Thursday, July 29, 2004
Dumbass Reasoning
Friggin' telemarketers...usually they're somewhat tolerable, but I just got this call and the dumbass on the other side has some serious mental deficiencies or something (I'm probably wrong, but I'm kinda upset, which I really shouldn't be, so that kinda gets on my nerves too, vicious cycle'd...)
So got the call, blah blah blah, number specially selected for discount for the Sun newspaper (sure, specially selected, just as special as every other number in the phonebook). Blah blah blah, more stuff about rates. So after the opening promotion is over, I said we didn't need the paper here. Now usually, if the telemarketer was any smart and assuming they work off commission or something, they'd hang up and try for another. But get this response:
"Sir, that (not wanting the paper) is not a reason"
I was thinking, wtf? Clearly the person doesn't know how to reason. If I don't want the product, what makes you think repeating what you just told me will change my mind? And who the **** are you to tell me how to reason? For all I care I can not want to order 'cause my magic 8 ball tells me so, it's still a ******* reason to me. I can give a rat's ass about what the **** you think.
(Frig, this is getting me somewhat angry)
So during the marketer's repeat of her sales pitch I didn't even bother listening, just checking here and there to see if she's still talking. After maybe a minute or so she seems to be done, and I said again that we don't need the paper here.
"Not wanting the paper is not a reason to not take our offer"
At that point I was pretty pissed at the telemarketer, so I told her off as politely as I can and hung up. Man, if they ever call back...
Getting sidetracked...need to focus on studying...******* dumbass telemarketing.... ....
So got the call, blah blah blah, number specially selected for discount for the Sun newspaper (sure, specially selected, just as special as every other number in the phonebook). Blah blah blah, more stuff about rates. So after the opening promotion is over, I said we didn't need the paper here. Now usually, if the telemarketer was any smart and assuming they work off commission or something, they'd hang up and try for another. But get this response:
"Sir, that (not wanting the paper) is not a reason"
I was thinking, wtf? Clearly the person doesn't know how to reason. If I don't want the product, what makes you think repeating what you just told me will change my mind? And who the **** are you to tell me how to reason? For all I care I can not want to order 'cause my magic 8 ball tells me so, it's still a ******* reason to me. I can give a rat's ass about what the **** you think.
(Frig, this is getting me somewhat angry)
So during the marketer's repeat of her sales pitch I didn't even bother listening, just checking here and there to see if she's still talking. After maybe a minute or so she seems to be done, and I said again that we don't need the paper here.
"Not wanting the paper is not a reason to not take our offer"
At that point I was pretty pissed at the telemarketer, so I told her off as politely as I can and hung up. Man, if they ever call back...
Getting sidetracked...need to focus on studying...******* dumbass telemarketing.... ....
Monday, July 26, 2004
Finals Next Week...
Hm, this term went by pretty darn fast, finals for me start in 9 days. First up, Calculus.
But first, I kind of need to finish a paper for Econ and at least 1 assignment for Act Sci. (There is another Act Sci assignment but that is optional) I also want to have all my reading and summarizing done by Friday before CCF, just in case stuff happens after CCF. Like how we played War Craft 3 maps until 5:30am this Friday past. Maybe it'll be CS this week, or hockey, or nothing at all 'cause everyone has finals coming up (we'd still most probably go out for food or something).
So plans for today is to finish the Econ paper and either do the assignment I need to finish or do the reading/summarizing for one of my courses. Keep in mind that I also had planned to have the Econ paper finished by Friday, then planned to have it done by the end of the weekend. So...yeah.
Now as for the reasons why I still don't have my Econ paper finished, it's mainly because I was half distracted on Saturday and fully distracted on Sunday. Saturday, after sleeping around 4 hours after the War Craft 3-ing, I did some more preliminary work on my paper. I got to DB's around 1:45 or so, they were having a Magic draft thingy thingy so I originally figured I'd do my work then. However, I was sidetracked with Smashy Smashy and Jia's Mugen-age, so I only got a portion of my paper completed. On Sunday I went to spend the afternoon at my Dad's, and picked up a copy of The Bourne Identity to watch with him. The DVD is so worth it, if you ask me. It's $22.99 at Future Shop, and they include a voucher for a ticket for The Bourne Supremacy that can be used any time. Thus, if you maximize the value on the voucher, the DVD costs $12 after tax, pretty good deal on a new release if you ask me.
Oh yeah, since I should be studying for finals this week and studying for/writing finals next week, I probably won't be able to part-take in any gatherings of sorts for the upcoming 2 weekends. I'd probably update here and there, but there wouldn't be much to update about. It'd be like "I studied...ate food...played some games...watched movies...watched TV...ate some more...hung out at Paul's to watch movies...realized I'm behind in studying...studied" or something like that. That doesn't mean I won't update, but I probably won't do so as frequent as I have in the past month-ish.
But first, I kind of need to finish a paper for Econ and at least 1 assignment for Act Sci. (There is another Act Sci assignment but that is optional) I also want to have all my reading and summarizing done by Friday before CCF, just in case stuff happens after CCF. Like how we played War Craft 3 maps until 5:30am this Friday past. Maybe it'll be CS this week, or hockey, or nothing at all 'cause everyone has finals coming up (we'd still most probably go out for food or something).
