amuse myself by singing in front of the monitor but I know deep inside that I’m lying to myself. I lack something, or maybe I lost something. I’m not sure anymore. I feel like my body is hollow in the inside, as if what made me ME was stolen, perhaps by life itself.
This was all building up for a very long time now, I just dismissed it as loneliness or boredom. How can I be always so bored when I go out five times a week, on top of that, work in a fun environment? Again, I don’t know. The only answer I can come up with is that I go out to stop myself from thinking about all this crap and when I’m home with nothing to do, all that crap just floods my mind again. That’s why I hate staying home so much.
Who out there wants to be unhappy? No one most likely. I don’t want to be unhappy. I want motivation. I used to get motivation from people I’m romantically attached to… as if I’m doing everything in my life for them. Now that is really stupid of me. Firstly, all those people that gave me this motivation, I look back now and realize they weren’t worth their weight in salt.
There is, however, one who I still hold in high regard. One who, as Jerry Mcguire put it, “completes me”. One who makes me feel my life is worth living and I too can find this mystery called “love”. As cruel as life is to me, she cannot be part of my life. For reasons and barriers that sadden me much. I have never experienced this feeling called love but I do know if I were to fall in love, it would be with her. Life is a bitch because the only good thing in my life is right out of reach.
Sad as that may sound, that’s the least of my problems right now. I have so many issues with so many things that I think I can start my own daily comic strip.
So is to become of my life and all the misery that surrounds it? Manic depression perhaps? Hysterical outcries on this very webpage? Suicide perhaps? No. No. No. (Well, actually, yes to the hysterical outcries on this webpage). I despise people who back into a corner and whimper at their sadness. I mock people who think they can do nothing to get themselves into a better place. And I kick those who say they’re worthless or pathetic (partly because kicking people makes me feel better about myself).
No. I rarely give up in anything I do and I will never give up in this quest that we all call life. It ain’t over until I’m dead. By god I know I’m not gonna die, I’m invincible. I am not a normal average person. I’m beyond.
If you would like to help me in this quest, send $5 to Happy Guy, c/o Homer Simpson, 123 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield.
Breaking news
May 02, 2000
Sorry, no new design just yet, but this is more important. This is to announce of my greatest achievement ever: I got a C- in stats! Which means I passed… I PASSED!!!! I FREAKIN’ PASSED! It’s the greatest thing that could happen this term!
Doh. That means on my transcript, there will be 2 blemishes now, stats and accounting, the only 2 C’s out of my A/B card. Haha. Woohoo! Glorious glorious day!
Still working on the design. And playing with my neat little new electric organizer. And Dragon is bitching too much. More on that later. GLORIOUS DAY!
Press Announcement
May 01, 2000
This site will no longer be. The next update will be in the new design. So far, Dennis and Andrew have seen it and their comments helped the JV Special Interests Group decide on the update. It will use the interface showcased on 04/29, although JV_Photoshop Guy still thinks he can make something better. I think it still looks good and so it will be up.
Dennis is creating a pool on how long the new design will last. Go place your bets now. Hell, I would want to join. But in the meantime, I have some stuff to port over… sigh so many pictures.
So, this design will head to Geocities (along with Dragon! hahaha) and the new design will rule the world. My Geocities page is getting cluttered and full and redundant (a lot of identical files in different locations) gotta clean that up later.
Huzzah.
Another interface to play with
April 29, 2000
This took me all afternoon to make but I think it was worth the effort. It has similarities with yesterday’s little gadget but this one looks a lot better. Go see it now! This one is getting to what I want in the next version.
I need a lot of feedback on it so please, tell me what you think of it and also what I can add or subtract.
Testing a design
April 28, 2000
Just made a test interface for the new webpage. This is NOT going to be how it looks – I made it to see if it would work and it seems to. So have a look. I’m having some problems getting the look of my idea onto photoshop but it is only a matter of time.
Ex-mascot Dragon has made a statement on Sinned’s Realm. We at JVision have no comment on the subject spoken by Mr. Dragon at this moment in time.
Goodbye Art, it has been a helluva ride
April 27, 2000
a href=”http://www.artbell.com”>Art Bell, one of the greatest radio personalities of all time ends his career tonight. His last show and he will leave the public eye. A well deserved rest for him might I add. Farewell sir. This pic is his last ever webcam pic done during his show. Damn. I never met the guy but I’ll miss him. The new guy they got to replace him is pretty good, but will never compare to him. Damn. All the good things in life always end the quickest. (Don’t try to read into that sentence too much)
Mission complete [02:24]
I hate updating during the first few hours of a day when I’m writing about the previous day. Yeah so this update is about the 26th. So it was that my final final(Dennis coined that) ended yesterday. So it was decreed that I need not study until August (summer course). So it was declared that I get until next next week to relax and make up for all that lost time studying.
I start work in 2 weeks with four days of training. I have to get certified again in first aid training and I remember how stupid it was to breathe into those dummies. Work will hopefully be fun.
These couple of days have been unstable with some "events" occurring between our "group". I use these terms loosely. I don’t know what our group is now. Doesn’t matter. I have other things (1945 Strikers, Quake3, alcohol, and my training). Speaking of my martial arts training, I’ve been neglecting it a lot during this month so I plan to get back on pace.
Also gonna get some groundwork done on the new design soon. Jesse has Jerry Syndrome as he so affectionately calls ~ meaning he’s in the midst of design. Bah. His case doesn’t seem serious enough to warrant that name. His case probably isn’t chronic like mine. I think Dennis is still working on his page – leave those cool looking sissy fonts on!
Someone else also just started his/her webpage. I was sworn not to tell anyone about it so I won’t. But I look forward to reading his/her webpage. Heh heh heh.
I get to spend today cleaning up and catching up on my relaxation. I guess this means more updates more frequently now. And so, I leave this update for some previous sleep. Huzzah.
JVision Subsidiary
April 25, 2000
JVision proudly presents the opening of a subsidiary independently operated by J_ICQ-Manager. It’s the JVision : ICQ page. It’s a cheesy creation and there is nothing you will miss by not visiting it. If you’re bored and you deleted Freecell, then you might want to go there to play around with all those neat ICQ toys.
Gonna sleep now. I’ll bitch about my life really soon. I promise.
I’d like to welcome a new member into JV… DIZZYMON
April 23, 2000
Yes Dizzymon will reside on this page to the left as our NEW mascot! (Sorry Dragon but you’re fired). Dizzymon is a crazy Chinpoko Mon from the land of Dizney. He has travelled many a mile to come to JV and his office is atop my tower right beside Y2K Bug’s seat.
Dizzymon’s passage to my dwelling was made possible by two awesome people: Shannon and Dennis! As you may recall, I mentioned that Shannon carries a Dizzymon of her own and yesterday I discovered that it can turn inside out and become a Pokemon Ball.
Anyway, Dennis calls today and says that they have something for me. Beats? A railshot right between the eye? Who knew. Then they arrived and bestowed upon me a great gift… my very own Dizzymon. Many thank you’s go to them and rest assurred Dizzymon will forever make me dizzy as I stare into his magic dizzying body. (Is that his mouth?)
Be sure to keep an eye out on Dizzymon because I’m sure he’ll come out with wacky adventures once in awhile.
Click on Dizzymon to get a better view of what he looks like.
My Day (referring to yesterday)
Spent the afternoon and some of the evening studying. I’m very behind schedule but will probably catch up tomorrow.
Took some pretty snazzy Sparkle Pictures just now as a celebration of Dizzymon’s arrival – those will be up as soon as Dennis develops the pics and scans them.
Today I will study and maybe eat. I hope I get to eat, I like eating.
My god it’s saturday already
April 22, 2000
Time sure flies when you’re a pathetic loser. Today will yet again be a study saturday – the fourth this year in a long running tradition in aprils. Stats. Statistics. Bullshit. Still, it’s a requirement and I HAVE to do well in it. I have 13 chapters to learn in 4 days. That’s only about 4 chapters a day (I need a day of review too).
Yesternight, we had some fun eating and pooling with Justin. Got one group pic – it’ll be up later. Oh yeah, Dave wasn’t back two days ago so my "welcome back" was premature. He is however, supposed to be back today, so, "welcome back dave". I’m really bad at these things. Ah well.
Let’s see. Ah yes, very important news because it affects YOU as well. I was visiting I-Mockery and I stumbled onto this page. I looked at the design, it was very simple, yet looked neat. In my mind, that design floated around and I envisioned what it would look like if I made something like that. The end result (in my head) looked kinda cool so now I have an idea for the next webpage. It does look a lot different from that page so don’t worry, it won’t have ugly polar bears sitting around or whatever. Remember, this was supposed to be temporary. This looks really boring compared to The Idea (which is the prototype’s codename right now).
So I’m listening to As One right now (a korean pop group composing of 2 girls), waiting for mother to bring back some lunch, then I’m off to good ole campus to hit the books hard. I’ll keep The Idea around and maybe doodle in my notes later today.
My agenda tonight will be much the same as any other study saturdays – study and then quake maybe? – and listen to the awesome ghost stories thing on AM1470. No party tonight… maybe… nah.
Haha I always wondered what it would look like if I littered my news with links. Now I know. Don’t worry it won’t happen too often – it’s a pain in the ass to make all those links.
Dilemna II
I told my "dilemna" to a friend and then he surprised me by telling me of the same dilemna (more or less) that happened to him not too long ago. This made me reconsider my position and I think this dilemna is no longer. I’m taking the easy road out and that’s the end of that chapter. So yay. Yay for me.
Take that you ugly swine
April 20, 2000
My afternoon of basketball was pretty fun. I’m not as unfit as I thought I would be, considering I haven’t played in 1.5 months. There was this guy who was playing pickup on our court and he was really ugly. He was skinnier than me, had slanty shanty eyes, and ugly hair. I don’t know him but I hated him on the spot. I hate people who I hate on the spot. (haha that made sense).
He was a hotdog which means he’s all show and no game. He’s quick, I’ll give him that, but his fancy crossovers and twirly wirlies don’t do shit. I checked him and I didn’t even have to run cuz I just shoot out and he loses the ball. It was so funny to see him trying to hard. Even funnier when he thought he was really cool and stared at me when he had the ball. He did a left crossover and then turned right and I knew I wasn’t gonna get him cuz I slipped… so: I chopped him in the neck with my arm. Haha. Officially, it was an accident. Off the records: TAKE THAT SKILL-LESS BOY! HAHAHAHA I LAUGH AT YOUR PATHETIC ATTEMPT TO IMPRESS PEOPLE.
We still lost that game 8-6 cuz we just sucked but that guy who came on thinking of schooling us, had to think twice before checking me again. Hahah.
In conclusion, it’s not speed, nor the number of continuous crossovers, nor the spin-a-ramas you can do that count in basketball – it’s skill BABY.
Welcome back Justin and Dave
It’s been confirmed that Justin is back (mom told me). Dunno about Dave. Seeya guys soon I hope.
There aren’t too many constants left in my life [12:03]
but sleep is one of them. And what a nice sleep that was. You know how I love dreams and I had another cool dream: I dreamed I was with this really pretty girl who I knew not long ago and it was cool. I do not know why my mind suddenly brought her back into my unconscious because I haven’t seen her in so long. Oh well. Maybe it’s a sign…
I’m off to play some basketball with Benny who can kick my ass. I’ll start studying tomorrow and I vow it. Otherwise, this is going to be a normal boring Thursday.
Oh yeah, this marks the one year anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Schools all over the continent have police monitoring because they think some more morons might repeat last year’s thing. I doubt it.
Good Luck Dennis!!!
Yes. Dennis has 2 finals today. Good luck on that. Then he’s going to Shannon (his girlfriend who totes around this egg pokemon that I call Eggmon and this other weird pokemon that I call Dizzymon (because looking at it makes me dizzy). Good luck on that too. Haha why good luck? I don’t know. I guess had I gone to a prom of someone else’s (and I have) and I didn’t know anyone (other than my date, my cousin, and his two friends), I wouldn’t have too much fun (thank god they had a smoking room there hahah). Well hope they’ll have fun. Proms suck. Why are they called proms anyway? Someone tell me.
Coming Soon
I was working on a write about morality after reading Dennis’ counter but I’m way too lazy to finish it. Still, don’t think that the matter is dead… far from it.
Second, after having conversations with Sunny about various matters (dilemnas, bitching about stuff and people, etc), there’s going to be a rant on relationships. Funny. I never had a good, lasting relationship yet it seems I have a lot of things to say about it. So look for that.
I told you there was more stuff later (now)
April 19, 2000
So I ended up wasting my whole day yesterday. It was so good. First day of these few days where I didn’t do anything studying. I love it. Worked out a bit, quaked a bit, tv’d a bit. Dinner’d a bit. You know, the usual.
Then I played quake again with Dennis and Vince just now and it was fun. We instagib’d and of course, I owned them (3 of 3 games were all mine. Muhahaha.) Vince is surprisingly not bad with the rail – except he likes standing around and aiming. But he got both me and Dennis good a few times.
That was my day and it was cool. Oh yeah, Freeza is dead for now – he got blasted by Gokou while floating around without legs. It’s so funny to see a one-armed torso floating around with a red stump where legs should go.
What else is new… Oh yeah, Happy 20th Birthday to Joyce, well, actually it was yesterday. Ah well, I don’t think she visits my site anyways. Well, Happy bday all the same and see you in uh… about three weeks.
And see Justin in uh 1 day. You probably won’t come out on Thurs right? In the meantime, there’s a course I need to learn entirely before the 26th. Doh. I hope I start my little summer job soon, I’m getting quite bored… and broke.
That’s it, I have nothing more interesting to say at this moment. Huzzah.
Wow – 2000!
April 18, 2000
Damn. I wasn’t here when the counter hit 2k, but yeah it did. Yeah. Thanks to all who contributed. Haha.
I was working on a piece to counter Dennis’ counter to a counter I did to his counter of my original piece. Still working on it.
And one more final now. Yeah some more! More stuff later.
Hello kiddies, I’m back from the dead [00:00]
One of these days my body will explode spontaneously in the middle of a study session. I was kind of hoping it would happen during these past days of study bursts for accounting (final is in 12 hours). It didn’t happen since I’m still updating. Much to my dissappointment, there were no eye candy to look at during my library study session last night. I did however see the girl I call Linda on the way there but I decided to not position too closely to her or else I’ll get no studying done whatsoever. Luckily, the spot I chose was barren of everything – there weren’t even interesting colors since everything was white or a pale grey. The drabness must’ve increased my interest in accounting because I got through the past exams quickly and picked up quite a bit.
I took a washroom break and saw this sem-decent looking girl on my way there. Again there was that awkward eye contact moment and I could’ve sworn I felt her laughing at my appearance inside her mind. You see I was dressed in my unimpressive but comfortable t-shirt and tear-offs ensemble. Oh well, she wasn’t that great.
Not much has been happening lately, I’ve been feeling extremely "blah" – definition on the right. Quake has been ok – sucks with lag though. If I wanted to play with lag, I wouldn’t have gotten my ADSL connection.
Freeza is still not fucking dead yet. But he is in pieces after his own disc attack sliced him in half from the torso and took off his left arm. Haha. It’s so weird to see him squirming around like that. I gather from the preview that tomorrow, he will be blown away by an energy attack from Gokou and finally end the fucking saga.
A rant that was not based on religion has bred some interesting replies by Dennis and Jesse – go see them. They have really polarized views. I do have something to add though. First, they have really negative views about religion and specifically, the Catholic Church (let’s include Christianity in here for simplicity’s sake). Well, Christianity has its roots as the minority religion during the Holy Moly Roman Empire. Christian’s were being persecuted for their beliefs and yada yada yada. So it’s been a couple thousands of years and now they are more or less the biggest religion in the world. And if history repeats itself (and it does), isn’t there a remote chance that today’s oddball beliefs (the New Age crud) and "lesser" religions could be the mainstream of the future?
I hear so much bashing and there are good points that justify it but the intent of religion was to let people have morals and good upbringing (it’s not forced upon people). Don’t mix up religion with the people who guide the religion to its corrupt ways now. I personally do not have a religion but I do see goodness in them – as opposed to the zero-good views of Dennis.
Not all religions are so rigid in their beliefs. Sure, we see before us many morons who take religion to the next step and become fanatical but they don’t represent the majority of religious people.
I don’t support nor condone religion. I feel it’s a good source of morality for anyone. The Holy Bible read without religious intent is a book of morals. But if you feel you don’t need religion to have morals, then let it be. Let the lunatic religion freaks rant and rave their extremist views. I guess tolerance is a moral principle too but let’s not get into that.
The main point: people need morals otherwise we’d all do whatever we want to and the world would be in more chaos than it already is. Religion is a source of morals but is not the only source. Other sources: vicarious learning from others (friends, family, etc), charismatic leaders (good or bad), books (religious or not – Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is filled with morals), and a lot more.