So plans for today is to finish the Econ paper and either do the assignment I need to finish or do the reading/summarizing for one of my courses. Keep in mind that I also had planned to have the Econ paper finished by Friday, then planned to have it done by the end of the weekend. So...yeah.
Now as for the reasons why I still don't have my Econ paper finished, it's mainly because I was half distracted on Saturday and fully distracted on Sunday. Saturday, after sleeping around 4 hours after the War Craft 3-ing, I did some more preliminary work on my paper. I got to DB's around 1:45 or so, they were having a Magic draft thingy thingy so I originally figured I'd do my work then. However, I was sidetracked with Smashy Smashy and Jia's Mugen-age, so I only got a portion of my paper completed. On Sunday I went to spend the afternoon at my Dad's, and picked up a copy of The Bourne Identity to watch with him. The DVD is so worth it, if you ask me. It's $22.99 at Future Shop, and they include a voucher for a ticket for The Bourne Supremacy that can be used any time. Thus, if you maximize the value on the voucher, the DVD costs $12 after tax, pretty good deal on a new release if you ask me.
Oh yeah, since I should be studying for finals this week and studying for/writing finals next week, I probably won't be able to part-take in any gatherings of sorts for the upcoming 2 weekends. I'd probably update here and there, but there wouldn't be much to update about. It'd be like "I studied...ate food...played some games...watched movies...watched TV...ate some more...hung out at Paul's to watch movies...realized I'm behind in studying...studied" or something like that. That doesn't mean I won't update, but I probably won't do so as frequent as I have in the past month-ish.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Thy Peasant's Quest Sounds Cool...
Hark! Thy pigeons about thou fleest as thou enterest a dark, musty, bright cavern.
What will thoust do?
> Get ye flask
You CAN'T get ye flask, for the 10239587396th time this quest.
Your mission, since thou has accepted, is to terminate Trodgor, thy Burninator.
What will thoust do?
> Go Dennis
Dennis hast been devoured by thy Burninator, should thou use thy magique powder to go to Dennis?
> Yes
You are now in a sea of acid, deep in the bowels of thy Burninator. You are dead fifty times over, thus the next 49 games you start will immediately begin with "Game Over". Good luck on thine future quests, thoust will needest luck...est.
Oh yes: IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!
Above was just some improv stuff I felt like writing on the spot, intends to be somewhat amusing, but if it wasn't oh well.
Hm, in terms of update there hasn't been much goings-on, gone to class, finishing up last assignments/papers and soon will prepare for finals.
Actually, I wanted to blog a bit about what differences I noticed in my cousins compared to when I was their age.
My little cousins, as cute as they are, sometimes gets on my nerves. They have like, infinite energy, 'cause they never stop moving about. They have to run and chase each other around and laugh and frolic and what not. That's fine, that's what kids do. But the problem comes when they won't stop doing that when we tell them to. Often we have to tell them several times, and then probably offer a threat of somesort (no ice cream, no Disneyland, etc) for them to settle down for a short while. 5 minutes later they are at it again. This mainly comes about in meal time, they'd want to play and take a long time to eat. And they won't eat a lot. Which is kind of weird 'cause they have so much energy...
As I recall, when I was their age I never ran around like they did. I was either playing video games with my brother and cousins or playing with action figures like GI Joe, Heman, DBZ, etc. According to my Mom and Uncles, we (my brother, my cousins, and I) were quieter and less hyperactive (I'd say my cousins are hyperactive at times), and sometimes more obedient.
But I also see stark similarities, like thinking to know everything about whatever topic we happen to be talking about; excessive exaggeration; always thinking they're braver/smarter/insert adjective than they really are. Actually, these things I tolerate fine, 'cause I know I did that when I was their age, so I don't patronize them although I can.
The thing is, we (the adults) hardly ever follow through with the threats we use to get them to listen to us. I wonder how long it'll be until the little ones figure that out. Well, we can always deliver on the threats, just not the big ones I guess (like no Disneyland, that's kinda too cruel, but no movie is easily done).
Although in a few more years they'll be much easier to manage, the girls will be much less active and probably play with dolls and such a lot more, and the boy will undoubtedly get into either comics or TV or video games. Eh, it's just a phase of growing I guess...
Actually, recall that I went back past Monday to eat at a family friend of ours. They also have a small child, a boy around 2 1/2 years or so. Throughout the evening, he kept on chasing after my two female cousins aged 4 and 6, for hugs, heh. I wonder if there's some psychological explanation for that ('cause the kid didn't really went after my 7 year old male cousin for hugs). It was interesting nevertheless.
Man, it's pouring outside, how quickly the proverbial tide turns indeed...
What will thoust do?
> Get ye flask
You CAN'T get ye flask, for the 10239587396th time this quest.
Your mission, since thou has accepted, is to terminate Trodgor, thy Burninator.
What will thoust do?
> Go Dennis
Dennis hast been devoured by thy Burninator, should thou use thy magique powder to go to Dennis?