My first attempt at wallpapers
April 15, 2000
It’s mid April and I’m still kicking [18:37]
Yesternight: a huge quake battle between me, Dennis, Jesse, Jesse’s brother, Vince, and Andrew took place. First it was a free for all death match. I came in way late but still ended up 4th (hahaha). The next battle – a screwed up CTF resulted in a team deathmatch with me, Dennis, and Vince, versus the others. We annihilated them by a large margin – even Vince outscored each and every one of our opponents. Our third venue: finally, capture the flag. With the same teams and good momentum, we won 8-1 with 7 captures from myself, 1 from Vince, and ultimate defense from Sinned. They never knew what hit them. Our fourth and final match – another CTF with slightly different teams; me, Andrew, and Vince, versus the rest. Result: we won 8-2 (I think). We hit them hard, hit them fast. I attacked for the first half then defended the latter half. With full support from Andrew and Vince, the other team tried in vain to bypass our superb defense. The highlight of the game (for me) was when flag carriers – me and Dennis – duked it out while our other teammates were no were to be seen. It ended as a draw as Dennis retreated from my base, leaving me with a meager 1 hit point. A very good match.
Today: nothing as exciting as yesterday, I watched With Honors starring Danny de Vito and Brendan Fraser. It’s a pretty good movie. Then I studied on campus for a couple of hours and headed back.
Tonight: I plan to study some more, then hopefully get some more quake in, and then listen to those awesome ghost tales on AM1470 – 23:00 to 01:00. If fortune shines upon me, I’ll have yet another poutine to enjoy tonight.
You
Michelle has the honor of the very first entry in the You page. This was in reply of a rant on the previous webpage. Thanks Michelle! You too can have a spot on my webpage, just read a rant, think about what I said, then tell me what you think. You can scream at my view, agree with me, show me another view, whatever. Draw a picture! Paint a fingerpainting! Make a sculpture. Anything!
I’m bored out of my fucking mind
April 14, 2000
I spent all day doing nothing. Well, my accomplishment was finishing the tax returns for me and my sister. Played some quake. Wrote in the Choose Your Own Adventure. Watched the stocks die. Oh yeah, got frustrated that Freeza is NOT dead yet – hopefully next episode. You know, it’s been about 6 half hour episodes and the time gone by in the show is supposedly only 5 minutes. You figure out what’s wrong with that. Anyway, he’s gonna die really soon and we can finally get onto the next saga.
Jesse is the second person ever to respond to a rant, his view is up on his site. Michelle was the first ever, she wrote an email in response to a rant on the previous version of this webpage and one of these days, i promise i’ll read it.
In response to Jesse’s 1 line email that the 0.7% increase in the US CPI is one month, not one year, you’re right it is. But that’s not the point. The inflation fear sparked the mass selling which is normal ~ all inflation announcements usually follow selling. The point is, the NASDAQ has been overpriced since I guess… fall of last year, when the whole index was all bull for so long. Companies that weren’t putting out numbers were being overhyped and this whole drop seems more like a market correction rather than a crash.
As for the Dow, it could be that some big tech stocks dragged it down (it ended the day abou 5% off). And the well diversified S&P500, they were about 5% off or so too. Compare that to the almost 10% drop the NAS took. Ouch.
On the happy side, oil is down.
And the lucky winner is…
Wow thanks to all of you who entered the raffle draw… all 2 of you (thanks Andrew and Michelle) BUT the raffle was rigged because well it was rigged. I ended up sharing my little ordeal with none other than Dennis – who I always tell me ordeals too. Sorry people! The outcome: no change in perception. The dilemna still exists, but Dennis just pointed out the things that I knew deep inside but just ignored. It’ll eventually work out, just in the meantime, I’ll have to deal with the nuisance of certain thoughts popping up in my mind.
// More News [12:24]
The US CPI was 0.7% which was higher than expected and fears that rising interest rates affected the market. All the North American markets took hits and even international markets went down – NIKKEI, HANSENG, all down a tiny bit. Gold and bonds are up because people are pulling out of the stock market and going into those. The CDN dollar took a beating. The CDN CPI is to be released on Monday and I doubt it’s any different than the US. I wonder why an inflation of 0.7% is so scary? I thought inflation of ~1% was healthy.
// Ouch that hurts [11:51]
Dow 10421.80 -501.75 (-4.59%) Nasdaq 3392.16 -284.62 (-7.74%). That’s what I wake up to. That hurts. The NASDAQ fell about 1000 points THIS week. Actually people should’ve have seen it coming a long time ago. Practically the whole index is overrated. People are buying tech names and dot.coms left and right because EVERYONE is buying them.
Let’s use some finance learned this year. Stock prices are dictated by most part the expected dividends the company is going to give. Sure, capital gains make up a portion, but any analyst will tell you that the expected dividends make up a good chunk of a stock price.
For the last year now, tech stocks have been inflated way over their prices from impulse buyers looking for the quick million. Take all those Super IPOs. They are way too hyped. How can people boost the price of a stock up 200, 300% when the company is in its infancy and doesn’t even have enough information to tell about its expected earnings and such? Again it’s all part of the big quick change. You buy in on a company, expecting that since it’s a dot.com or tech company, it’ll skyrocket in the two or three days it’s sold to the secondary, and you sell it off, keeping that nice 100+% profit. Sure there are many of those around… but get rid of those risky stocks quickly. Most IPOs drop in price or even get withdrawn. When they hit a nice high, don’t hang on to them hoping for even more gains. Cash in early.
I really hope anyone who has stocks right now diversified well enough so that their portfolio isn’t comprised of ONLY tech (there are a lot of portfolios like that). I don’t have a portfolio but on my stock game, I’m down 6% because 40% of my money is in bluechips and utilities – which are more or less market indepedent. The biggest hits I took were from the big name techs – Intel, Cisco, etc. The rest took slight dips because they get dragged by the market. Even the NASDAQ 100 TRUST (AMEX:QQQ), which should copy the index didn’t do as badly as the tech’s. It’s only down 6% compared to the rest of the market 7.7%.
I don’t have the necessary education to tell if this low is just a trading lull, or if this is the equilibrium level. What I guess is that tomorrow, many people will pick up super cheap stocks and the index will pop up to 3500 or so (which is my guess what the equilibrium level is). So pick up some cheap stocks (if you still have cash left hehe) and don’t just buy those dot.coms.
[i'm not liable for any financial loss or gain resulting from following my advice. Hell i'm just some second year commerce guy. I don't trust myself sometimes.]
Hey cool. Gold is up a teenie bit.
Quote I just picked up [01:30]
The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them - Mark Twain
I hate dilemnas [00:56]
Just came back from a little outing to lessen the stress built up all week. First pool – I got rocked today, my shots were all screwed up. Then we went to bk for a long deserved poutine… yum. After we filled ourselves with crud food, we then went to Jack’s Loft for crud bubble tea. I guess I would’ve had more fun if the company was slightly different (just slightly) and if I didn’t have a little dilemna that’s been bugging me for a week or so.
I wish I could write it all out on my lovely little webpage, but if you know me well enough, you’ll know I always keep my problems bottled up. Repression is my specialty. It’s not a big deal. I won’t die. I never die from external problems – it’s not worth it.
So what’s new with you people? I’m so tired from studying and so much crap all month, all year long. Screw it all.
Hmm… you know I think I just might break my discipline and tell someone about it and ask what would they do… who shall it be who shall it be… who will be the (un)lucky one? Maybe it could be you! Hey! Let’s make it fun: enter your name in the raffle draw for the chance to be the lucky one! Deadline is end of this month!
It’s the end of the world
April 13, 2000
While studying for my finance final, I listened to the Art Bell show, one of the last hosted by Art Bell himself (he retires on the 26th). The topic of the night was religion based, with prophecies of the impending doom of the world, mentions of the Third Secret of Fatima, and such.
The guest, Kathleen Keating, presents her case and claims that “It’s going to be a free for all for our souls” between God and the Antichrist who is alive right now. She gives her thought on all sorts of questions but sometimes doesn’t answer the question clearly.
For example, children of alcholics sometimes are born alcoholics themselves. Why are children, who are born pure of evil thought, sins, and such, punished for something their parents did? How can such a loving God do this to a new soul that just entered the world? Art himself questioned Kathleen about it and her answer was rather ambiguous and did not answer the question to a satisfactory degree.
Anyway, my point of this rant is that there’s so many people out there who claim the world is going to end or Armageddon is among us, Judgment Day is near, etc etc. I personally do believe in a God, but my idea of God is not typical of most religions in that God does not really give a damn whether you go to church or obey strict rules and such. I feel that if you can live your life in a good way (I know… goodness is subjective) and you can face yourself and all that you have done, God won’t send you to hell just because you don’t believe in him. I know a lot of people share my view.
Oh yeah, supposedly, on May 5th, the world is going to end. This was predicted by other people. There is scientific basis to this claim though – on May 5th, 2000, the planets align in a way that [they claim] will alter the Earth’s geomagnetic forces and wreak havoc upon the life on our hurting planet. I do believe Nostradamus also predicted the end to occur at this date and his predictions (written beautifully in quatrains might I add) have an uncanny knack of coming true.
Most people would probably fear the end of life and the possibility of eternal suffering in Hell or whatever such punishment you believe in. I don’t. I’ve done nothing wrong in my life to deserve punishment described by those of the bible. I’ve done shit, but I paid for it in some way. I don’t fear death because I believe in life after death, be it as ghosts, free wandering spirits, winged angels, or reincarnation. And even if death = death and nothing of my consciousness lives on, then you know what? Who cares? If when I die and that’s it, nothing remains of me, then I wouldn’t know it and thus would end my existence.
People fear the unknown and death is pretty much as unknown as you can get. But death is just a natural part of life, on par with birth, puberty, sickness, and aging – there’s nothing to fear in it (unless you die a terrible painful death, then maybe you’ll be a bit averse to death). Embrace the unknown, walk straight, and be brave. This is the wisdom I hope I can impart on anyone who is willing to listen to a 19 year old philosopher.
Humanity at large also tends to view our species as being superior. Perhaps we are, in that our cognitive abilities are unmatched on this planet. I’m well aware that there are some out there who seem as stupid as a common housefly. But don’t we realize that homo sapiens are just another species in evolution and nature?
When our species is eradicated by a vengeful God, hungry aliens, a big space rock, whatever, I think other things will live on. Survival of the fittest isn’t it? Cockroaches have lived past dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, and one day, humans (most likely). So many people think that when WE are extinct, the earth will also be devoid of life and be a hunk of rock floating around. Now that’s ego.
Well, that was my little thought on the matter. I would love to hear from you and hell, I’ll even post up your thought. Send them here.
Ahh fuck [17:24]
All that studying for naught (or is it nought?). Fuck I screwed up. After comparing answers with Andrew (haha I left the exam earlier again), I realized I made many stupid stupid mistakes. All the studying in the world wouldn’t have helped and as such, I’m pissed off at my performance. I demand more out of myself than stupidity, most of the time. Dammit
Anyway, it’s over so now I get a nice break tonight from studying. Then there’s two more exams and then I start work and summer course. Doh.
After the exam, me, Andrew, and Sunny went for lunch at the Flying Beaver (trust me, it’s not a lesbian restaurant or anything like that). Food was ok. Nice nice view with cool seaplanes roaming around. Oh yeah, they have these weird vehicles that tow the planes back to the hangar or drive them to the docks. Imagine a small Nissan pickup truck, now, chop off the back. Yep, chop off the trunk and you’re left with just the front half (2 wheels). Then attach a metal frame thing with wheels to the front and you have the weird vehicle. At first glance, it looked so hilarious. Haha I guess you had to be there.
I remembered about a write I did for Dennis’ About Me page at his site while driving to the exam today and I forgot to put it up here. So it’s here now.
Burning the midnight oil [02:09]
My finance studying ended at 1:45 or so this morning and I then commenced a RANT writing. It’s up. Absorb it loyal visitors. Absorb, ponder, then write back! Tell me what you think of the matter. Contrast and compare ideas. Exchange knowledge. This is the purpose of this site.
I’m tired now and I think I’m getting some hunger pangs. So I’m going to sleep now to slow my metabolism down and maybe I’ll have a cool dream again. Dreams are so cool – it’s like a holodeck you can’t control. Huzzah.
To study is to die
April 12, 2000
Warning – mini rant. I wasted my afternoon on campus studying in the super hot climate of D. Lam library. This time there was a cute girl again but she had nothing to do with my unstudying. The stupid library is about 10 degrees hotter than any room in Angus. I hate it. So my studying didn’t prove to be too constructive today.
So tonight, I’m staying home and probably pulling an all nighter. I’m on my first break (first of many probably). If you’re on a study break, why don’t you go take a look at the Langara pictures (so many pictures now!) which just got posted up! They’re rather weird but I guess it’s a nice break from studying. Anything is right now. I’m down to my last cigarette too. Sucks. Whoops almost forgot. I didn’t test out all the links yet so if you find any broken ones or just anything that doesn’t seem right, report it immediately.
Only… 14 hours until my final so I’m gonna hit the books and probably a bunch of other things now. I’ll update in a couple hours. Hehe.
Good morning everyone [11:50]
That was a very good ten and a half hour sleep. I had a few weird dreams again. One involved some new person moving next door and another involved me winning 5k in the slot machines but the machine jammed and wouldn’t give me my money.
Well, I’m off to campus really soon for some heavy duty studying. R = (1 + i/m)^nm -1 This calculating effective rates from nominal rates. Fine I won’t litter this page with useless equations. One more: (1+ Rc)/(1+Rus) = F[cdn/us] / S[us/cdn] This is the covered interest parity principle.
Woo woo dee dee da doo [01:38]
I fucked my psyc exam yesterday. Then went home and watched Zorro. I love that movie. Then I went to school and studied all night. Then I came home. Then I added more pictures to my page – these are from New Years. Then I wrote this. Then I decided I don’t have anything more interesting to say so goodnight people. Then I said huzzah.
Studying at the library
April 10, 2000
The nature of this rant is rather personal and as such, you may feel at times when reading this some urges to vomit and/or smash your skull against the monitor. The staff at JVision take no liability for any damages, health or property related stemming from reading online materials presented on this site. With that in mind, let’s begin.
Today’s topic: checking out girls. *snicker*
So I was at D. Lam library tonight, reading notes for my psyc final tomorrow. I’m about half an hour into studying when I look up and see someone who catches my eye, sitting two tables in front of me. This someone, is a girl who happens to be in my psyc class, I don’t know her name, nor do I really care to find out. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just call her Linda (she looks like a Linda).
Anyway, I look at Linda. She looks up and looks at me. You know that awkward feeling when 2 sets of eyes meet and when those 2 people don’t know each other? Well, that’s the feeling I got. Did I mention that Linda is really cute? Nice big eyes, a small sharp nose, a kind of natural glum look that begs people to sympathize with her and want to give her a hug. Yeah that’s Linda alright. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any feelings for her nor do I want to, I just looked at her and admired her looks. Simple as that.
Prior to seeing Linda, I was absorbed in my notes and didn’t notice anything going on around me, but after seeing her, I totally became aware of my slobby attire, my just-got-out-of-the-shower hair, my goofy glasses, and my obnoxious character. I knew she wasn’t going to check me out, much less, even look at me, but I felt a big surge in self-monitoring (haha psyc term).
Girls can be such nuisances. I was so absorbed in studying and making good progress but once I saw Linda, my attention was divided much like bandwidth is divided in an ADSL connection. I couldn’t help but look up from reading every few pages and look at her. Just couldn’t help it. I don’t think she noticed because everytime I looked, she had her head down reading something. (Which was all the better since further eye contact would feel even weirder).
I eventually got through my studying (with two cigarette breaks mind you). I must’ve looked at Linda about six or seven times in that three hour study period. I still don’t understand why I did it. I don’t feel any happier seeing her nor do I obtain any sick pleasures from seeing her too. All I can say is maybe it’s a biological thing – she’s cute, she’s sitting there, I’m sitting there, bam – I look at her.
I think I’m all ranted out about this matter (I don’t want to piss off anyone). To Linda, I say, “God you’re cute. Don’t worry, I’m just looking at you for your looks, not your mind.” And to everyone else, I say “Huzzah.” Heh, I guess this wasn’t so much a rant as it was a blurb.
SURPRISE!!!
Since this webpage was just going to sit around, I thought I would just put it up for the time being. I didn’t want all this work to go to waste. Don’t get too attached to it, it’s going down when finals are over and my new new design is up. As usual, the old webpage is up on the archives. I think everything works on this page so far. My old writing is up too. The new pics which are available at Andrew’s site aren’t up yet. Too lazy. Officially, this is called JVision but really, it’s v2.2. Don’t worry too much about versions, I’m dropping the whole version thing since I make a new webpage every month now. Those version numbers are just getting ridiculous.
I realize how boring this day’s update is – i have an excuse
Yeah today is one of those, “Who cares” updates where I just write about crap that doesn’t mean anything. Since I had 3.5 hours of sleep last night, can you really blame me? And I just finished studying all evening. Aargh.
Let’s see… something more interesting… ok I’ll write about it. Go see it in Rant.
MIS Final
Sucked. I left after 50 minutes (of the 2.5 hours given). I guessed a LOT and bullshitted a LOT. Sucked.