> Yes
You are now in a sea of acid, deep in the bowels of thy Burninator. You are dead fifty times over, thus the next 49 games you start will immediately begin with "Game Over". Good luck on thine future quests, thoust will needest luck...est.
Oh yes: IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!
Above was just some improv stuff I felt like writing on the spot, intends to be somewhat amusing, but if it wasn't oh well.
Hm, in terms of update there hasn't been much goings-on, gone to class, finishing up last assignments/papers and soon will prepare for finals.
Actually, I wanted to blog a bit about what differences I noticed in my cousins compared to when I was their age.
My little cousins, as cute as they are, sometimes gets on my nerves. They have like, infinite energy, 'cause they never stop moving about. They have to run and chase each other around and laugh and frolic and what not. That's fine, that's what kids do. But the problem comes when they won't stop doing that when we tell them to. Often we have to tell them several times, and then probably offer a threat of somesort (no ice cream, no Disneyland, etc) for them to settle down for a short while. 5 minutes later they are at it again. This mainly comes about in meal time, they'd want to play and take a long time to eat. And they won't eat a lot. Which is kind of weird 'cause they have so much energy...
As I recall, when I was their age I never ran around like they did. I was either playing video games with my brother and cousins or playing with action figures like GI Joe, Heman, DBZ, etc. According to my Mom and Uncles, we (my brother, my cousins, and I) were quieter and less hyperactive (I'd say my cousins are hyperactive at times), and sometimes more obedient.
But I also see stark similarities, like thinking to know everything about whatever topic we happen to be talking about; excessive exaggeration; always thinking they're braver/smarter/insert adjective than they really are. Actually, these things I tolerate fine, 'cause I know I did that when I was their age, so I don't patronize them although I can.
The thing is, we (the adults) hardly ever follow through with the threats we use to get them to listen to us. I wonder how long it'll be until the little ones figure that out. Well, we can always deliver on the threats, just not the big ones I guess (like no Disneyland, that's kinda too cruel, but no movie is easily done).
Although in a few more years they'll be much easier to manage, the girls will be much less active and probably play with dolls and such a lot more, and the boy will undoubtedly get into either comics or TV or video games. Eh, it's just a phase of growing I guess...
Actually, recall that I went back past Monday to eat at a family friend of ours. They also have a small child, a boy around 2 1/2 years or so. Throughout the evening, he kept on chasing after my two female cousins aged 4 and 6, for hugs, heh. I wonder if there's some psychological explanation for that ('cause the kid didn't really went after my 7 year old male cousin for hugs). It was interesting nevertheless.
Man, it's pouring outside, how quickly the proverbial tide turns indeed...
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Weekend of Movies, Fun Times, and Good Food
Wow, what a "weekend".
The word weekend is in quotation marks because my weekend was pretty much Friday to Monday, so I had an extra day (or, made myself an extra day for the weekend).
I'll do the ol' "recap by day" business, it's really the easiest...
Friday
I did manage to finish the Act Sci assignment over the span of Thursday night and Friday morning before class, so it was all good. Paul was awake when I finished my Act Sci, and he asked if I wanted to go to Timmy's for breakfast. I complied. Drove over and picked Paul up, and we both had the Soup n' Bagel deal for breakfast. I parked my car at WCRI and walked to MC w/ Paul, who decided to hand in his assignment before falling asleep. I ended up being 30 minutes late for Act Sci 371, but I didn't miss too much...
After classes I proceeded to head back to 'sauga. Dropped off William and then headed over to DB's for a bit of Smashy Smashy, since I wanted to play after d/l all those videos, and my uncle's flight was arriving around 4, 5 or so anyway. So played both Smashes w/ DB until 7 or so, then headed home. Went out for dinner, and we kind of planned what we'd do for Saturday over dinner. Went to Murphy's Ice Cream in Streetsville after dinner, had the Watermelon Sherbet, it was alright, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Home for sleep.
Saturday
Went to Metro Toronto Zoo, there was some traffic during the drive there, but it wasn't too congested. Spent about 3 hours walking around the zoo, looking at all kinds of neat animals. Pretty fun, and the animals are actually there during the summer. (Unlike winter, where they're all stored away somewhere or something...)
Dropped everyone home and then I went with my 2 uncles to buy tickets for King Arthur. Mom cooked nice dinner at home, and as usual, we ate about 50% of what she cooked. Everyone then went to watch Arthur at Coliseum. The movie was not too bad, but wasn't spectacular either. I liked how they handled explaining the plot much better than Troy (well, basically Arthur was just using the names of the guys in the Legend and twisting the story, but they did a good job in not tainting the original work, unlike Troy IMHO). However, Troy had better and more action sequences. So it'd be an omni movie if they used King Arthur's plot telling ways coupled w/ Troy's action sequences. They should do that for Alexander, although the movie's made already...
Oh yeah, about King Arthur, Lancelot had the best use of touche I've seen in quite awhile...I'm positive we'd all say it had we seen the movie together, heh.
Sunday
Woke up and helped my uncle dispose the last of his stuff in his public storage locker. We had McDonald's for breakfast, heh.
Then accompanied my uncle to visit one of his old friends in Markham, whom I also kind of knew. Went for dim sum, which was pretty good, always nice to have good food, he he. Back to 'sauga and watched Spider-Man 2, since my uncle and cousin haven't seen it yet. Went home to eat the stuff we couldn't finish the night before, and we still didn't finish all of it.
I couldn't go back to 'Loo Sunday night 'cause my other uncle used my car to spend the day w/ his in-laws. So I slept kind of early Sunday night.
Monday
Woke up and drove to 'Loo for lectures. Act Sci tutorial cancelled, woot. Fire Alarm was pulled right before Calc started, so I didn't bother w/ Calc and asked Durgesh to cover for me, and proceeded to go back to 'sauga. Left in time to meet up w/ my Mom and uncles (and aunts and cousins, etc) for lunch, he he.
After lunch we spent some time in Square One, looking about. I window shopped some games stuffies, and basically only had my sights on Megaman Collection and perhaps Tales of Symphonia, although I don't know if that game is as fun single player.
Went over to a family friend of all of ours for dinner. 'Twas a very good meal, food everywhere: roast beef, sashimi, chicken, salad, potatoes, spaghetti, dumplings, and probably more that I forgot (apple pie as well for dessert). Went home and slept after digesting the food.
Tuesday
Semi-woke up and said good bye to my uncle who has to go back to HK right after their trip to Disneyland. Didn't feel like I had enough rest to drive back to 'Loo around 8, so I slept until like 9:30. Didn't get back to 'Loo until 11:20 or so, meaning I missed 2 hours of my scheduled time in the tutorial centre. Kind of made up for it by being there for an hour and a half during times that I wasn't supposed to be "working". Shouldn't be too much of a problem anyway, the person who runs the centre hasn't checked once on us for attendance and such.
Went to classes as usual, Stats 2nd test result was better, they still kind of mark weird (i.e. being really anal about what they want you to write down) though. Since both test's avg (I'm assuming for the entire course) were 60%, we now have the option of having a 90% final. So that's good.
Going to watch Jeopardy now, and like, eat food, haven't really had a real meal yet today.
The word weekend is in quotation marks because my weekend was pretty much Friday to Monday, so I had an extra day (or, made myself an extra day for the weekend).
I'll do the ol' "recap by day" business, it's really the easiest...
Friday
I did manage to finish the Act Sci assignment over the span of Thursday night and Friday morning before class, so it was all good. Paul was awake when I finished my Act Sci, and he asked if I wanted to go to Timmy's for breakfast. I complied. Drove over and picked Paul up, and we both had the Soup n' Bagel deal for breakfast. I parked my car at WCRI and walked to MC w/ Paul, who decided to hand in his assignment before falling asleep. I ended up being 30 minutes late for Act Sci 371, but I didn't miss too much...
After classes I proceeded to head back to 'sauga. Dropped off William and then headed over to DB's for a bit of Smashy Smashy, since I wanted to play after d/l all those videos, and my uncle's flight was arriving around 4, 5 or so anyway. So played both Smashes w/ DB until 7 or so, then headed home. Went out for dinner, and we kind of planned what we'd do for Saturday over dinner. Went to Murphy's Ice Cream in Streetsville after dinner, had the Watermelon Sherbet, it was alright, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Home for sleep.
Saturday
Went to Metro Toronto Zoo, there was some traffic during the drive there, but it wasn't too congested. Spent about 3 hours walking around the zoo, looking at all kinds of neat animals. Pretty fun, and the animals are actually there during the summer. (Unlike winter, where they're all stored away somewhere or something...)
Dropped everyone home and then I went with my 2 uncles to buy tickets for King Arthur. Mom cooked nice dinner at home, and as usual, we ate about 50% of what she cooked. Everyone then went to watch Arthur at Coliseum. The movie was not too bad, but wasn't spectacular either. I liked how they handled explaining the plot much better than Troy (well, basically Arthur was just using the names of the guys in the Legend and twisting the story, but they did a good job in not tainting the original work, unlike Troy IMHO). However, Troy had better and more action sequences. So it'd be an omni movie if they used King Arthur's plot telling ways coupled w/ Troy's action sequences. They should do that for Alexander, although the movie's made already...
Oh yeah, about King Arthur, Lancelot had the best use of touche I've seen in quite awhile...I'm positive we'd all say it had we seen the movie together, heh.
Sunday
Woke up and helped my uncle dispose the last of his stuff in his public storage locker. We had McDonald's for breakfast, heh.
Then accompanied my uncle to visit one of his old friends in Markham, whom I also kind of knew. Went for dim sum, which was pretty good, always nice to have good food, he he. Back to 'sauga and watched Spider-Man 2, since my uncle and cousin haven't seen it yet. Went home to eat the stuff we couldn't finish the night before, and we still didn't finish all of it.
I couldn't go back to 'Loo Sunday night 'cause my other uncle used my car to spend the day w/ his in-laws. So I slept kind of early Sunday night.