Then I spent the evening studying for the psyc exam tomorrow. Psyc is stupid but studying for it is quite difficult since there’s so many terms to memorize. Sucks some more.
Quake
Dennis is working a level that is consisted entirely of traps, an idea I played with when I made a q2 map. I believe it will be rather fun to explore.
The Boiler Room
A site made by Gene. Based on the movie. Talks about stocks. A pretty good site ~ nicely designed and has some informative stuff.
Some Places To Go
DBZ: Bid for Power – q3 mod coming soon. Looks really cool
Mixture – an online community – there’s a lot of models on there for some reason. Yeah.
STOMPED – a nice gaming site with focus on fps (Q3, UT, DK, etc.)
Choose Your Own Adventure – it’s back! Last seen in the agendas of our high school days, it has evolved to an online form. Nothing much on it but hopefully it’ll get more interesting.
Smashing great taste
April 09, 2000
Bid For Power: a q3 mod based on Dragonball Z. It looks really cool. So I wake up this morning… I mean afternoon, and seeing that my parents haven’t come back yet (with my lunch hehe), I load up q3 and decide to school some newbies. As luck would have it, I get no response from master server. I hate that. That one simple message deprives me of killing people. As such, I actually played single player in that game. It’s weird, when I first got it, some of those levels, usually the 1v1′s, seemed impossible. But in the level versus Sarge, I kicked his ass 10-0. I guess camping the quad was a little cheap but who cares.
Anyway this is going to be a Study Sunday since I have a final in 19 hours AND another in 43 hours. After this week though, I can relax a bit since the last two aren’t a big worry.
Andrew’s logo is up. Located to your left. I think that is his car (how predictable) even though at first glance, I thought it was a cat. Actually a cat eye would be cool for a logo, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with my site so having one would be weird (yes I’m well aware of having a human eye doesn’t seem to have much relation with this site too). You suck.
Here’s my master plan: study, quake, study, study, maybe go blading, study, study, simpsons, study, study, sleep. Fun.
April 08, 2000
Well, I studied some more this afternoon (read half a chapter. yippee) when Me and Andrew spontaneously decided to go play some tennis. So we did. We played under an hour, then ran laps… uh… 10 laps. Yes 10. 10 because no one was there to see how many we actually did.
It was a good weekend but I just got this distressing memo sent from the corporate pigs from higher up. Here’s a copy of the statement released about ten minutes ago.
Seems like the fat cats higher up are doing some major work. Oh yeah, don’t tell anyone I released the statement! My wife and kids depend on my paycheques.
I love lazy saturday afternoons… so lazy [13:00]
Screw studying. Yesterday was fun. Pool, then eat, then we played with Andrew’s digicamera and took some abnormal pictures. They’re up on Andrew’s site right now. They will be up on mine but I’m making a story out of it so it’s gonna take a little while.
They’ll probably show up on the new site too which I think is done but I’m still contemplating whether to use the design or not. Haha.
I think I’ll study a little today. Just a little. What else??? Hmm nothing. Huzzah.
My Last Day of Class
April 05, 2000
I technically have a class on friday but fuck it. No one goes. Last time I asked, a friend said she was there with 9 other people in that class (out of 60). I have a psych experiment thing tomorrow but that’s only for an hour and after that, I’m free.
I got home this afternoon planning to study but instead I worked on the webpage and I think I have about a third of it done and ported. Fuck I am going to fail my finals. What else is new. But I have a couple new things on it that is not as boring as this page. I can’t talk about it yet… it’s a secret.
More on the stock market. Nothing much happened today, basically some minor adjustments. Celera (CRA) made a huge ass increase: they ended the day at 115, after having a +41 3/8 increase (+56.2%). That is a good return in one day. I think Clinton said some good things about the sector (and practically that stock) and sent it soaring after it was down a couple points. I bet you tomorrow, it will take a big hit (just like PALM the day after its public opening – phew… dropped like birdshit).
I think my interest in the markets has been rekindled these couple of days after crazy trading by retarded day traders. I can’t believe they all panic sold. Man I bet so many people got rich by short selling (selling stocks you don’t own yet in hopes that it will drop in price so you re-pay that stock at a lower price and keep the difference).
I have to study tonight. My stomach turns at the thought. I just noticed that lately, things in my life have begun to improve. My marks are slightly higher than last term, I got that fun job, and I’m really settling in in school. I hope my summer will be awesome. I hope that job will be fun. I hope my summer courses will be fun. I hope that my hopes will come true.
Woo Dragonball is on! And Goku just turned super yester. Huzzah.
Musings by Jerry
April 04, 2000
You know I can’t go through a day without writing something on my page. Sigh. Don’t really have much to say. Just kidding I always have a long winded update available. Firstly, last night, Dennis wasted me in quake3. No denying it. I have no clue what went wrong. Well actually I do. I can waste him when we’re in close quarter railing. But when we’re sniping long distances, he out frags me by a lot. So he may have noticed me trying to run towards him a lot yesterday. Bastard. Ah well, he won fair and square… FOR A CHEATER. So for the time being, he is Master of the Universe and even I have to pay some respect as he struts around.
++ I was wrong with my prediction about the markets yesterday. MS dropped a little bit more and I think it’s at $88 now. The NASDAQ overall dropped some more and now stands at 4100. Dow took a hit but the Dow has been taking big hits quite often lately. My prediction still stands that the NASDAQ will reclaim ground. I think by Friday, it’ll go back up to 4300~4400. The Dow rests around its comfortable spot right now so I don’t see it making any big adjustments in the little while.
++ Andrew has got a new job doing some edp work or something (you’re really unclear about what you do). Good luck learning pagemaker by friday. Haha. Well congratulations though. And now we owe each other dinners.
++ A correction to yesterday’s update: the company is not Dennis Corp., they’re called Jumping Men Software. Dennis Corp. sounds better. Hmm what else. Ah Dennis asked about my plans for investments or something. I never really gave it any thought but I have what seems to be a pretty solid plan. Firstly, I’m starting off small with a small mutual fund portfolio – when I get steady income. Mutual funds are riskier than bonds or tbills but their returns are generally higher and steadier. On average, mutual funds gross about 10~15% growth. That’s going to be an ongoing investment. RRSPs are good but boring.
Anyway, when I grad and hopefully find a good job, then I’ll expand my portfolio. I’m guessing around 60~70% of my funds will be in stocks but it’s always good to keep some gold on hand. Gold typically reacts inversely with stock markets so I’ll hold some. The rest of the portfolio will be made of mutual funds, and t-bills. Then, later on, I hope hold some property but that’s going to be much later on.
Assuming I put in 10% of my income (say I make a shitty 30k a year forever), and assuming that it it increases by about 10% a year, and say I start at 25, then by 50, I’ll have roughly 300k. These are really rough numbers and I sincerely hope I make WAY more than 30k a year.
I think I’m done now. Huzzah fellow visitors.
Needs
March 24, 2000
When I was younger and still in high school, I remember wanting to be cool and popular and be liked and loved by everyone, especially those who had a “higher” social standing. This was just a little dream I had and it didn’t come true or anything – I was never popular and don’t expect I will be.
I remember thinking about myself and my ranking in the social hierarchy of things. I sucked in that ranking. Bottom feeders were more popular.
Then as I got older, this yearning subsided around the time I got my driver’s license. It just didn’t seem important anymore because I had many friends, some of which were really close and dear to me. I was content with who I was and where I stood.
I thought, as long as I have my close friends, I’ll still feel secure. So in a way, I let who I befriended define who I was. It seemed to make sense at the time.
I kept this way of thinking for quite awhile. Kept it until just recently actually, when a series of “tragedies” occurred in my life and some close friends were no longer close. When this happened, I fell back on other friends, much like a firefighter falling on a safety net. This kept order in my life and I was, under the circumstances, content.
I think I might have been down to my last metaphorical safety net this little while and I realized if I lost the current friends, I wouldn’t have anymore and as such, I wouldn’t be able to define who I am. This troubled me greatly because the one thing that has been difficult for me throughout my life is the lack of identity.
I spent the next little while contemplating this and concluded that this is a fatal weakness in me. If I were to not have friends, I would lose touch with who I am. I’m quite a defensive person and I try very hard to not have weaknesses, for many people in this world have bad intentions and take advantage of weaknesses.
Whenever I feel I have a weakness in my personality, I strive to correct it. Without weaknesses, I believe, nothing can harm me. Unfortunately, this also includes resistance to trust others. In fact, I rarely fully trust anyone unless they have proven time and time again they are trustworthy. I’m digressing.
So during my contemplation period, I came to realize that my need of people is not set in stone. Like modifying a program, I set in my mind that I don’t need anyone to carry on my life. And as such, my identity which I value above practically everything, was free of dependance on people.
I have noticed others my age seem to have only a few friends and any new friends are usually only skin deep in relationship. Is it because age dissolves our need to be recognized socially? It might be correlated.
So like a butterfly emerging from its chrysallis, I’m reborn with a stronger personality.
There are some who won’t “evolve” past this point and remain locked into their current state of being. I read in a psychology textbook that high self monitors really heavily on superficial things to keep order in their life (in terms of self-esteem, self-perception, etc). I pity these people because they are more easily hurt by social pressures and other misfortunes.
I don’t know why I just wrote that, perhaps it has been in my mind for awhile and writing it out helps me put it at ease. I don’t know. What do you think about it? Am I becoming ever distant from humanity? Let me know.
Sample
March 17, 2000
Here’s a sneak peak at jv2.1. It’s in the early stages of development. If you see any bugs or something does not look right, contact me immediately (and cause me a big headache).
Alright, I just spent the last one and a half hours perfecting it and I think I’ve done it. All there’s left to do is make the stylesheet, a graphic, and port stuff over. Thus, v2 is in its last steps.
03/16/00
Things to say things to do
1. We lost yet another hockey game. Dennis played as Sunny (read about it at his site). We lost 3-1, but Vince had a shot that went in and their defense swept it out – which is supposed to be an automatic goal. The big fat tub of a ref didn’t see it so it didn’t count. If only he got on the stairmaster once a week, he would have the strength to roll over to the goal and fucking see. Oh well, I got a goal! A breakaway and on the top shelf… nice if i do say so myself. Nice.
2. Dennis has been mentioning how he feels old. (again, go to his site). Fuck you. You’re only 20. That’s only about one quarter through an average person’s life. As for me, I’ll never feel old. I plan to live forever. Haha. Stop feeling old you gasbag. Live young and then die old. I have no idea what that means but just sounds cool.
3. My stupid new site that I’m working on isn’t turning out exactly as I wanted it to so I dumped it and started over. Curse netscape and their inability to do so much stuff. My nice nice design was messed up after loading it in ns. Curses. It’ll get done soon.
4. Dennis mentioned about my lyric writing ability. Rather flattering and nice to know my “talents” are appreciated. And yes, not to sound shameless, but I do think I sing well. Not superstar well, but better than your average joe. Who’s Joe? Curses.
So… I just pulled out my dusty guitar once again and fiddling around with it. Dennis: I propose we actually write a full song together, whatever the genre it may be.
5. It’s Dennis’ bday dinner tomorrow (why the hell is Dennis mentioned in every one of these things? Curses?). The people going seems to be an odd lot (for the third time, refer to Dennis’ site!) so it sounds really fun. And we’re going to watch a classic after dinner too. Yippee.
6. Um… I’m out of things to say and do.
Huzzah.
It is the greatest accomplishment ever! Greater than Quake, greater than SES, greater even than Kung Fu!
March 15, 2000
Unbelievable!
After two hours, I made a working copy of the webpage formerly known as prototype #1. That’s not the end of it…
Ladies and Gentlemen, IT IS NETSCAPE COMPLIANT!
100% compliant! (As far as I can tell) It was 99% compliant but I found a way to perfect it with a little cheating. Haha! I RULE!
So the framework of the page is done, now I just have to make the stuffing and I could transfer it onto the server! Woohoo!
I’m still not 100% certain it will be the next webpage – but chances are very good. WOOHOO.
As for other news, I think I screwed up my finance midterm. Oh well. Fuck it – i made a webpage work in netscape. That’s greater than any bond, stock, or debenture!
Actually, this is my second webpage that works in netscape – the first was made a long time ago but looked crappy.
Huzzah.
Prototype #1 – Need your comments
March 14, 2000
As the title suggests. Look at the picture. Send me your comments.
Hi once again
March 12, 2000
Another Basketball Sunday for me. I sucked today, which is consistent with my inconsistency in basketball. Sucks to the stupid gym because it was open for only one and a half hours before the badminton wussies got it. Who the fuck plays badminton? Well I’ll tell you who: kids and some girls.
As we were walking out, I saw some decent looking girls carry fancy shmancy Yonex badminton cover things in. Damn. I like badminton now.
This is boring.
I have a midterm in a couple days but of course, I won’t study for it until the last nanosecond. The way things are.
Blim lim lim.
Blast our luck and our shitty skills
March 02, 2000
Well sir, lost another one of our hockey games again. This time to the top ranking team in our division. The first half we just plain sucked. Nobody could clear the fucking ball. How hard is it to clear the fucking ball? Not very hard if you ask me. So I was pissed off at our rather crude performance. Then second half came around and finally we put up better effort. We shut them out in the second half but sadly, our shitty performance let them score more than enough to not worry about our half-shut-out.
The only goal scorer on our team was Vince. Yeah for Vince! He was assisted by the talented Ed. That guy is our playmaker. He has assists for pretty much every goal our team has scored.
Captain Aaron “Bulldozer” Joe took a beating when he rammed his leg into the door on a shift. Ouch for him. He was limping for the rest of the game. Sunny “Freight Train” Ng took a couple beatings from the other team (who outweighed, outshot, outpassed, outran, outeverythinged our team).
I guess I got off easily. Only injury I have is my left middle finger feels like I jammed it into my hand. I can’t hold a tight fist without wincing in pain. War momentos I’m sure.
AND I FUCKING MISSED A BREAKFUCKINGAWAY. Well, I was being hacked to death and the ball was a little too far ahead. I got a haphazard shot in. When I saw the goalie cover it, I fucking wanted to rip off his head.
I hate myself for saying it, but I want to redesign
I just got the funny feeling of boredom with this webpage. It’s too bland, not matching my colorful personality. I have zero ideas on how it will look so it’ll probably take awhile to implement. Plus, I think I’m actually going to code it myself just to show myself that I can.
I’m going to better my photoshop skills too… perfect, not too many midterms/assignments coming up in the next week. Gonna sneak a few hours of quake in too. Yeah for me.
Oh yeah, I think my perception of my physical body is flawed
I just got back from Justin’s Webpage and it turns out we’re both the same height – sounds about right, but i’m only less 10lbs. (NOT DISSING YOU JUSTIN! READ: NOT). Now, I always thought I was a broom while Justin is uh not a broom. So I guess I will perceive myself to not be as broomy as I thought. Yeah.
“Autobots transform and drive in water”
March 01, 2000
Ahh, we just finshed watching Transformers: The Movie and it wasn’t as good as I remembered it. Well, the sound and video quality were shitty so that may have dragged it down a bit but I saw so many things that didn’t make sense (big walking robots aside).
Eg: a Chopper that flew in space, driving underwater, lasers that arch (maybe from intense gravity like that of a blackhole… but on earth?), universal language that wasn’t known to everyone (hence not very universal), Galvatron choking Rodimus (need air?), the strange dissappearance of a lot of matter when Soundwave or Blaster (probably about 30 feet tall each) would transform into a puny walkman or stereo system, and of course, Perceptor’s function (what the fuck do they need him for?).
Still, this movie brought back a lot of memories, mainly of harassing parents to buy each and every toy Mattel (or was it Hasbro?) produced. I had a lot of Transformers. Then again, what boy born in the eighties didn’t? Unless you were one of those queers who instead had loyalties with those sissy GoBots. Haha they were so gay.
Bring Forth My New Quest
It’s March now (finally that freak month February is gone). My life revamp is still in the works but I’m thinking over some issues that plague me like a plague. I’m not too witty because I have no wit.
To aid me in my quest, here is the posting of a Eujin pic.
Friend’s sites
Here is my advertising for sites of people I know:
Justin has released his webpage he’s been secretly working on and it’s not called Everything Is AOK. Damn. It looks really messy right now but it’s still being made and some graphics are to be uploaded.
Dennis’ site, Sinned’s Realm is one of the most interesting sites I visit because his updates are more than just some guy writing about what he did (doh… that’s me). Maybe i’ll copy his site content:
Quote of the day: “Self Inviters rot in hell and hope your dick falls off you pathetic manwhores.” – Jerry
Then there’s Jesse’s Supertrunk’s Domain. There’s no quotes of the days, no pictures of naked quake characters, nor even too much bitching like my site. Still, it’s a good visit because the site is nicely designed.
Andrew has a webpage titled Andrew’s Webpage. If you like looking at pictures of some guy’s car, then this is the site to be at. If not, then there’s nothing else to look at.
Sunny has a site that collects dust. Dreakon’s Lair has not been updated since Oct 18, 99. I think next to my site, Sunny bitches the most about life. Still, I reign supreme in that department.