Monday
Woke up and drove to 'Loo for lectures. Act Sci tutorial cancelled, woot. Fire Alarm was pulled right before Calc started, so I didn't bother w/ Calc and asked Durgesh to cover for me, and proceeded to go back to 'sauga. Left in time to meet up w/ my Mom and uncles (and aunts and cousins, etc) for lunch, he he.
After lunch we spent some time in Square One, looking about. I window shopped some games stuffies, and basically only had my sights on Megaman Collection and perhaps Tales of Symphonia, although I don't know if that game is as fun single player.
Went over to a family friend of all of ours for dinner. 'Twas a very good meal, food everywhere: roast beef, sashimi, chicken, salad, potatoes, spaghetti, dumplings, and probably more that I forgot (apple pie as well for dessert). Went home and slept after digesting the food.
Tuesday
Semi-woke up and said good bye to my uncle who has to go back to HK right after their trip to Disneyland. Didn't feel like I had enough rest to drive back to 'Loo around 8, so I slept until like 9:30. Didn't get back to 'Loo until 11:20 or so, meaning I missed 2 hours of my scheduled time in the tutorial centre. Kind of made up for it by being there for an hour and a half during times that I wasn't supposed to be "working". Shouldn't be too much of a problem anyway, the person who runs the centre hasn't checked once on us for attendance and such.
Went to classes as usual, Stats 2nd test result was better, they still kind of mark weird (i.e. being really anal about what they want you to write down) though. Since both test's avg (I'm assuming for the entire course) were 60%, we now have the option of having a 90% final. So that's good.
Going to watch Jeopardy now, and like, eat food, haven't really had a real meal yet today.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Meat + CS = No Study Time
Hm, in hindsight, yesterday was very very fun, and very very worth it.
Had class at 9:30, so didn't do much before waking up except stuff like checking email, course webpages for new lecture notes, etc.
After last lecture at 1:30, proceeded to just head over to Paul's, since I kind of had some time to kill before my midterm at 3:30 (I figured there wasn't too much material to cover, as I've already done my summary sheets and such). Lucky for Paul I decided to do that and not study for 2 hours, because I woke up him just in time for him to drive over to MC and hand in his CS assignment before 2. So after that I watched him play Rise of Nations while doing some last minute studying for the midterm.
Midterm wasn't too difficult, I got there like a minute late, but still managed to finish in time. Checked answers with Durgesh afterwards and we pretty much got the same answers, so it was all good. Also bumped into Ben Komolo, he was waiting w/ Jeff for Jeff's gf, I figure (who's in Act Sci).
Next up on the plate...ribs! All you can eat at Montana's, CCF guy's night out. Anticipating the ribs all day I ate a light lunch during Calc, so I was pretty hungry by the time the meat arrived. There were 22 of us, split into two long tables. And so the inevitable competition of which side can eat more ribs comes up, so that kind of had an influence on why I ate 37 bones of back ribs. Since the other table only had side ribs (which in general has more meat and are fattier), we used a bone multiplier of 1.5 for side ribs. However, our side proved triumphant in the end, it worked out to be something like 340 back rib bones to their 305 back rib bones. =P
After ribs was the Counter Strike "tournament", it was more like a CS LAN party though. At first I figured I'll just drop by for awhile after ribs since I couldn't study right away anyway (WAY too stuffed). So I played some PS2 while the guys started some preliminary rounds. It took awhile for everyone to get here, and the "tournament" didn't really start until like 10:30 or something. I ended up participating =P The tournament consisted of two rounds of playing on the DE_Dust map, each team taking turns being T and CT. Our team won both rounds, so that marks two victories for me last night!
Went home after the "tournament", around 12:30 or so. Too tired to start studying, so I decided to sleep then and wake up early today and study. So I studied from 8 - 12 today, and headed over to class then wrote my midterm. This midterm wasn't too bad either, pretty fair and I think I did alright.
Should try to get Act Sci assignment done tonight so I don't have to do it Sunday night or whenever I come back from 'sauga after the weekend...
Had class at 9:30, so didn't do much before waking up except stuff like checking email, course webpages for new lecture notes, etc.
After last lecture at 1:30, proceeded to just head over to Paul's, since I kind of had some time to kill before my midterm at 3:30 (I figured there wasn't too much material to cover, as I've already done my summary sheets and such). Lucky for Paul I decided to do that and not study for 2 hours, because I woke up him just in time for him to drive over to MC and hand in his CS assignment before 2. So after that I watched him play Rise of Nations while doing some last minute studying for the midterm.
Midterm wasn't too difficult, I got there like a minute late, but still managed to finish in time. Checked answers with Durgesh afterwards and we pretty much got the same answers, so it was all good. Also bumped into Ben Komolo, he was waiting w/ Jeff for Jeff's gf, I figure (who's in Act Sci).