I believe that’s all the sites of friends that I know of. If you think you’re my friend and you have a webpage, let me know. Put as the subject line: Jerry, are you my friend?
If you are associated in any way with Self-induced invitational jerkoffs, then your reply will simply state, “NO”.
I can rest assured that my webpage is of all the sites mentioned above, wins the Most Bitching About Life Award, presented to only true pathetic keepers of webpages. C’est ma vie, bien, fuck toi.
Under Construction
Not my webpage you idiot. Webpage Fallacy #1 – you think people don’t know that your stupid webpage is under construction so you post up “Under Construction”.
What is under construction is my life. These few days have been strenuous because after a little annoyance, I once again re-examined my life. This time I concluded that my dependencies were too many so I had to revamp the infrastructure of my life. It does seem like I’m making a webpage for my mind.
Also, I’ve been “studying” too so that’s why I didn’t write anything too interesting (except the latest write). The midterm was last night and I think i did miserably. I passed, but that’s about it. Sucks.
Back to my revamping. After the first revamp which occurred over the christmas break, I broke off many dependencies because I feel a person should not be dependent on anything. The more dependent someone is on something, the more that thing can harm that someone.
So, after that revamp, I went through January and February. Then last week, I realized there were more which I could be independent of and so it has been done.
I hate thinking you can depend on something and then it turns out that you really can’t. I hate it when people depend on me as well. It’s flattering or whatever, but don’t they realize NOTHING in the world stays forever and at some point in time, things change, things end, things turn sour? “Nothing stays gold forever” – The Outsiders.
Anything else I should mention? Yes. I’m looking for a summer job. I hate job hunting. It’s worse than losing in quake (which rarely happens). Damn you Dennis. I got you back with the rail though. Hah.
Oh yeah:
Greetings to Hans Fraulweick from Sabin and the rest of the Final Fantasy III Greeting Committee. Yeah so that Hans guy is supposedly going into Final Fantasy territory. Sabin & Co. is sure to roll out the red carpet for him. Yeah right. Who the hell is this Hans person? Who knows. He currently has a part time job writing at Sinned’s Realm. He likes saying knave a lot. Much like Sabin likes saying, “kick ass”.
But it’s all good. You know I don’t even know what the hell I’m writing about right now. My mind is just a blank. Fine I’ll bitch some more. I tried studying these few days but I just can’t concentrate. All I can do is daydream about training and sparring (sparrred my cousin for a little while tonight. Fun as hell).
Then there’s school where I don’t know anyone or the people that I do know don’t talk to me much. In my early high school years, I might have given a damn and have a hurt ego or whatever, but now, as a free spirited psycho, I don’t care. There’s a lot of people who think knowing people and popularity are golden fleeces of society – maybe in their dense minds. Frankly, I don’t give a damn if I died a man who wasn’t known. Live and let die, and then frollick in heaven.
I’m babbling again. I guess I’m doing one of those freewriting exercises where you’re supposed to keep writing for about five minutes and not let the pen stop moving. Supposed to better writing skills. I’ve been doing this for about 2 years now and my writes are still stupid. Stupid!
So, I’ll end it here because it’s 12:32am and I have to get up at 7:15. Goodnight people and don’t forget to tune in really soon because my Life Revamp Plan will produce some funny, but delightful results.
“A Dingo Took Your Baby”
This is the normal last day of February
February 28, 2000
I don’t like leap years. February 29 just sounds weird. Makes me think of Friday the 13th for some reason. Anyways yesterday was quite an unproductive day.
After making the stupid game (below), I tried studying on campus… I half-read, half-slept through the afternoon. So I went home all pissed off. We go to Shabusen to eat shitty jap food and I tip the soy sauce bottle over. A sea of black fluid covers the table. I had a couple beers but that didn’t do anything. Fuck. My tolerance isn’t as low as I thought it was.
I get home, missed the Simpsons (fuck me running), watch Malcolm In The Middle (it’s quite stupid), and study again.
Then I prepare my resume for my job hunting commencing this week. Want to hire me? Please?
Oh yeah, I just came out of a gruesome duel with Dennis in his quake3 level codenamed: Chicken. It was pretty good. If you have the fortune to play it, you’ll know what I mean when I say, “Ramp Spike”. Haha.
Hockey practise was cancelled on account of water falling out of the sky but by 1400, the solar entity was donating its thermal energy again. Damn it.
That’s it. Bye.
This is what I want to do
February 24, 2000
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday February 14, @06:50PM from the now-thats-a-PR-stunt dept.
Nom Anor writes “A couple from South America is going to celebrate their wedding today… on a Quake2 server! The bride and groom will say “I do” as the male and female grunt models inside a Quake 2 Battlegrounds server to be hosted by M-Web’s Gamezone, a popular South African gaming work. The judge will preside over the ceremony through his computer in his Cape Town home. [source]
How sweet. Maybe one day, my lover and I will say “I do” while sparring for title, Grand Master of the Universe. Romantic. Just as I’m about to place the ring on her finger, she judo slams my ass onto the mat and does a Jeffrey Super Duper Kick Flip Ass Landing. While I’m stuck between consciousness and unconsciousness, the judge/reverend will come and and count, “1, 2, 3, Do you Jerry, 4, 5, take Shoo, 6, 7, as your lawfully, 8, 9, wedded wife, 10! The winner, and NEW Grand Master of the Universe… Shoo! Oh yeah, I now present you man and wife”.
Then our honeymoon will consist of a rematch in the Bahamas – 100 rounds right beside the ocean on the beautiful beaches. I will perform a perfect flying scissor double leg twist upper kick and land and give my lover a passionate kiss. The kiss only a guise to hide my patented Rainbow Super Ultimate Hyper Left Swirly Wirly Punch-a-crotch. As my honey is wailing from all the pain, I will jump for joy as I proclaim myself the NEW NEW Grand Master of the Universe.
Then in the hotel room that night, I will have to give her back to title or else she’ll withhold something even more important.
Then in the morning, we’ll have awakened with a bright grin on our faces from another “sparring” match in bed. After breakfast, we both stare at the exhorbant bill the room service guy gives us, we both feel the chi build inside and we perform the rare, Jerry and Shoo Double Conjoined Flying Kick Punch Headbutt Square In The Nuts move taught to only the best students of the Shaolin Temple. The room service guy will fall on his knees, hands grasping at his now exploded privates. He will apologize greatly for the displeasure the bill caused us. In my victory stance (just like RYU’s stance), I will say triumphantly, “You should be sorry. I’m not paying $2 for that coffee. Asshole.”
Then by noon, we’ll have sparred in the many tourist attractions like churches, museums, battle sites, brothels, and shopping centres. We’ll be pretty tired when night comes but we go at it like rabbits again.
The rest of the honeymoon is pretty much similar to the first day.
Yeah, so that pretty much describes my marriage. Let’s celebrate it by the posting of pictures of Shoo. Have fun.
My Reading Break Summarized
February 21, 2000
I finally realized my nice 1 week holiday was over after finishing today’s classes. It was a nice week, I did what I wanted to do and probably did some more.
We went karaoking after a hearty meal and as usual, I hogged the mic. Of course the day wasn’t complete without pool.
Then there was Valentine’s Day which was really awesome for me. I played some quake, updated my page, watched some vcds, and resented everything else. What a good day it was.
Ah yes, let’s not forget the stalking of Cheng Ekin. That was fun in a scary ass kind of way. Mind you, I was not out to stalk him, I was merely a tool for which someone else used to try to get to him (and then what? rape him? I dunno, I’ll leave that to her). Of course, that day had some pool too.
During our Wings Outing, I was feeling shitty because of a myriad of things that were compressing into this shiny pearl ball of shittiness and was kicking the crap out of my regression matrix in my head. That night consisted of pool too and someone mentioned, “Jerry you spend too much time in pool halls.” Fuck it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that out. I was still feeling shitty after pool but at the btea place, I was feeling a bit better and managed to get some laughs in at the expense of one puffy cheeked person.
Ahh yes, I sparred with my cousin one night and he showed me the Ultimate Move: The Jeffrey Super Duper Kick Flip Ass Landing. I’m no good at the move, but I’ll try to describe it – first you do a girly sidekick, but be sure you’re wearing socks while doing this because only while wearing socks will your stance be unstable since socks and carpets is like skates and ice. Second -the foot that you’re standing on, lose your balance by arching your butt back, the foot you’re standing on should now be in mid air with your other foot too. Third – make sure you land with a loud THUD, flat on your ass with your arms sprawled out sideways. Your opponents will then laugh at you. Finally, while they’re still bent over gasping for air due to all that laughing, try to get up no matter how much your butt hurts and then go strangle him. That’s the Jeffrey Super Duper Kick Flip Ass Landing.
I did train a lot this week and as a result, I feel a lot better physically. I can curl 30lbs now! Yeah for me.
Then I played more quake and updated my webpage more and put some more Sea pics up. Played more pool (pathetic). Ate a lot of fast food. Ahh yes, poker.
Then were was hockey practice where I wore my ankle weights all through practise and now my legs are all sore. Doh.
So there you have it, that was pretty much my whole week. I want to move to another country.
I’ll Teach Them How To Spend Money Instead
February 16, 2000
Mir Space station: an aging heap of metal the size of five school buses.
“The 14-year-old station has surpassed its expected five-year lifespan but is suffering from metal fatigue, corrosion and chemical contamination among other problems and it is estimated it will cost over $100 million a year to man and maintain it.” (YAHOO)
It’s 9 years past its death date, it was supposed to be dumped into the ocean last year, there’s a big hole in the hull from a collision of debris, and cosmonauts fear it when they step inside.
So, some people are turning it into a hotel. I’m not kidding you. Some investors leased the Mir (pronounced g’ar’bi’ge), plan to renovate it, and then have rich morons pay $20 million to live in it.
If you’ve ever seen it on the news, you’ll notice it’s quite cramped in there, or was it because they brought really large russians into it? Anyways, the question you need to answer is, would you spend a your vacation in a piece of metal that’s about to disintegrate in space a la Deep Impact? Regardless of how much it costs, you wouldn’t catch me in the Mir if Shoo said she’d marry me if I went.
And then there’s the price tag. $20m. Most of us will never know how much $20m is, not with our salaries of what? $50k? $60k? Sadly, I’m sure there are many rich, idiotic tycoons who will dish it out and stay up there.
Wow, 20 million can buy you a lot of stuff. Why would people buy a trip to live in the most unsafe thing orbiting the earth? Hell, I’m sure Fox’s satellites are safer.
That was a fun day
February 13, 2000
Yesterday was a very eventful day for me and of course, here I am writing about it. It started when I was preparing to go to hockey practice when my cous called me to help him clear stuff out of his garage. Um ok. So there we are at his place, lifting 2x4s and other stuff out of the garage onto a truck (why do you have SO many 2x4s?). That was kind of fun though – kind of like a mini-workout.
Then I go home smelling like shit. Then my mom comes home right after me and tells me that we’re going to go out for dinner like right now. Shitty. So I run and jump into the shower and take a shower express. Then we had an ok dinner.
I come home, expecting to stay home and do nothing all night until Andrew calls. He had met up with a couple friends and wanted to meet up. So we meet up (at hs of course) and play for a little bit. Kind of sucked cuz I didn’t want to play pool.
Then one of the friends asked us to go to this hot pot place because she heard Ekin Cheng was going there after a concert. So we get there around 10:40ish. We order 2 plates for 6 people (waiting for 2 more). Then when the other 2 arrive, we order a few more plates. All through the night, we’re making fun of her and saying retarded stuff about Cheng Ekin. Fun though.
We ended up staying for 3 hours! I felt bad because there were people waiting around (to catch a glimpse of Ekin of course) and we were hogging the best table and not ordering that much. The total came to $6 a person =p.
Of all the celebrities our friend hyped us to see: Ekin, Cecilia Cheung, Andy Hui (the only one who could sing a damn), Yeung Cheen Wah, and some other crud people, we only saw 2 so unrelated to hong kong pop: the big fat lady with the high pitched voice and some guy who acted back in the 80s who looked pretty cool.
So it was a big waste of time but i found it fun to laugh at them and eat shitty food and play pool too for the hundredth time.
Welcome to the Grand Opening of JV2.0
February 11, 2000
Yup. It’s finally done. After months of speculation and designing, here it is. Soak it up. After the last prototype, which I liked very much, I decided to just make it the official one.
You’ll notice it has a LOT of similarities with v1.3 – that was kind of my intent because I really liked the last version too. But oh well.
This page may not work properly with NS. I’m quite sure it works with IE5 and Dennis said it works with Mozilla (the prototype but this is basically the same thing).
The title thing up in the corner is an email link.
I’m still porting old pages over so it might take awhile before all the stuff from before is up. So you might run into some broken links. I’ve decided to just dump some of the old stuff and start anew since this is v2! I’m working on most of the pages but the message board and guestbook are temporarily deactivated. No more v1x! Aren’t you excited? I sure am!
In case you miss it unbearably, v1.3 is in my webpage portfolio along with my other so-called-webpages.
So this was the last day of class before reading break – a whole fucking week off!!! – yeah! And to celebrate, I’m going to do what we usually do on a Friday night – Yeah! Wow, this almost is a Yeah Day! Almost… just not quite.
Sniff. This webpage is now at home in the museum. There’s an upgrade.
February 05, 2000
V2. It’s up. So bye bye.
It has been a fun three-fourths of a year in this design (my longest yet).
As for this page, it’s going to retire in my Webpage Portfolio at Geocities along with the rest of my old webpages.
What else is new… ahh, today is the last day of class before reading break – a whole week of nothing. Yeah! A long deserved break if you ask me. Luckily I only have one more midterm left I think.
Then there’s also the tonnes of assignments followed by a presentation and then finals.
If all goes well, I’ll be in summer enjoying the sun again.
Ok that’s enough of this… goodbye.
a little later on the same day
February 04, 2000
During one of our chats, I told Dennis that I was gonna go to train (martial arts) and then sing (because I like singing).
J: okily dokily
ttyl
gonna sing then train
D: why not both at the same time?
J: ahhahaha
Jerry the Singing Martial Artist ahhahaah
And one week later, Dennis posts this up on his webpage! Hahaha. And do you know WHO is The Singing Martial Artist’s sidekick is? Haha… none other than the respected, Tiger Leong!!!! You’ll definitely be seeing more of this later. (Like it or not).
Happy Chinese New Years
I hope your 4698th year will be as good as the last 4698. It’s the year of the Dragon. It’s the year of the future: 2000. Anyone ever imagine what the year 2000 would’be been like? I thought we would have hovercars and holographic recreation and houses that clean themselves. But 2000 and 1990 are quite similar (plus some more computing power that’s it).
I haven’t updated lately because I’ve simply been too busy with my boring little life. Firstly, on the Thursday, we were slaughtered in hockey by a score of 9-1. We were doing ok in the first half, 3-0, then in the second, we totally died. Shots from all sorts of weird angles went in. I managed to score that lonely 1 for us… yeah for me I guess. =P
Then there were the few hours I spent making v2.0 prototypes. One of them is up, in the graphics page – but It’s canned because Dennis pointed out that it didn’t work in Netscape. Fuck netscape. And you too Dennis! For using Linux! Haha if it weren’t for NS, my pages would all work fine. Hey here’s an interesting thought: you know how MS supposedly is imposing a monopoly over net browsers by packaging IE with Windows… well, there is no IE in Linux, so can we go file a class action suit on Netscape for having a monopoly in Linux??? Hmm… I hope Paul Allen doesn’t read this. Haha. There’s bound to be some loophole with free software and monopolies and I’m sure Allen and Co. will come up with a way to dismantle Netscape by the seams.
I played a few hours of Xcom too, but not that much. I don’t know where my time went! Oh yeah, I did study quite a bit and also trained hard. Then there was Tuesday which I was bummed out and some good friends accompanied me to to pool hall and I whupped them. After that, I felt a lot better and yesternight I whupped some more people. I rule.
There’s a Portfolio Management Foundation (what a shitty webpage) in Commerce which I have the highest interest in getting in. It’s an intensive 2 year program geared to bring experience in the industry of capital investments and such. About a hundred apply and 6-9 get in. I like those odds. If I get in I’ll be spending the summer working in Toronto: a city I don’t like since it’s ultra fast paced and everyone seems to be pissed off all the time. Plus I don’t know too many people there except a few good friends work there. If I’m picked, then maybe I can see them a bit more instead of twice a year, once being drunk and puking. Good luck to me.
I have 2 midterms and 2 assignments next week and as of right now, I have four whole days to study for them. I’m confident I’ll be too lazy and make that four into three, then two, then none. I don’t expect to be updating in these few days so read up this new stuff.
During my hiatus from the webpage updating scene, redirect your browser slightly and head towards Sinned’s Realm. After excessive harassment of “Make a banner Dennis. Make a banner Dennis.” etc, he has made a banner! You might notice it up top. If not, keep refreshing this page until you do see it – it’s on random selection between 3 banners. And his page is getting funnier and more interesting each day.
Prototype Up!
February 03, 2000
Possible v2.0 is up. Go check it out. This is not the final version… i just don’t like it enough yet.