Next up on the plate...ribs! All you can eat at Montana's, CCF guy's night out. Anticipating the ribs all day I ate a light lunch during Calc, so I was pretty hungry by the time the meat arrived. There were 22 of us, split into two long tables. And so the inevitable competition of which side can eat more ribs comes up, so that kind of had an influence on why I ate 37 bones of back ribs. Since the other table only had side ribs (which in general has more meat and are fattier), we used a bone multiplier of 1.5 for side ribs. However, our side proved triumphant in the end, it worked out to be something like 340 back rib bones to their 305 back rib bones. =P
After ribs was the Counter Strike "tournament", it was more like a CS LAN party though. At first I figured I'll just drop by for awhile after ribs since I couldn't study right away anyway (WAY too stuffed). So I played some PS2 while the guys started some preliminary rounds. It took awhile for everyone to get here, and the "tournament" didn't really start until like 10:30 or something. I ended up participating =P The tournament consisted of two rounds of playing on the DE_Dust map, each team taking turns being T and CT. Our team won both rounds, so that marks two victories for me last night!
Went home after the "tournament", around 12:30 or so. Too tired to start studying, so I decided to sleep then and wake up early today and study. So I studied from 8 - 12 today, and headed over to class then wrote my midterm. This midterm wasn't too bad either, pretty fair and I think I did alright.
Should try to get Act Sci assignment done tonight so I don't have to do it Sunday night or whenever I come back from 'sauga after the weekend...
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
There's Always a Bigger Fish...
As mentioned I've been downloading Melee tournament vids as of late, eating up my HD space quite a bit so I had to burn the movies I had on my HD to free some up, heh. Oh well, those were meant to be burned anyway, so I'm just helping the process. A recent tournament finished, so there should be lots of videos coming soon, yay!
Actually, in my search for SSBM videos I came across a choice selection of SSB (that's Original Smash) videos. Now I know that in SSBM we play no-where near the level of skill and precision the tournament players play at. However, I did think (perhaps naively) that we were closer to the upper echelon of skill in terms of Original Smash. 'Cause like, what more is there than throws and throw forces right?
How wrong was I...
Watching those vids makes me realize why I've read comments on GameFAQs saying how SSBM matches are longer. The comboliciousness and ninjaness of the vids I saw surpass anything I've ever seen before. It's better than the Jia/Rama Yoshi up, up, up, trample, up up and away. Much more versatile, and I'm pretty sure that every character in Original can be played at that level of speed, precision, and accuracy (I saw matches for omni Falcon, Link, Mario, Fox, and Pikachu). Watching those videos amazes me much more so than the SSBM videos. Sigh...
Now being able to watch and not do is kind of a killer on my Smashing instincts. Hey DB, can I come over for a couple hrs on Friday afternoon? Ha ha...(serious question though, I want to Smashy Smashy =P)
Actually, in my search for SSBM videos I came across a choice selection of SSB (that's Original Smash) videos. Now I know that in SSBM we play no-where near the level of skill and precision the tournament players play at. However, I did think (perhaps naively) that we were closer to the upper echelon of skill in terms of Original Smash. 'Cause like, what more is there than throws and throw forces right?
How wrong was I...
Watching those vids makes me realize why I've read comments on GameFAQs saying how SSBM matches are longer. The comboliciousness and ninjaness of the vids I saw surpass anything I've ever seen before. It's better than the Jia/Rama Yoshi up, up, up, trample, up up and away. Much more versatile, and I'm pretty sure that every character in Original can be played at that level of speed, precision, and accuracy (I saw matches for omni Falcon, Link, Mario, Fox, and Pikachu). Watching those videos amazes me much more so than the SSBM videos. Sigh...
Now being able to watch and not do is kind of a killer on my Smashing instincts. Hey DB, can I come over for a couple hrs on Friday afternoon? Ha ha...(serious question though, I want to Smashy Smashy =P)
Monday, July 12, 2004
Weekend of No Work
Title refers to past weekend and the upcoming one, and this entry will be kind of haphazard, I'll be jumping around in terms of content.
As already mentioned, relatives arrived at Pearson this past Saturday, and so for Saturday and Sunday I pretty much spent all my time with my family. Since they were probably a bit jet lagged, we just kept it casual and relaxing the first two days. We pretty much slept, ate, and walked around Streetsville and Square One. My Mom of course prepared lots of stuff to be cooked, so dinners were good =P
It's interesting how just relaxing is so much more fun to do with family. At least it is for me. Having the little cousins there (aged 7 and 4) are kind of a bit of a baby-sitting chore, but they're so cute and it's great joy watching them running about, hearing them laugh, how the slightest things can change their mood...
And so, because I want to spend time w/ the annual visits of my relatives, I get 0 work done over the weekends. This week is a busy one for me, I had a quiz today (which, luckily, was rather easy, so should have done pretty well), a lab tomorrow (will need to prepare for) and two midterms, one each on Wed and Thurs (will need to study for). Sometime Wed should be CCF Guy's Night Out for All You Can Eat Ribs at Montana's, then it's back to 'sauga on Friday after classes (other uncle arrives Friday). Oh, and I should look for housing in Ottawa...
Been reading the Initial D mangas that my Brother left when he went back to HK. I always had the impression that it was a car buff's manga, but when I started reading it, it got pretty interesting. Although I have no idea what the specs and what cars the mangas are referring to (like how 86 = Trueno = Toyota car), the story itself appeals to both car buffs and non car buffs alike. So I read the 26 that I had, and apparently there are only 2 more mangas that came out since #26 which came out around a year ago (author must be either getting lazy or busy). I also happen to notice that the new Initial D anime, 4th stage, is around manga volume 21, 22 or so? I don't know the English names of the characters, but from what I read it seems 4th stage is when the Main Character joins Project D and starts looking for challenges, recently 3rd and 4th episode covers his downhill battle on Project D's 2nd conquest mission? (Correct/confirm this...Bao?)
Anyway, if 4th stage is indeed where I say it is in the manga, that means I can spoil the anime for the rest of you guys who care, muhahahahahaha. And that is....
... they race! (betcha didn't think of that one, yes yes! I'm SOOOO clever, ha ha ha)
I've also once again picked up d/l-ing SSBM vids off the 'net. I find that watching the videos are a good way of understanding and getting exposure to several things:
1) Higher level of gameplay, just so that I know I suck =P
2) Different playing styles and strategies (sometimes I pick up on how to do/when to do a move)
3) What moves has priority when
4) Cool combos, matches, and nifty stuff (like Link getting from one side of FD to the other...from below)
Although I recommend that you can learn quite a bit from watching these videos, I also think that you kind of need a somewhat established understanding of the game first. It's like understanding the rules of a sport before watching it, you'd appreciate the finer parts of the professional athlete's play. It's not just seeing that the players in the videos are good, but why they are good. (i.e. how b/c of L-canceling the player chained a couple more hits into his combo, or how they chain grab using WD, etc)
Oh, and if any of you wants to get some vids I just use some P2P client thing (I'm guessing) that some of the Smash World Forum (i.e. the guys who goes to the tourneys and makes the vids) use: DC++.
Just go to this page for the details. Notice the address update at the bottom of the page.
Oh yeah, Bao did host a SSBM page, but as of now it doesn't have too much stuff other than an archive of my SSBM "Tips". I guess I should let Bao post the link, so bug him about that if you want, he he.
Hm...I got distracted w/ d/l and watching more SSBM vids, so I like...lost my train of thought for this entry, if I had one left...oh well, I'm sure it wasn't anything too important...
As already mentioned, relatives arrived at Pearson this past Saturday, and so for Saturday and Sunday I pretty much spent all my time with my family. Since they were probably a bit jet lagged, we just kept it casual and relaxing the first two days. We pretty much slept, ate, and walked around Streetsville and Square One. My Mom of course prepared lots of stuff to be cooked, so dinners were good =P
It's interesting how just relaxing is so much more fun to do with family. At least it is for me. Having the little cousins there (aged 7 and 4) are kind of a bit of a baby-sitting chore, but they're so cute and it's great joy watching them running about, hearing them laugh, how the slightest things can change their mood...
And so, because I want to spend time w/ the annual visits of my relatives, I get 0 work done over the weekends. This week is a busy one for me, I had a quiz today (which, luckily, was rather easy, so should have done pretty well), a lab tomorrow (will need to prepare for) and two midterms, one each on Wed and Thurs (will need to study for). Sometime Wed should be CCF Guy's Night Out for All You Can Eat Ribs at Montana's, then it's back to 'sauga on Friday after classes (other uncle arrives Friday). Oh, and I should look for housing in Ottawa...
Been reading the Initial D mangas that my Brother left when he went back to HK. I always had the impression that it was a car buff's manga, but when I started reading it, it got pretty interesting. Although I have no idea what the specs and what cars the mangas are referring to (like how 86 = Trueno = Toyota car), the story itself appeals to both car buffs and non car buffs alike. So I read the 26 that I had, and apparently there are only 2 more mangas that came out since #26 which came out around a year ago (author must be either getting lazy or busy). I also happen to notice that the new Initial D anime, 4th stage, is around manga volume 21, 22 or so? I don't know the English names of the characters, but from what I read it seems 4th stage is when the Main Character joins Project D and starts looking for challenges, recently 3rd and 4th episode covers his downhill battle on Project D's 2nd conquest mission? (Correct/confirm this...Bao?)
Anyway, if 4th stage is indeed where I say it is in the manga, that means I can spoil the anime for the rest of you guys who care, muhahahahahaha. And that is....
... they race! (betcha didn't think of that one, yes yes! I'm SOOOO clever, ha ha ha)
I've also once again picked up d/l-ing SSBM vids off the 'net. I find that watching the videos are a good way of understanding and getting exposure to several things:
1) Higher level of gameplay, just so that I know I suck =P
2) Different playing styles and strategies (sometimes I pick up on how to do/when to do a move)
3) What moves has priority when
4) Cool combos, matches, and nifty stuff (like Link getting from one side of FD to the other...from below)
Although I recommend that you can learn quite a bit from watching these videos, I also think that you kind of need a somewhat established understanding of the game first. It's like understanding the rules of a sport before watching it, you'd appreciate the finer parts of the professional athlete's play. It's not just seeing that the players in the videos are good, but why they are good. (i.e. how b/c of L-canceling the player chained a couple more hits into his combo, or how they chain grab using WD, etc)
Oh, and if any of you wants to get some vids I just use some P2P client thing (I'm guessing) that some of the Smash World Forum (i.e. the guys who goes to the tourneys and makes the vids) use: DC++.