Revisited: Super Saiyan
January 28, 2000
After the last depressing read, I decided to start training again. Remember the read of me saying how I had so much energy and I was constantly training? This has begun again. Since the last update, I’ve trained everynight, for a few hours at a time, remembering old training routines from my kung fu days past. Old punch and kick methods, new focus methods… the works. Awesome.
And no more feeling blue – well, at least the feelings are minimized. All I think about is just training and more training. Awesome. Just the way I like it. Also, my cigarette addiction seems to have calmed too. Didn’t have one today and only had 1 yesterday (that’s a big big improvement compared to before).
Need to train more. No time for studying. No time for quake. Well I’m updating because I just finished training and I’m so beat. You know that feeling when you do pushups to a point where your body is about to give but not quite yet? Your arms kind of numb out and you slowly do those pushups. My whole body feels like that right now. Aargh. But it’ll all be worth it.
All training and no play make me a dull boy so tomorrow, wait… I mean today, I’m going to karaoke with some friends! Yeah! Haven’t done that in awhile. My stupid cough isn’t going to help my singing skills though (meager as they may be).
More DBZ: stupid YTV has been airing the new dubbed english version for awhile now but they keep resetting the series after episode 57 when Gokou kicks the shit out of Recoome of the Ginyu force. Maybe they haven’t finished dubbing the other episodes, I doubt it though. Dammit. I want to finish off that saga.
Anyway, I’m still a long way before hitting Super Saiyan (ahhahaah) so back to training. Bye.
The loneliest heart is the one that doesn’t know it’s alone
January 24, 2000
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately about shit, because, a lot of shit has happened this little while. For those of you close to me, you’ll understand what kinds of shits I’m referring to. It’s made me realize that you really have to know what’s good around you. Pause from what you’re doing and take a look up… take a good look. You’ll be surprised when you look that you might have missed a lot of good stuff.
I admit. I took a lot of things for granted: friends, awesome family, good health, smarts (just a little), and a myriad of other things. I still do. It’s just that a lot of things have changed and will never be the same now. I hate all this change. I didn’t want change – I hate change.
I guess it was a dream I was in where everything stayed the way it was. Things were almost perfect before. Then something took that perfection away from my life. Was it God? Fate? Destiny? I don’t know. I was angry at all this change. I was angry at myself because I couldn’t stop it. Half of my life was torn away and the rest of me was left in shambles.
I know now that this is part of life. Life is the pursuit of truth and truth hurts. It hurts like a bitch. Yet, there’s nothing we can do to stop this. As noble a creature we humans are, we are still part of this fragile balance of life.
I’m not afraid of change, not anymore. No one should be afraid of change because it’s inevitable. There was a point where I stopped and asked myself, "How am I going to go on now?". I didn’t know. My life just paused. You probably won’t know what I’m talking about. Pretend you’re a baby and you had a rattle that you held on to all day long and never let it go. It’s just a rattle but it was YOUR rattle. Now imagine that rattle being ripped out of your hands and you’re sitting there, wondering where that rattle is and what are you going to hold on to now. That’s kind of what it feels like.
There’s a chinese saying, when loosely translated equals, "If you can pick it up, you can let it go." I’ve been thinking about that saying a lot too, about how I should let go of the past and continue on towards the future.
Well, here I am, about to continue on towards the future. I take a look and see nothing. I turn around and look at the already distant past, again, I see nothing. I turn around and see what’s around me: nothing.
I’m in a void. Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do mentioned a void where, "there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings." I realize a void but I don’t think it’s the same void we’re talking about.
In my void, there is nothing. No life, no power, no love. There’s also no happiness, no sadness, no anger, no jealousy, no rage, no hatred. There’s absolutely nothing. I don’t feel scared nor do I feel safe in this void. It just is. I just don’t care anymore. If BL’s is "living void" then mine must be the Dead Void.
I spend my days now eating, watching tv, surfing the net, and practising some martial arts techniques. I sleep and I awake. I go to school and return. I live but yet, I don’t. I don’t have the motivation that drives me and encourages me to improve. My motivation is gone, in a far away place, that I can’t easily get access to.
Picking up the pieces is not my specialty because I tend to take way too long doing it. I pick up one piece and carefully look at it and remember how that piece fit in the whole picture. This time, there are many many many pieces to pick up and examine.
Heh. If you read this all the way, then you might think I’m gonna commit suicide or something (i just read it from the top and realized it’s so gloomy). Well don’t worry, I’m not going to kill myself. (Or maybe that makes you sad?) Haha.
I think i’m going back to my roots – kind of like turning back time and copying my lifestyle before. Like around grade 9 or 10? All I ever did was practise kung fu and watch tv – but I was really content back then.
To realize freedom, the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness. Watch, but don’t stop and interpret, "I am free" – then you’re living in a memory of something that has gone. To understand and live now, everything of yesterday must die. - Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Time for a change
January 13, 2000
This week draws to a close and to recap: 2 assignments, 1 exam, thousands of pages of reading, and among this, some "external" problems. This is my life and it sucks.
Give me a chance to move to another city right now and i’ll be on the plane halfway there before you finish the question. I really need to get out of here.
But life is a cruel cruel bitch. I’m flat broke, i’m swamped with more assignments and tests and crap, the weather sucks, and there’s another month before the Reading Break. Fuck this. I need a vacation.
Pains of couch potatoes
One moment this week which was actually good was on Sunday when a few of us got together and played a bit of hockey. It was my first time holding a hockey stick in years. It’s been about a year since I ran. By the end of the few hours, I was aching like a bitch. My cardio sucks – damn cigarettes. So I’m trying to cut down and I think i’m smoking a tad less than usual. Why all this? Well, we’re in an intramurals league and hope to kick ass. Good luck to us.
JV1.4 rumours
I’ve been thinking about redesign, or at least some changes for awhile now but I have no clear idea on what to change. I may delay the update because I want to take out a few books on Photoshop and (pardon the pun, but) brush up on my skills. Need to learn a few more tricks and techniques. I’m still experimenting with the program, creating things for the sake of creating things. Here’s a strange creation sprung out after Dennis asked if it was possible to apply textures to shapes and modelling them 3dimensionally. It’s called Happy Guy and will reside in my Graphic Designs page (in Interests). Dammit. This is the original. I made another one with more features (3d hair and nose!!!) but I think I deleted it. Oh well. It looks really scary.
Enough about updates.
Miscellaneous things I just want to say
- Bill Gates stepped down from his throne in Microsoft.
- A Q3A patch is out, get it.
- They cloned a monkey.
- It snowed like shit a few days ago and traffic was worse than shit.
- I’m going crazy soon. <yeah so what else is new>.
- The -J- page will be updated soon. I want to put up a few links, say a few words. Q3 is my anger outlet.
New design in the works
January 09, 2000
Yup. Version 1.4… or possibly version 2 is on the way. This page has been quite good to me… i’ve kept it for half a year (more of less). The new design will have new elements never seen in webpages authored by me. I’m currently looking for more photoshop stuff to learn and implement.
Here is a picture of one of the possible design prototypes. As always, your critique is welcome as long as it’s constructive.
I’m planning to learn html and flash sometime in the near future.
That’s about it for now… it’s late and i’m tired. I’ll write something more interesting in the news section.
Bye.
01/10/00 – Woohoo. Spent all day making this.
I spent about 3 hours making this interface. It’s not EXACTLY the way I wanted it… the colors are messed up slightly because i used stupid gif files and I used gradients… unfortunately, the colors didn’t translate exactly. On the other hand, I got it to work (haven’t tested it in diff resolutions or browsers though). Tell me what you think of it.
It’s Snowing!
January 06, 2000
“Funny. Chunky rain," I thought to myself as I was tailing the car in front of me. The drive to campus proved to be a sluggish trek. Finding parking and parking into the smallest tightest spot in the whole parkade, I got out and walked towards class. "Why the fuck did I pick the farthest parkade? Fucking rain." Some people turned and stared as I made that statement. "Mental note – think before I say."
As dreary as the weather seemed, it was, after all a Thursday. I usually have 2 classes but because this is the first week of school, one of them is cancelled. Sweet. Only 1.5 hours of Managerial Accounting. I "Managed" to not fall asleep.
A few simple words from the prof, "seeya next week", and the class lunged for the doors. Not surprisingly, I was trampled AGAIN on my way out. Damn kids.
My pride bruised and my body bruised even more, I limped to the library. A lineup of 11 people stood before me, each awaiting the day they would be at the counter, eager to return their purchases. A myriad of thoughts ran through my mind as I inched along the line. It was like a dream only I was awake and standing. The hundreds of people entering and leaving the bookstore did not catch my attention. The pretty girl that walked by did not awake my trance.
For what seemed like days, turned out to be at most half an hour. By the end of it, my trance was broken. I returned a book, and sold some others. A few dollars richer, I headed for the SUB. It was my first navigation point in my long mission ahead.
Then, in my car, I headed for Airport Square, to deliver a book. I lost my way. I found it. I lost it again. Found it. No. Yes. No. Yes. Finally. Got there. Ten minutes later, I was out again. Next objective, I was to pick up my sibling from school.
Next to a playing field, I docked my vehicle and cut power to all systems except life support (heat). I sent myself on an away mission. Outside the car, I lit my first cigarette in two days. The sensation is undescribable. As it burned to the tip, I gently sent it sailing into a pool of water beside me. The familiar hiss sent a stream of smoke into the atmosphere. The death of the flame brought a moment of silence. For a brief instant, it seemed the world had ended and I was alone.
My sister finally walked up and once again, the world was lively. Not that my sister is some sort of motivation, but seeing her reminded me to get in the car and get out of there.
With new cargo, I pulled out of my parking spot and headed home. Out of the blue, a brown Lexus SUV drove right in front. With certainty, I knew I had right of way since, he couldn’t get by if I let him (there were cars parked on both sides – leaving room for one car to get through). I could tell he didn’t want me to go.
I gassed (THE CAR!). He gassed. I gassed some more. He stopped. I had won that standstill. I moment of triumph passed as I drove past the other car. The driver stared at me with a glare in his eye. I stared back. With all my might, I forced the fiercest looking facade I could muster. An actor of no experience I was but experience was not needed. He saw my glare and looked away. We both drove off. A simple event over.
With a puny conflict behind me, I headed home. Soon enough I was in the garage, running for the door for throughout my whole day, I had neglected to go to the washroom.
And so it was, a typical day in my life, ended with a flush and a sigh of relief.
Tune in next time for more amazing adventures of A Day In The Life Of An Idiot.
School! Yeah!
January 04, 2000
Today was the first day of school in the new millenium. Yeah! I only had one class so it was fine. After that, I waited in line for 45 minutes for one lousy book. Aargh. I can’t quake as much now, I’m rationing my download limits to 33mb per day. Sucks huh? Ah well. Dammit, I have 6 hours of class tomorrow, from 8:30 to 4:30. That’s gonna be tiring.
Bye Bye Boys
Just came back from Death By Chocolate – sort of a farewell thing for Jesse. I’m sick from the 5 lbs of ice cream I had. The waitress was kind of cute too. Whatever. Anyway, goodbye Jesse. Seeya later. Oh and goodbye Justin, who left a few days ago. Dave’s not gone yet… have a dinner thing planned before he goes.
New Webpage Design
I’m in the midst of designing a new webpage. I don’t think it’ll be my homepage because I still like this one. What I plan is to move the quake pages there or maybe a Shoo page? Nah… quake is better. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, visit Sinned’s Realm. It’s expanding in content now – check out his screen shots. They’re way better than the ones here.
How To Make a Telemarketer Go Away
January 03, 2000
How To Make a Telemarketer Go Away
New Year. New Millenium
January 02, 2000
That was good. All over the world, countries passed into the new millenium without any significant glitches from the infamous y2k bug. I guess all that hype about power failures were just paranoia or perhaps error in calculation. I stayed up on the 31st till about 3am to watch the first y2k entrants. Most of them were little islands wher aboriginals danced and sang fireside. No booze, no noise, no commotion. Boring huh?
Not as boring as my new years. I didn’t go anywhere. No parties. No club. No rave. No drugs. No booze (not until later that night anyway). My life as I know it is a big boring cauldron of annoyances, scrubs, and self-inviters. No more do I have a clear direction in my life. No more do I have motivation. What do I wake up for every morning? Quake? School? I don’t know anymore.
Happy New Years indeed.
I don’t know why I say this stuff on my webpage. People who read it will think I’m a depressed person but I’m not. I’m not sad. I’m not happy. I’m in a void where emotions don’t exist, where dreams are exactly that – a dream, where happiness is a memory, and sadness is an old friend.
Nonetheless, I’m not going to waste the coming years as I did back in high school. I don’t give up. I find solutions. I dug myself out of this hole before and I can do it again.
Second term starts in a 2 days. I need to reclaim my average. Which means slacking off less, doing my own homework, and studying more (books of course). One more note. Jesse wrote about how his webpage has 4 digit years (y2k compliant!) and guess what? JV1.3 is NOT y2k compliant hahaha. Ironic – I was warning of y2k bugs and on the very page of warnings, a 2 digit year system! Oh well, no idiot in the world will think it’s 1900 – except for scrubs and self-inviters.
Got a few pics of DF99/00 – hopefully Jesse will upload them to me soon.
New Dog Breeds
The following breeds are now recognized by the AKC:
Collie + Lhasa Apso = Collapso, a dog that folds up for easy transport
Spitz + Chow Chow = Spitz-Chow, a dog that throws up a lot
Pointer + Setter = Poinsetter, a traditional Christmas pet
Great Pyrenees + Dachshund = Pyradachs, a puzzling breed
Pekingnese + Lhasa Apso = Peekasso, an abstract dog
Irish Water Spaniel + English Springer Spaniel = Irish Springer, a dog fresh and clean as a whistle
Labrador Retriever + Curly Coated Retriever = Lab Coat Retriever, the choice of research scientists
Newfoundland + Basset Hound = Newfound Asset Hound, a dog for financial advisors
Terrier + Bulldog = Terribull, a dog that makes awful mistakes
Bloodhound + Labrador = Blabador, a dog that barks incessantly
Malamute + Pointer = Moot Point, owned by….oh, well, it doesn’t matter anyway
Collie + Malamute = Commute, a dog that travels to work
Deerhound + Terrier = Derriere, a dog that’s true to the end
Bull Terrier + Shitzu = Oh, never mind….
Konichiwa, ore no tomodachi
December 31, 1999
In 24hr45m, I will start my first Japanese class! Ganbarimasu! That’s all.
Oh yes, greetings to Andrew who loyally visits my webpage all the time at work and tells me to update all the time. Thank you for your continued use of this webpage! It is rare to find such loyal visitors – or maybe he’s just so bored and normally wouldn’t visit. No matter. I wonder how many of you are as great a web visitor as he is?
My domain, jvision.ca is now up. Actually it’s been up for a few days already but I’ve been so busy with school/work/work webpage that it’s going to be such a long delay before anything worthwhile will be up. I separated work and work webpage because I do the webpage at home. I’ve logged over 10 hours (probably around 18) but I only wrote down 6 because I feel too guilty getting paid all that for all the fun I’m having doing the thing. Granted I don’t code myself but who cares. I never really understood why it’s ‘bad’ to use a wysiwyg.
Something about messy code, but when you visit a webpage, you don’t really look at the code anyways right? Your browser does that for you. So then I think maybe if the code’s well written, the browser will display faster. But really… how much faster will it be? I think marginally. That’s a commerce student’s thoughts on that. So… now I ask you com sci guys… what are the adverse effects of using a wysiwyg? As with everything else in the world, probably the business student’s view is so far off the reality.
It’s been three weeks into the real new millenium and I’m having a great time! School is a bitch but an interesting one nonetheless. As usual I’m behind on my readings and homework but this term, not that far off. I’m only about a chapter behind in 2 courses and caught up in another. The other two are write-offs ever since september.
So it turns out I’ll have to re-take 3 courses to qualify as a CMA. I don’t know about CA. I’m finding a CMA more interesting and the correct choice for someone of my interest and work ethic.
And… I think that’s all I have to say. I think Andrew is supposed to drive me to a bar tonight. What a guy; visits my webpage so constantly at work AND drives me to a bar so that I can drink. Three cheers for Andrew! Hip Hip Hooray. Hip hip Hooray!
Enter the Future
Conan O’Brien’s “In The Year 2000″ bit is now obsolete. What once was a childhood dream, now is reality – living in the year 2001. Disney movies such as 2001: A Space Oddysey now look pathetic compared to today’s technology.
My friends, welcome to the future.
Yesternight marked the annual event that is held in a little basement of a little town in this little world. The event: DF2k1. The place: my house (sadly). 19 people came: some left early (sorry to all you bored people), some left late, some left unconsciously. I hosted the event somewhat so sadly I couldn’t drink as much as I wanted to since I needed to maintain control over people. Most people probably got buzzed, a few were plastered to the walls, one guy slept on my lawn for awhile. Conclusion: I guess it was a pretty ok party. The countdown kind of sucked. You’d think that 10, 9, 8… bit would be the highlight, but only me and eri were kissing at the stroke of midnight.
I should have taken pictures but alas, I was too busy bringing out drinks, frowning on spills, and trying to jump from group to group keeping people from being bored. Some group drinking games were played so that was good. Fuck it is hard getting different groups together. I think there were 4 groups plus at least 2 sub-groups within those groups. That’s why I don’t like mixing groups – it’s hard to please all and I don’t like people being bored. So I sincerely apologize to those who felt left out or bored last night.
As for pictures, Brian took many intriguing snaps that have people in awkward positions. Justin surprisingly is not involved in any of them. I have them and will post them up but for now, please redirect your browser slightly to Brian’s page for the lowdown.
This Day; This Month; This Year
If you love me as much as everyone else does, you’ll be interested in my resolutions and plans and crap like that. But if you’re part of the puny minority that doesn’t love me, then first: screw you, second: read it anyway for fun.
This day: I spent the early part cleaning up my mess. You bastards left a lot of cans full you know! But it’s ok I guess, it’s expected. I need to get into the whole school loop of waking up early and doing homework and studying – wait.. I don’t do that. But you know what I mean.
This month: I’ve put away the redesign because I don’t think I can do all the things with photoshop that I want so I’ll try to practise some more and maybe get it done soon. I found a good host for my webpage so maybe I’ll just shove this page up there first. I don’t really want to do that though.
This year: well, this term first – I have 2 accounting courses (on the same days) that I MUST positively absolutely do well in if I want a future. No pressure. I’m also planning to take a japanese course with Aaron that begins in 3 weeks. Um… I plan to be with my wife too. Then in the summer, when my wife goes home, I plan to work as much as I can to take up my free time so I won’t be sad that my honey isn’t here. I plan to work out more and get into training again… something very important to me that I’ve neglected for 3 months, 22 days. Incidentally, 3 months and 22 days is exactly the time that I have been with my honey. Coincidence! Then hopefully my baby will be back in August so I’ll be with her. Then I start school again in Sept and hopefully, if I work really hard all summer and don’t spent a dime, I’ll go to Japan in December. Can you imagine that? Me! In Japan! The last time (and only time) I was there, I was in the tokyo airport for 3 hours.
That’s my year. Lots to do. I better get starting… NOW.
Listen up. This is serious.
December 30, 1999
Firstly, I’m probably not going to update until after Jan 1st, so I wish everyone Happy New Year and hope the next millenium will be good for everyone.
One of the first places to enter the new millenium will be Tonga… some obscure country. They’ll hit y2k at 2:00am our time. The FBI and CIA are going to monitor key places around the world as they enter the new millenium. Some notable places to observe are Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kamchutput (spelled wrong for sure, it’s some nuclear missile site in Russia), London, Paris, and then Rio de Janeiro.
Since many of these places uses the same operating systems for their power plants as the USA, monitoring them will give a good idea on how we will be affected.
I know many of you think I’m a paranoid idiot for believing all of this Y2K phenomena. Let’s get it all clear: I do not believe the world is coming to an end. I do not believe aliens or apocalypse are coming to cleanse the earth. I do believe, however, that power MAY go down – briefly hopefully. I hope everyone has at least some food and water stored – if not for Y2K, then for at the least a quake (we are in the ring of fire remember).
If power goes down, telephones, tvs, banks, satellite relay stations and all sorts of communication systems will go down. Water stations cannot operate without power either. Funny how we rely on computers so much now.
If the electronics don’t affect us, human nature may. It’s going to be chaotic in downtown and any area with a lot of people. With alcohol and drugs going around, order won’t be a priority for many. I suggest you stay in quieter areas to celebrate.
Drive carefully. Drive sober. Keep an eye out for yourself and others. This is the extent on what I can do. Just be careful. Whether or not you listen is up to you. I sincerely hope nothing bad happens and we all have a wonderful time celebrating our entry into the 2000th year.
I personally believe nothing major will happen (as many extremists like Gary North predicts). I think power may go down temporarily, and maybe a small riot might break out. Nothing too awful.
Ok, that’s enough of that. See you all later and Happy New Years one more time.
Woohoo! The counter hit 1000!
December 29, 1999
Bored so here i am
December 27, 1999
It’s 10:51pm right now. I’m going skiing tomorrow! Yeah for me! What sucks is that I have to wake up freaking early tomorrow. If I follow my regular sleeping time of 4am, i’ll have about 3 hours of sleep. Sucks. I’m gonna try to sleep at 12, but I know i’ll just end up rolling around, thinking of donuts.
Went to Granville Sushi today. Sucks. I’m beginning to get more bored of sushi everytime I have it. Then tried to find quake 3 at future shop, but they were out. Then went to Sport Chek and bought a pair of ski pants, gloves, and a pair of big ass goggles that engulf my head.
What else? Then went to costco and bought stuff for DF99. Others have said that it should be DF2000 since it does start in 2000. But I don’t care. As long as I open 1 can of beer before 12, it’s still freakin’ DF99. So screw you guys. Hahah.
Why am I writing what i did the entire day here? I don’t know… really really bored. Oh yeah… hotbar.com – skins for your browser.
Blasted Fog
December 26, 1999
This strange fog has been blanketing us for over a week now. In the day, it’s usually not too bad but as night approaches, the fog thickens into a misty soup of blurred vision. It’s actually quite beautiful. It just causes driving to be a bit more dangerous since your range of vision is reduced. So, we did kind of have a white christmas after all. Kind of.
I’m stuck at home today – my mom took may car to work. All the better. Won’t need to be angry at people while trying to find parking at any mall for Boxing Day shopping. Risk being stepped on by the swarms to save the extra 5 or 10%. Nosirreeeeeeee.
I think a family friend is bringing a turkey while we prepare the rest. FF time again.
Hmm… ski trip, DF99, DJ99 (haha). Shit. Gotta get books but don’t even haev a good schedule yet. Soon, I’ll be writing about finishing my finals in April, then summer hops along and hopefully I’ll get a good job.
Yeahday #2 This Month
December 21, 1999
Yeah – finished my last final! No more studying for the rest this millenium! Yeah!
Yeah – got back 2 course marks: 80 and 81% Yeah! I was expecting a 60 or so on one of them. Yeah!
Time to unwind
Christmas
December 19, 1999
It’s Shoo again. With cool purple hair. If you get a chance, see the Love MTV video. She is so gorgeous. Yeah for Shoo!
I don’t think i’m gonna bitch about life today. Even though I most probably failed my comp sci final yesterday and have 300+ pages to read for the final final. Nope… not gonna bitch.
It’s 6 days till xmas. Yippee. (that was a non-excited yippee). Xmas has lost all meaning. It’s all gifts and decorations and shopping malls and boxing day sales now.
At least we have a schedule planned already for the stuff we’re gonna do. Got a couple dinners. Got ski trip. Got DrinkFest ’99 (i’m gonna make a small advertisement for that just for fun). What else? Probably got pool. Got Milk? No that’s not one. Got Quake? … maybe… Got stare at chicks. Got clubbing… maybe. Got making fun of people… definitely. Cool.
Quake III
Had a couple games yesterday. Won them both. One by miraculous comeback. Got a scrnshots of the tallies. Also got a couple weird shots of Quake player towers. You’ll understand what I mean when I put them up. By tonight hopefully.
<12/20/99> – Ok… got those screenshots up now.
Reasons why people go insane
- You have to try on a pair of sunglasses with that stupid little plastic thing in the middle of them.
- The person behind you in the supermarket runs his cart into the back of your ankle.
- The elevator stops on every floor and nobody gets on.
- There’s always a car riding your tail when you’re slowing down to find an address.
- You open a can of soup and the lid falls in.
- It’s bad enougj that you step in dog poop, but you don’t realize it till you walk across your living room rug.
- The tiny red string on the Band-Aid wrapper never works for you.
- There’s a dog in the neighborhood that barks at EVERYTHING.
- You can never put anything back in a box the way it came.
- You drink from a soda can into which someone has extinguished a cigarette.
- You slice your tongue licking an envelope.
- Your tire gauge lets out half the air while you’re trying to get a reading.
- A station comes in brilliantly when you’re standing near the radio but buzzes, drifts and spits every time
- you ove away.
- There are always one or two ice cubes that won’t pop out of the tray.
- You wash a garment with a tissue in the pocket and your entire laundry comes out covered with lint.
- The car behind you blasts its horn because you let a pedestrian finish crossing.
- A piece of foil candy wrapper makes electrical contact with your filling (or braces).
- You set the alarm on your digital clock for 7pm instead of 7am.
- The radio station doesn’t tell you who sang that song.
- You rub on hand cream and can’t turn the bathroom doorknob to get out.
- People behind you on a supermarket line dash ahead of you to a counter just opening up.
- Your glasses slide off your ears when you perspire.
- You can’t look up the correct spelling of a word in the dictionary because you don’t know how to spell it.
- You have to inform five different sales people in the same store that you’re just browsing.
- You had that pen in your hand only a second ago and now you can’t find it.
- You reach under the table to pick something off the floor and smash your head on the way up.
Some Changes
Visited links are now a darker shade of blue. I found the purple really clashed with the rest of the page. Updated Main page. Put up Celebrities pictures which consists of Shoo only right now. Got some screenshots from Q3 last night. Those will be up soon. Message board is back up in case you didn’t know. Um… I think that is it.
Back to studying. Bye.
12/20/99 – Those screenshots are now up!
Yeah and Boo. Tossed day.
December 18, 1999
Yeah: one last final left
Boo: probable failure on today’s cpsc final
Yeah: nearly time to have some well deserved savings
Boo: not enough time to party as much as I want
Yeah: … can’t think of one
Boo: have to study on a Saturday night. Damn.
Yeah: last time this millenium where I’ll have to study on a Saturday night
Boo: plenty of opportunities next millenium to study on Saturday nights
Yeah: quake tonight
Boo: got nowhere to go on a Saturday night so have to quake
Hmm… My webpage format is too chaotic
December 16, 1999
Ok. The Main page is where I write bigger, more interesting stuff. Here is where I post small update notices and worldly events. I feel like writing about daily stuff but not sure where to put them. Here would be the best spot. I don’t want to update the Main page everyday because I actually want people to read it… that’s where my ideas and crap and rants and bitching. The Message board is where you people can input.
Most webpages have a main page that they put a date up, write the stuff and repeat. So you just scroll down for previous posts. I kinda wanna do that here too. This page is too insignificant. The Main page is too important. If I put up another page, it’ll look stupid.
Finally fixed it
Yeah. The message board is finally fixed. Blah. Sucks.
Crud
December 15, 1999
Damn. I think I failed my econ final. If not fail, then maybe 51%. Damn. All that studying for nothing. I learned six chapters worth of stuff in two days. Not bad huh? Glad I didn’t go to class since October. Just wish I didn’t procrastinate until the last two days to study. Damn. Oh well.
The ends justify the means.
I like that saying. Second time I said it lately. Aargh. I’m running on low battery again: finals = -(sleep).
Supposedly, it snowed a bit this morning, early morning. We’re talking 8:30am morning. Thank god I sleep until 12:00 nowadays. But it is chillier than I remember for mid-December. I guess snowing here means that the mountains will have a lot of snow. That’s good cuz I’m really looking forward to that ski trip in a couple weeks with good friends.
Ahh. Only 2 more finals. One of which I’m dead (comp sci) and the other of which I just need to read 900 pages. Literally, 900 pages. Crazy crazy commerce. I’ve been having doubts on why the hell I’m in it anyway? $$$? Why didn’t I go for something fun like human kinetics? That would be so fun. Commerce isn’t all bad… at least there’s some eye candy. Now I must stress the some because it really isn’t very much. Some is better than none I guess. It just turns out that I’m stuck mostly in classes without any of that some. Sucks to be me. I’ve been saying that a lot too.
What else is new? The message board is still fucked up. The guestbook is funny. No new pics or links or writings or anything. I hate finals. Stupid finals, make me neglect webpage. I’m gonna work on a new webpage during the break, either a new homepage or dig that Beyond Reality webpage idea I had and work on it. That’s been collecting dust on my hard drive. Hmm… that metaphor didn’t make too much sense.
I’ve been getting this stupid feeling of loneliness. Sucks. I guess I can’t be happy being single ALL the time. But mostly I am. Just miss talking to someone I like I guess. Sucks. Well, maybe a new millenium will bring forth baskets of donuts for us all. Maybe not. Oh god please don’t let me be stuck at home.
Hey that reminds me. I’ve realized that I don’t have too many friends. Not by force, but by choice. I don’t like making conversations. I’m more of a listener than a talker. I can be when the need arises but in class, I usually say nothing and take notes or doodle. That’s probably the biggest thing holding me back from meeting people. Another thing may be that I feel more than half the people you meet will not end up as friends but only as people you say hi to in hallways or maybe go grab a bubble tea with once a year.
What does this lead to? Isolation. I’m a lost person. Advice: do’nt be like me. Open up to people. I’m gonna try to do that. If it turns out that I’m being too fake, then screw it, isolation for me. Otherwise, I may end up a bit happier.
I think I’m done babbling now. Time to exercise and then shower.
Peace. Health. Happiness.
Quake
Ah, good stress relief. Failed a final today. So took it out on Indigo. Played two games, 1 for 2. Got some screenshots.
Earthquake
December 11, 1999
Someone messaged me this morning saying that he felt the quake. I just woke up at the time and wondered what the hell he was talking about. So… I looked it up.
From www.mybc.com:
VICTORIA (CKNW/AM980) — An earthquake measuring four on the Richter scale has given a good jolt to Victoria, the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. It hit just before 5:00 a.m. this morning, and callers say it lasted roughly five seconds. Taimi Mulder, a seismologist with the Pacific Geo-Science Centre, says she doesn’t expect aftershocks. The tremor was centred deep underground about 10 kilometres northeast of Victoria. There are no reports of damage or injury.
Yeah Day #1 of this month
December 10, 1999
Finally, I’m blessed with a good day today. I don’t remember the last good day I had but I do remember the worst day I had in this while. Anyway, I’m calling good days Yeah Days now. Usually I just bitch about stuff on this page, but today I’m gonna speak about the good stuff that happened.
It kinda sucked first because only got a few hours of sleep… studied till 2am last night. Well, got up, went to Andrew’s, went to Kevin’s, then to school with the carpool. Wrote the stupid exam. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be: quite confident… I just hope I didn’t jinx myself.
Then after that, went home, then daddy drove me to DMV. Got my license back (didn’t have to take another pic – used old "good" one. yeah!). Ate dim sum. Got my car. Drove to metro. Shopped with Jess for a little bit. Stared at girls. Then drove to Oakridge. Picked up mommy and sister and sister’s friend. Then got pizza. Then got home <yeah!>. Then ate 3 pizzas. Then drank some pepsi. Then writing this. The will go to shoot pool tonight. <yeah!>. Then will probably go to have drinks or food. <Yeah!>. Then will go home. Then will sleep good.
Yeah days are fun.
Ahhh. Three more exams to go. Two hard ones and one straight memorizing one. Then there’s a ski trip planned. Then there’s DrinkFest ’99. Then the millenium ends. Then I start a new year and try to resolve issues such as procrastination, laziness, skipping-class-ness, and try to exercise more.
Ok… done. Bye.
T’was the night before Accounting Finals
December 07, 1999
and all through my house, my family was sleeping, but not this poor mouse (Jerry). The study session at D. Lam library proved to be extremely informing – I’m rather screwed for the final. Solution: pull all nighter and study till the crack of dawn, or the crack of my head… whichever comes first. Sigh. Then I’ll have an afternoon to sleep and then one full day of studying before the next final. Most probable is the event of me staying up again to study. At least my finals are spaced out a bit. I have a friend who has a crazy crazy finals’ schedule. Good luck to him. Good luck to me. Good luck to all of us with finals.
To prepare for the upcoming battle with the Sandman, I stowed away safely; one litre of water, a big cannister of cookies and biscuits, and of course, my lovely lovely pack of Du Mauriers – which is dumb because I don’t smoke in the house anyway. Aargh. My first smoke will probably be at the bus stop at 7:30am (only eight hours from now).
Quake, eat, drink, toilet, study, quake, study, study, study, shower, bus, final, home, sleep, sleep, sleep.
This news should’ve been on the main page. It was supposed to be a short rant on how i’m not gonna sleep tonight. Oh well.
Yeah yeah, I know the message board is fucked up. I’ll fix it later. Much later.
I am eating my noodles
December 06, 1999
and listening to an old Dream Theatre album right now. It’s 12:13pm, I’m in my tear-offs and t-shirt, waiting for an Accounting review session. Last count of days to first final – 2.
You all probably heard of the miscommunication of the latest Mars probe… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that they screwed up AGAIN (Second probe written off in 3 months).
Another school shooting. This time in some small town in Oklahoma. I’m sure this is just the beginning. You know the old saying, “retard see, retard do”. Only way to stop this? Well, DON’T ALLOW PEOPLE TO CARRY GUNS! “It’s in my constitutional rights…” Yes it is, but how many people are willing to give up a life to carry a firearm? I sincerely hope that no one would. These aren’t run-down, end of the road druggies who are getting shot (well I’m sure they are getting shot) but these are school children! Kids! If I ran the show, I’d melt all the guns and make another automobile or something.
Well, you probably noticed that the Message board is all messed up. It shows two of every message you post. Sucks. I’ll fix it when I have time… so don’t expect me to fix it anytime soon. Go write in the guestbook for now. Haha just remember that your IP hostname gets posted there too [esp. dennis haahhaha j/k].
Finally got some Quake 3 screenshots to put up, but haven’t yet. These are hilarious! Do you all remember Duck Hunt for the Nintendo system? Well, me and Dennis invented Duck Hunt 64 ~ a new, improved version played in Q3! No dog though. Hmm, make a dog skin and get a third in to pick up the corpses?
Anyway those will be up soon, by tonight I hope.
Good luck to all of you who have finals. Screw all of you who don’t.
—
18:10 – Ok, Put up those screenshots
Bored so here I am
December 04, 1999
Tried to study, but failed miserably. So, I modified the links and links index pages a bit. Probably edit some other stuff too.
Revision of opinion
December 03, 1999
Last night, Steven Seagal was on the Art Bell radio show. After hearing him talk about issues, I have changed my opinion of him. He is in fact a very intellegent, thoughful person (but I still hate his movies). He didn’t seem to have any emotions last night though. However, he does seem to have a very good knowledge of martial arts. He had a view on time warping where he made a reference to the Philadelphia Experiment (194x?). Overall, he’s not as boring as I thought he was, based on his movies.
I didn’t think it was him at all. I listened to him speak for at least 15 minutes before Art says, "Now Steven…" and then I finally realized this was none other than Seagal.
I rant and I bitch only to update this webpage.
December 01, 1999
It’s been a few days since my last rambling and since I got out of school earlier today, well, here I am writing this non-interesting update. There are officially two more days of classes left but for me, only one (I skip on Fridays). Yeah! I have two more assignments due tomorrow and sadly, I haven’t started one and the other is still very incomplete. To top that off, I have two finals next week: Accounting and Decision Making. Yeah.
I’m so stressed. This must be the third time I wrote about my upcoming finals! Aargh. What sucks more is how some people place their values and morals on you when they are extremely unwelcome to do so. I have been feeling that lately and just ignored it since what I do not pay attention to will not bother me. Hopefully that will go away soon.
I hope all of you are faring better than me in studying and piecing together the last assignments. Oh well, at least the Winter break is upon us. Hopefully this year will not bring on mounds of the cold white stuff but just got some new snowtires just in case [even though I don't get my license back till the 8th].
Sadly I have no plans this xmas or new years. Well, my previous plans have been postponed slightly due to unforeseen circumstances. My backup plan is to Quake all day and night. Hmm I hear it’ll be out sometime this week. $$$. That game rocks. More screen shots to come (I always forget to take a screen shot after an impressive frag).
Oh well, it’s finally December ~ the dreariest of months, so take that biggass coat out of the closet, buy some pink mittens, and put on some of those stylish rubber boots in preparation for l’hiver. I plan to bring out them skis and poles, touques and goggles, and burn them for I won’t need them when I’m stuck at home contemplating on whether to redesign this webpage or stick with this design (v1.4???). Anyway enough of me… at least until the next read.
More webpages of the damned
Oh my god! I just found out that Steven Seagal has his own webpage. That guy must be one of the crappiest actors that make million dollar movies. My theory is that he’s a robot programmed with a knowledge of martial arts but the programmers forgot to insert the emotion chip in him. But I guess I got to respect him because he’s an environmental activist. Finally one thing going right for him. Well, check out the page – it’s pretty cool. Warning: FLASH webpage.
Of course, he himself didn’t make the webpage, I think a company called Screen Eye did it. Their webpage is cool too.
Also updated Who Am I page
New Rambling posted
November 29, 1999
A Couple Updates
November 28, 1999
The -J- page has been slightly updated… more ahead to. So far, we have a mini competition going on. Me & Sinned vs Samuraion & Nevets. Up till today, it has been very even. But tonight we got our asses wasted. Got a screenshot from playing some crappy players. Will try to get a screen shot of the main competition later.
Go check out the message board – there’s some pretty funny stuff now.
Added Mahir’s webpage to Links. Don’t be mistaken, this isn’t someone I know. Just go check out the webpage. The Links Index page also has been updated.
And added Sinned’s Realm to the Links. This is the webpage of none other than Sinned (aka Indigo to Clan Green). Although normally I am sworn to destroy him in Doom/Quake, lately, we’ve teamed up to be the ultimate quake partnership. (Yet, we got wasted yesterday). We kick ass still.
Free Bumperstickers
The sex was so good that even the neighbors had a cigarette.
If you smoke after sex, you’re doing it too fast.
I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
Good girls get fat, bad girls get eaten.
We are Microsoft. Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated.
Jesus is coming, everyone look busy.
Born free… taxed to death.
The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.
Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them.
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
A cat almost always blinks when hit in the head with a ball peen hammer.
There’s too much blood in my alcohol system.
I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
Don’t take life too seriously, you won’t get out alive.
WANTED: Meaningful overnight relationship.
If you can read this, I’ve lost my trailer.
You’re just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
BEER: It’s not just for breakfast anymore.
I got a gun for my wife, best trade I’ve ever made.
So you’re a feminist…Isn’t that cute!
Jesus may love you, but he won’t respect you in the morning.
Anyone can give up smoking, but it takes a real man to face cancer.
If, a two letter word for futility
I don’t care, I don’t have to.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
To all you virgins, thanks for nothing.
I’m not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.
Horn broken, watch for finger.
All men are idiots … I married their king.
The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.
My kid had sex with your honor student.
Earth first…we’ll mine the other planets later.
Give pizza chants.
Don’t hit me. My lawyer’s in jail.
This isn’t burger king, you can’t have it your way.
How can I be overdrawn, I still have checks!
If something goes without saying, LET IT!
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.
Help wanted telepath: you know where to apply
Work is for people who don’t know how to fish.
IRS We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got.
Hard work has a future payoff, laziness pays off now.
Jesus loves you… everyone else thinks your an asshole.
Life’s a buffet… so eat me!
I’m just driving this way to piss you off.
If you don’t like the way I drive, get off the sidewalk.
Jesus paid for our sins… now let’s get our money’s worth.
Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle drugs.
Missing your cat? Try looking under my tires.
I love cats … dead ones
I love cats … they taste just like chicken
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?
I want to be like Barbie, that bitch has everything.
Keep honking, I’m reloading.
Cover me. I’m changing lanes.
Prevent inbreeding: ban country music.
As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools.
Spotted owl taste just like chicken.
Hang up and drive.
Happiness is a belt-fed weapon.
Laugh alone and the world thinks you’re an idiot.
Snatch a kiss, or vice versa.
I don’t have to be dead to donate my organ.
WARNING! Driver only carries $20.00 in ammunition.
This would be really funny if it wasn’t happening to me.
I have the body of a god… Buddha!
Lobotomize republicans… Why be redundant
I get enough exercise pushing my luck.
Auntie Em- Hate you, hate Kansas, taking dog. Dorothy
If you don’t like the news, go out and make your own.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep
Guns don’t kill people… but they make it real easy.
I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather … Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.
Tow-ers will be violate
Jesus is coming, everyone look busy.
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
Horn broken, watch for finger.
My kid had sex with your honor student.
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.
Help wanted telepath: you know where to apply
I.R.S.: We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got.
Jesus loves you… everyone else thinks you’re an asshole.
I’m just driving this way to piss you off.
Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle drugs.
Keep honking, I’m reloading.
Hang up and drive.
Lord save me from your followers.
Guns don’t kill people, postal workers do.
Ask me about microwaving cats for fun and profit.
I said “no” to drugs, but they just wouldn’t listen.
Friends don’t let Friends drive Naked.
If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?
Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie!’… till you can find a rock.
Sex on television can’t hurt you… unless you fall off.
-
Faster connection now =)
November 23, 1999
Woohoo finally got my ADSL connection. Wow, it’s unimaginably faster than dialup. Quake 3 will fill my time up now. Maybe Unreal Tournament too. Hehe. (No more time go going out or girls)
Found this MPEG called The Alien Song by Victor Navone. It’s quite cool, go see it (3.4mb)\
Got home from school all tired. Only had 2 classes today too. But boy were they boring… blah blah about power and politicking in organizations, then blah blah about cashflow statements.
No car still… about three weeks still.
Damn.
Check out the Green Marine by clicking on the Quake 3 icon on the right.
Till the next meaningless read.
Amidst the fog lies a light
November 20, 1999
Finally got time and patience to update. This has been a nightmare of a week. One of my best friends is in the hospital after a bad accident. Please please pray for his health and recovery. As for me, I think I’m doing better.
I’m not going to go in depth into it out of respect and the fact that I don’t want to at all.
Life is a funny thing. Let me rephrase that. Life is a messed up fucking bitch. My school work is a mess. My mind is in shambles. Chaos. That’s the best word.
This is not the first time chaos has ruined my life. It has happened before but not as messed up. I regained control of my life before and I can do it again.
I do wish to extend my gratitude to those who have been there for me. You all know who you are. Thank you ever so kindly.
There’s only 2 more weeks of classes left. There’s a hundred assignments due still. I’m not in the right frame of mind to do homework. I tried. Dear God I tried. Damn.
Then there’s exams. I don’t even know how many I have: 5,6,7? Not sure.
And I’ve delayed the ASDL for the longest of time. Couldn’t get back to SmarttNet. Damn. Hopefully I’ll get the stupid network card installed and working properly. Then mass downloads off everywhere.
Anyway, because of all the shit that has happened, I’m in the middle of writing 2 things. A poem about this mess and a mini-essay on Life. Of course, they’ll be up IF I finish them.
Quote of the Day:
The people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon. And all the less important ones just never seem to go away.
Past Ramblings page up instead of listing dates on Main-
.
November 15, 1999
Anger. Sorrow. Fear. Collapse. Chaos. Division. Hatred. Innocence. Mystery. Repression. Guilt. Anxiety. Stress. Cruelty. Puzzle. Loss. Wisdom. Annoyance. Confrontation. Courage. Politics. Silence. Regret. Hopelessness. Hopefulness. Miracle. God. Prayer. Wishes. Hopes. Dreams. Future. Tears. Memories. Good times. Bad times. Lost times. Depression. Wants. Needs. Closure. Awakening. Healing. Hurting. Body. Soul. Mind. Spirit. Unity. Distance. Closeness. Support. Independence. Release. Prisoner. Freedom.-
Funny Joke ~ especially if you’re sick of Winnie the Pooh
November 11, 1999
Three former kindergartners were trying to become accustomed to first grade. The biggest hurdle they faced was that the teacher insisted on no baby talk. "You need to use big people words" she’d always remind them. She asked Wendy what she had done over the weekend. "I went to visit my Nana" "No, you went to visit your GRANDMOTHER. Use big people words!" She then asked Joey what he had done. "I took a ride on a choo-choo." he said. "No, you took a ride on a TRAIN, use big people words!" She then asked Eddie what he had done. "I read a book" he replied. "That’s wonderful" the teacher said. "What book did you read?" Eddie thought about it, then puffed out his chest with great pride and said. "Winnie The Shit."
Work Hard, Play Hard
November 10, 1999
I’m beginning to like school less and less now. There are: 1 major assignment, 1 major presentation, 2 assignments to be done on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the meantime, we have to work on that major presentation tomorrow and probably all weekend. So, that leaves me a couple nights to finish the other assignments. Plus, there’s a lab to be done on Friday. I have no time to finish all this…
Then, the week after next, there are 4 assignments, one of which is a big one. Then, the last week, there are 4 more assignments, 1 project evaluation. Followed up by 5 finals. Yeah for me.
10:45pm
Dammit. Just spent about 2 hours doing an assignment. I’m stuck. Dammit. One part of it was linear programming which is supposed to be simple but the problem has about 10 variables and my minimizing objective function is now all screwed up. I was doing an easy assignment using Excel but it turns out i need to do linear programming for that too. Dammit. So, I quit for the night.
Oh yeah, found out the proper way of setting up the balls in pool
<— Voila
We’ve been doing it wrong for the longest of time. Damn. On a happier note, I’m pleased to announce that my pool skills which dissappeared when I came back from Toronto have now begun to resurface. My bank shots have improved a lot. Time to destroy people. Except I still got destroyed by Andrew yesterday: 4-2. Except 2 of his wins were from me sinking the cue ball right after the 8 ball. So, if i didn’t bob, it would’ve been me who had the 4. Too bad.
Aargh
November 07, 1999
Friday night <11/06/99>, the night of 6 shooters (not much I know, but I’m a cheap drunk), I went to sleep around 2:30am. I woke up around 4:30am and felt a big headache. Reminiscent of the hangover of my 18th birthday.
Since that, I’ve been feeling lightheaded and woozy. Uh oh. Exhaustion too. My super energy levels from last week are gone. I’m so blah now. And sadly, I finally broke my daily working out routine and missed one day last week. Now what?
I want to be fit. Hell, I got a haircut today and had to walk home (re: my license got suspended – fucking government) in the rain. My hair place is at Main and 41st and I live around Knight and 49th so I thought it wasn’t too far. I got home fine and all but I felt all dizzy and nauseous.
I need to get fit. I’m planning to make a jogging schedule. Just 5 or 6 laps around the block will probably be sufficient. Plus, I use leg weights when jogging so it should help. I used to be in such good condition. USED to be. Now I’m a lazy FF. Anyone do jogging and got some tips???
This marks another week of school and I’m beginning to not like Commerce as much now. The classes are good, I like the material, but there’s SO much work to do! As an official Procrastinator, I pile up so much work and readings. Oh well, just 3 more years. 3 more.
Christmas creeps closer now. Sadly, there are no plans for me right now, probably won’t be either. I think there’s a New Year’s party at a friends house. We’ll see how that goes. With the new millenium comes the possible Y2K bug problems. Prepare people, just get some storable food and water and a flashlight… just in case. It’s not paranoia, but just preparation.
Cool… I’m listening to some chinese ghost thing taped from last night and they were talking about how when ghosts appear, the lights or other electrical appliances might flicker or suddenly act strange. Right as they said that, my lights actually flickered! Hahah, but it’s because my sister just turned on the vaccuum which takes up about 100 amps and 10000 volts.
Wow, I can’t believe I just typed all that crap. Oh yeah, there’s Shoo again on the right. She’s so cute. Alright. I think I’m done. Remember to sign my guestbook or leave a message in the message board. Bye bye
Later that night…
Stupid bitch scanner and stupid photoshop and stupid pagemaker not stupid working like it’s stupid supposed to. Stupid article won’t print out stupid properly stupid stupid. This is stupid but for the stupid project due stupid tuesday and stupid comp lab stupid due too and stupid ob stupid project to work on stupid.
Drunken Jerry Meets Computer… Again ~ ~ ~ Jerry’s Dream: Shoo
November 06, 1999
6 Shooters tonight. Bamboo. Fun. SO MANY GIRLS!!! Damn. At times like these, I wish I was good looking. D’oh. But I really had fun tonight. Bumped into a few people I haven’t seen in ages, danced quite a bit, stared at many girls. Caught a lollipop! But gave it away. Hahah. Did I mention I had 6 shooters??? Woh. That was dizzying.
Heh, you may have noticed Shoo here, the girl on the right. She’s cute. She’s awesome. She’s about my age. She’s also a Korean music sensation (part of SES). But she’s so cute. If God ever gave me a girl like Shoo, then… aargh, words will never explain it. Too bad… perhaps in my dreams.
She’s so cute that me and a friend in many ways compare girls to her.
For more information on Shoo, or SES, visit S.E.S Best Web Page, I know, doesn’t make grammatical sense, but who cares. There’s a lot of info and pics about Shoo, oh yeah, and about the other two too. (You need to know how to read Korean though… like I really knew how.)
Oh a final note, please use the message board. I want to see what interesting things people will say. Feel free to make fun of me in any way possible!
Message Board is up
November 05, 1999
Alrighty then… added a new message board where people come together and post messages back and forth about anything. It’s found in the interact page.
Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah
October 29, 1999
I’m so bored. This pre-halloween week has been rather mundane. I got most of my midterms back. Damn. I suck. My average is about 10% lower than last year’s and I’m putting in so much more effort this year too. Sucks.
So what are YOU doing for halloween?
Aargh… go check out The Flying Cow page.
What else??? Nothing… damn I’m bored.
Later that night (like 1:52am later)…
Wow. Just came home from Richard’s. It sucked ass. The music was way too old and there were no asians. Telltale signs of a crappy club. We drove by Bamboo (my favorite by far) – there was a huge ass lineup. Damn. We were gonna go to PO but Friday is 80′s night, and dancing to Beach Boys isn’t exactly the funnest thing in the world. The lineup revealed too many ghosts in their mid twenty’s too. Sucks.
And now I’m back here, writing on my homepage.
Sucks.
Cow Tipping? Screw That!
Anyone who’s ever fantasized about launching cows from a catapult must have serious problems. But it sure is fun! Don’t believe me??? Try it yourself, just visit The Flying Cow site.
Out with the old, in with the younger and sexier
October 26, 1999
The Old News is now dead. I found it pointless. Instead, this News page will just extend longer now. Maybe 10 – 15 news updates? Hmm. Not sure. And also, the Main page where I write bigger, more "interesting" stuff will now be saved instead of overwritten everytime. You can read old stuff by clicking on the date found on the column under the Dragon.
Super Saiyin Jerry
October 25, 1999
A Saiyan is a race of warriors found in the japanese anime Dragonball Z. It’s the show I’m currently taping everyday and watching at night. Damn. I saw it in Hong Kong four years ago and it was cool. Now, it’s still awesome.
Anyway, when a Saiyan reaches 100,000 in power level (I think the number is right), he becomes a Super Saiyan, possessing incredible power. Incidentally, the hair turns blond and eyes turn green or blue <forgot which>.
For the past week and a bit, I’ve felt invincible!!! I have what feels like limitless energy, super motivation, and unbelievable self-confidence. To clear all suspicion, this is not drug induced. To my knowledge, this is not medical-related either.
One guess is Creatine. I’ve been taking that for awhile now but this is the first time I’ve ever felt so powerful.
Why I feel more energy:
- Before, I worked out once, maybe twice a week and I feel all tired. There was no motivation to continue on. Now, I’m working out everyday.
- Before, I would do two, three sets, then quit and watch tv or log on ‘net. Now, I do three, four sets, rest a bit, get fidgety, and do some more sets. I don’t tire out as fast now.
- Before, no motivation (as mentioned). Now, I want to work out all the time. It’s so weird. Again, a reminder that this is not drug induced haha.
Hopefully, I’ll get the results of my hardwork soon. I’d be so happy if i could lose the "extra" trimming around my waist, mass up upperbod, six pack up, and tone up. Hmm is that too much to ask?
I’m wondering what is causing this extra push in energy. It’s not drugs. It’s not romance (no girls in my life). Maybe it’s for some big upcoming battle where aliens from another planet is coming to kill everyone and sell the planet. And I, along with my band of Z warrior friends must fend off these aliens. I’ll inevitably discover that I’m one of them and die defending my child, Son Gohan.
Whoops, been watching too much Dragonball Z. Anyway, email me about what you think. There’s a link for that right below. (Pointing that out in case you’re a fucking moron).
Move your mouse over the two Dragons (they called BL, Dragon because he was born in the year of the Dragon).
Beauty Burns In The Night Sky
October 22, 1999
Last night around 1:30am, while listenting to the Art Bell radio show, Art discovered that there was major solar activity happening. He then pointed out that this meant in most northern latitudes, you could see North Lights (Aurora Borealis). Callers from as far south as Kansas and Maryland reported seeing brilliant red, white, even green lights showing off in the sky.
A caller from downtown Vancouver (my city) reported seeing lovely red lights in the sky. I got out of bed, ran to the window and glanced outside. Sadly, the streetlamps overpowered the skylights. However, going upstairs, from my old room, I did notice a lot of reddish, whitish streaks, almost parallel to each other covering up the sky. Of course, having never experienced aurora borealis before (a rarity in vancouver), I wasn’t sure if those streaks were the lights or clouds. I dismissed them as clouds but most of you will remember that yesterday was a beautiful clear day. I regret that I missed such a fabulous event. This gives me another incentive to live out in rural areas.
I love the sky.
Well, below is a picture from Issaquah, Washington (taken 10/21/99), which is located about 20 miles east of Seattle. This picture is taken from the Art Bell website. Not sure if it’s copyrighted or anything. If it is, I’ll immediately take it down. You must see this, it’s unbelievably beautiful.
Just when things were setting in
August 24, 1999
I was really happy with this webpage design because it didn’t look as bland as the last one and i also got to tinker with Photoshop. Yet, these couple of days, I load up the page and stare and get bored of it. I know I know, it’s been only like two weeks since I changed from the blue page but just now, I made a design prototype. Again, it’s essentially the same page but a few significant color changes. I need feedback so please look at the prototype.
The Wretched falls
August 21, 1999
Woohoo. Just gotten word that around 3pm today, our infamous Premier, Mr. Glen Clark has resigned! What a glorious day. Perhaps someone with better qualifications and perhaps a bit more honest will take on the mantle of Premier.
What’s in being cool
August 19, 1999
Today’s outing made me realize that there are many people out there who try too hard to be "cool" or accepted or whatever. For those people, I say to them, "Get a life and screw off". Now I’m not one to preach on being cool since I’ve never considered myself being cool. In fact, I’m proud to say that instead of conforming to what today’s social trends are, I follow my own little code of conduct instead. The result? I strut through the streets having fun, laughing, not caring what superficial bitches and uneducated club hoppers think. I find it sad to see people wearing fashion found in the pages of YM or whatever Jennifer Love Hewitt is wearing because they don’t personally like the style but they do it because someone else likes the style. Sad.
On a lighter note, I went to the L I B R A R Y yesterday <what’s wrong with me?> and got a copy of the Hobbit – J. R. R Tolkien. It’s supposed to be a must read for fantasy fans and is the first of a series in the Lord of the Rings collection. I guess this summer sucks so bad for me that I’m going back to my childhood pastime of literature absorption
I also want to do a little bit of writing myself. To save some time, here’s is the FAQ on Me Writing
- About what? I don’t know.
- Will it be published? No.
- Where can I get a copy? Why, here of course!
- Are you a big ass loser? … … … yes.
A little bit of change is ok
This section has been renamed News since I’ll only be posting insignificant pieces of information here. As for the Main page, more extensive pieces will be posted such as unresolvable topics, major happenings, etc.
By the way, you all know that the little envelope at the bottom right is actually the Email Me button right? I was thinking, hmm, if I were a dumb person, I may not realize that the envelope may mean email. Just pointing it out in case you are one of those dumb people.
Sixth Sense
August 17, 1999
Go watch it. It’s good. It’s not your typical scare-you-then-you-leave movie, it genuinely has some spine tingling scenes. To top it off, as my sister put it, "There’s a shocking ending". I obviously won’t give it away here but I can say it was an original ending (not like Scream, Scream 2, I know…, I know… II, etc).
To finish up the night, me and three other chums played a little mahjong ("KONG") followed by some Poker/Showhand. ‘Twas fun, must do it again another day.
Nothing like waking up in the morning to the sound of rain
August 15, 1999
Typical Vancouver rainday today – on the day we planned to go to the beach. So instead of tanning and staring at girls, I woke up today and fixed up the corner of this page. The pixels weren’t lining up right and you could see the stupid white bar extend. Must thank Jesse for suggesting the simplest solution (I felt pretty dumb when I couldn’t think of it) and Dennis (the official tester of this site and official cannon fodder of Clan Green). Btw, DO NOT USE NETSCAPE WHEN VIEWING THIS SITE, OR ANY OTHER SITE FOR THAT MATTER. No. Bad. No. Netscape sucks. This site looks all messed up under Netscape.
Sweet
August 12, 1999
Version 1.2 is now up. I think it looks a bit better, not as bland as the blue. And look… the buttons. They actually took me more than 5 minutes to make (unlike that last set). The Clan Green page will look much better when I make some graphics and crap for it. Anyone interested in making graphics for me? Send applications immediately.
Clan Green emerges once again from the blood laden fields of Doom
August 11, 1999
Two important pieces of news today, well, important to this webpage anyhow. First, a new version, 1.2, will be up in a matter of days. Basically, it’s the same design but with a bit more graphics and hopefully a better interface. Secondly, this will be the temporary home of Clan Green – a newly formed clan dedicated in one goal: to eradicate Clan Indigo. Clan Green is accepting new members but you must prove yourself worthy to take on the mantle of a Clanner.
What a shitty day
August 09, 1999
This is not just one of those updates where I bitch and then put something on the Life Sucks page. No. Today was just one of those shitty shitty days. It began actually a couple days ago when UBC emailed me telling me I had been picked in the parking lottery thing. No I don’t win anything, it just means I get to buy a parking pass first. It also said they’re accepting a limited number of purchases over the internet (500 or 1000). Being the lazy ass I am, I thought to myself, I’ll do it later. So last night as I clicked around on their shitty webpage, I find that the online passes have been sold out – I would have to line up in person to buy one. Fuck. The parking office opens at 8:30am but as a UBC tradition, people start lining up at 5:00am. No kdding. So, I stayed up all fucking night watching night TV (M.A.S.H reruns, Tai-Bo ads, etc) and playing Darkstone. At 5am, I get ready to go and by 5:30am I’m out the door. On Knight St, heading to King Edward, I get lasered going at 84k’s. My radar detector did go off but I being a fucking idiot just thought it was probably an automatic door or something. I thought, "Even cops don’t wake up this early." Fuck was I wrong. So there’s another $115 down the drain AND another 3 fucking points which means I’ll have another $300 down soon. After that, I continued on my trek and got my stupid parking pass. Luckily, you didn’t have to actually stand there waiting… they gave you a number and called you up. So I went to the SUB and read and had a shitty bland coffee and a moderately good cinnamon bun. Come home. Write this. Shitty day.
The Reviews section is dead
August 08, 1999
After much deliberation – 10 seconds, I decided to destroy the reviews section from this site. I wouldn’t have anything to review and my reviews tend to ramble on and on and on and on. It was my last day of work yesterday! Yippee! First time in three years where I’ll have no source of income and totally devote my life to school. Ha! Currently working on a song about stuff that happened to me recently. Also playing with the idea of doing a re-re-design of this site because I’m getting bored on how this looks. Need a cool idea for it though. Suggestions?
There are 4 more weeks of summer holiday
August 07, 1999
In exactly one month, school starts and no longer will updates be posted at one or half day intervals. (Running 34 credits this year) Not much happened lately. Not much happens ever. Damn. Life sucks. Hey!!! Woohoo. New reason why Life Sucks is up. The Darkstone review is partially written… so another day or so.
Happy Birthday Vivian
August 04, 1999
Happy 19th to Vivian today. Sorry couldn’t stay for the fireworks and the *party* afterwards. Still too lazy to make reviews cuz i don’t know what to say. I’m on the edge of deleting the whole reviews section. What do you think? Darkstone is really really good – single or multiplay. More on that later.
Great, I got my ass kicked again
August 03, 1999
I hate pool. Andrew kicked my ass 6-1 today. Finally got to see Runaway Bride – it wasn’t bad. Of course it was a chick flick but it also made you feel all warm and tingly inside. I’m writing in simple sentences today. See? Darkstone is good. Definitely the game to tide us all over until Diablo II comes out. Reviews for both of those things will be up soon. I wrote another poem at 4am last night. Am I going crazy? Critics welcome (about the poem, not my sanity).
Finally found a layout I like
Wow after finishing the links index page, i decided to incorporate this scheme into my other pages in this site. Currently working on a new title page because those two moving words are just annoying now. Am going to watch Runaway Bride tonight and Andrew was so generous to give me a new game – Darkstone – which means there’ll probably be the first two reviews ever soon.
One of those days
August 02, 1999
Cool. Pool. I still suck. Although Sunny still thinks I kicked his ass. I don’t know. And wow… the girls there. Phew. and then the tea house place we went too. Phew. Damn. Phew. Cool, third-last day of work yesterday. Only two more and then it’s goodbye. Updated the links page to also include an index so there isn’t a page 2 meters in length describing every link i have. The Links page will now just include links i find interesting in the month or week.
As to not make this webpage boring (Dennis)…
July 31, 1999
It’s true, sometimes no matter how nice a webpage is (i’m not saying that mine is nice, just some webpages are really nice), if it’s boring, it sucks. Now I was wondering out loud and scaring people along the way, how do i make a non-boring webpage??? Write retarded news updates? Put up a picture of me and some friends in Toronto? Link to a cool webpage? I don’t know… perhaps I’ll start writing poetry or fiction again. Hey, where are those "Andre Tries To Be Cool" books? Hmm, gotta get that online!!! OH to dispel any rumours there are floating around… I AM NOT A SATANIST!!! I’m… a… humanist? Whatever that means. I put the Life Sucks page up because when I’m on the net, i’m usually not in a happy mood (otherwise, I’d go out and party) and also because I notice every update I make on my webpages, it’s usually about me complaining about something, no matter what mood I am. Wow that topic alone almost merits an essay. Would an essay on how I regard life make this webpage any less boring? Probably not.
SETI@home
The Arecibo Observatory – a big big dish stuck on the side of a mountain located somewhere in South America. As the biggest radio telescope in the world (i think), it searches the sky “listening” to distant stars for artificial radio transmissions – a calling card of extraterrestrial life. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Life) is now offerering you the chance to be the very one who discovers ETI. Go download a screensaver at their site and your computer is now part of the number crunching process. When you’re not using your comp, it starts processing transmissions, searching for the glimpse of intelligence. Join the thousands who are already part of this meaningful project.
After three days and nights
July 29, 1999
At last, I believe this site is officially up and running. There’s not much to see right now but all the essentials are up. One problem though, under 800×600 screen resolution, you don’t see all the links on the left sidebar which kinda sucks. So to fight that, there’ll be a navigation bar at the bottom of this news page. It’s the only quickfix I can think of right now. A few more reasons why Life Sucks is up. What else? It was raining today… which meant I *had* to stay home and make webpage stuff. (I’m not much of an excuse maker). Holy hotcakes I’m bored.-
Reroute now!
July 27, 1999
Ok, so there’s one more update. My eyes are filling up with tears as I now ask you to go to my new webpage instead. As for this one, it’ll be up for awhile until I find another use for it. Perhaps a sister site or a photo gallery or something dumb.
Happy United States Day (I guess)
July 04, 1999
Before I go off to Toronto in two days, I really want to get a new webpage design up and running, at least on paper anyway. I’m sick of this one because, although it works fine, it doesn’t look very great. This complete overhaul will leave this piece of crap in the far recesses of bad-webpage-hell. Aargh. Some fucker scratched my front bumper and then took off… now I have to go get some touch up paint from Honda and I know it’ll cost an arm and a leg and maybe a kidney. At least when I get back my windows can be tinted cuz my dear dear friends gave me the tinting money as a b-day present. Next? A beautiful Midwing style spoiler followed up by a lowering. Then, maybe, perhaps, I’ll work on the performance part of it. (NSX ENGINE!!!!). This will probably be the last update on this webby so
Happy Canada Day
July 01, 1999
Well, it all started out as a normal, lazy-ass Thursday. I mentioned previously that I didn’t want anything to be done for my birthday, but a couple of my more extraordinary friends went right on ahead and did so anyway. So, much to my surprise, I found myself at a dinner where a lot my friends where um… also… at. (feeling dumb right now). Contrary to my belief that a birthday anything for me wouldn’t be very great, I ended up having fun and seeing an OK movie (Wild Wild West – I give it 2 and a half stars). And so, I celebrated my 19th a little bit early this year, all because my two idiot friends (Head and Pessica) went into all the trouble and planned a little something just for moi. (insert teary-eyed Jerry here). Those two… what can I say?
June 27, 1999
June 27, 1999
Jiminy Jelickers. This webpage sucks. It sucks compared to the webpage of a friend of mine (damn you Jesse). It has a whole bunch of technical java crap and frames. Check out his webpage, it’s damn nice. Dammit. My last webpage with frames sucked worse than this. Hmm maybe I should learn HTML but WYSIWYG page builders are just so much easier to play with. Ah well, for now, this is the best I can do. (shut your laughin now).
June 25, 1999
June 25, 1999
Woohoo. I got accepted into Commerce. Yeah. To celebrate, I changed the side bar a little bit. Enjoy.
June 24, 1999
June 24, 1999
You know that annoying pop-up banner that Geocities (bless their free 11mb of space) throws in your face regardless of whether or not you care about Visa 0.6% or Find Your Long Lost Half-Uncle? Well I thought I’d do you a favor and get rid of it by putting up a stupid GeoGuide, which is pretty much the same thing except it’s stuck on the webpage instead of being popped out. I experimented with it and decided against it because it makes this webpage look ugly… moreso. God I’m bored. Just to put a stupd link up, here’s one of my favorite paintings.
June 11, 1999
June 11, 1999
These two days have been rather interesting. By interesting, I mean that they were horribly emotional. This summer (is it summer yet?) has been up to this point calm, serene, quiet, tranquil, and umm… I ran out of synonyms. However, these two days have kind of given me a bit of a headache. Yet, the things causing me stress are not of my own creation, no, they are instead other people and other people’s problems. Isn’t there an easy way to avoid problems aside from killing oneself? (For you see, I have yet to accomplish numerous objectives in life)
June 08, 1999
June 08, 1999
The internet – electronic mosaic of pulses and streams of information… boredom connected internationally. I really need a gimic for this stupid webpage. It’s all about nothing… a poetic parallel to my mundane life? Or does it go hand in hand? You tell me. Wait, I don’t even know who “you” are; moi, my sis, perhaps a couple friends, my cousin maybe? How dreadful it would be if all my ramblings were heard only by the people mentioned aboved. Well, if you have any complaints please send them to complaints@fuckyou.com