Just go to this page for the details. Notice the address update at the bottom of the page.
Oh yeah, Bao did host a SSBM page, but as of now it doesn't have too much stuff other than an archive of my SSBM "Tips". I guess I should let Bao post the link, so bug him about that if you want, he he.
Hm...I got distracted w/ d/l and watching more SSBM vids, so I like...lost my train of thought for this entry, if I had one left...oh well, I'm sure it wasn't anything too important...
Saturday, July 10, 2004
SoA Course 1 Passed.
Woot.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Un-undefeated Streak Lives On!
So after a regular season record of 6 straight losses, our floor hockey team (basically consist of Simon, Paul, Jason [my roomate in the last half of 2A], two of Jason's friends, and I) managed to make it into the playoffs!
And tonight's score was...8-1!...
...in the favour of our opponent.
...
So we completed a winless season, or as I like to call it, keeping our un-undefeated streak live.
Eh, overall it was an ok season. We never got good offence and good defense playing at the same time. So tonight's game, we played pretty good defense, but we never had any scoring opportunities, so the other team eventually built up a decent lead.
Well, this week's school stuff is over, finished Stat 231 test 2 today. The material was fair I believe, but with the way they mark the first test they can ninja a mark here and a mark there. And since the test is only out of 25, losing a couple marks is actually quite a bit...Meh, can't worry about it now, heh.
Well, relatives are coming this Saturday, so I'm pretty excited about that. Will be back in 'sauga, but will mostly be preoccupied w/ spending time with relatives. Actually, I'll be pretty preoccupied for the next couple weekends.
A bit tired after the game...ability to wrote coherent decrease sentenceage stuffies stuffies... ...
And tonight's score was...8-1!...
...in the favour of our opponent.
...
So we completed a winless season, or as I like to call it, keeping our un-undefeated streak live.
Eh, overall it was an ok season. We never got good offence and good defense playing at the same time. So tonight's game, we played pretty good defense, but we never had any scoring opportunities, so the other team eventually built up a decent lead.
Well, this week's school stuff is over, finished Stat 231 test 2 today. The material was fair I believe, but with the way they mark the first test they can ninja a mark here and a mark there. And since the test is only out of 25, losing a couple marks is actually quite a bit...Meh, can't worry about it now, heh.
Well, relatives are coming this Saturday, so I'm pretty excited about that. Will be back in 'sauga, but will mostly be preoccupied w/ spending time with relatives. Actually, I'll be pretty preoccupied for the next couple weekends.
A bit tired after the game...ability to wrote coherent decrease sentenceage stuffies stuffies... ...
Monday, July 05, 2004
"Smart ID" Review
Before I forget, I found this to be rather amusing. Check it out if you want, heh.
After a couple comments inquiring about my closing statement of the previous post about Hacken Lee's new album, I decided to go on with the quasi-review. Actually, the way this will work is more like me describing what I like and look for in HK pop songs and once those criteria are established I'll do a small review on the album.
Most of you should know that any music that I listen to is pretty much all HK (aka Canto) pop. I guess I was just raised on it, I guess my brother is primarily responsible for that. Mainly it's because he listens to this stuff and I just got drawn in. That and I never listen to radio or watch Much Music.
Over the years I have formed some sort of rough guideline for which songs I'll like/dislike. Well, it's more of an after-thought kind of thing though, more towards "I liked it because of..." and "I didn't like it because of...", broken down into the following main categories:
Melody
This is no big surprise, as I think most people tend to like songs that are melodic or pleasing to the ear. This is of course, a very subjective area. (Which is why we have all these different genres of music) Overall I think I prefer slow, sappy melodies than fast ones, but I wouldn't shun a good song just because it's upbeat and fast. It's mainly because the HK composers don't know how to write good fast, upbeat songs. But they do know how to write good slow ones. So fast songs that are good are rarer. Melodies are what usually catch my initial attention as to whether I'll like the song or not (or whether I think the song is good or not).
Lyrics
Once a the melody catches my ear, I'll start to pay attention to the lyrics of the song, see if the message of the song is any good, and if it's well written or not. Usually a song can still be good with ok lyrics, but poor lyrics can ruin a perfectly fine melody. One big reason why I liked the early Twins (first 3 albums) songs was because the lyrics were very well written. They really captured on the group's "schoolgirl" theme. Just as poor lyrics can ruin a song, a song with really good lyrics (but perhaps an ok melody) will still be good to me.
Artist/Composer/Lyricist
I tend to only buy albums of artists that I "respect", hence, that kind of influences on what I find "good". And by "respect" meaning that those that can sing with at least some sort of technique/talent. The HK music industry has this nasty habit of pushing "artists" out based purely on looks, and the sad part is that the society usually eats up these "eye candy pop stars" (I consider them entertainers, not artists). So the majority of the artist mainly focus on their looks, sex appeal, etc and hardly ever bother learning/improving on their singing. In fact, there are only about a handful of male artists that I consider "respectable". It's worse on the female side, as they can cover up lack of talent with false setto much easier. I can count the female artist that can sing (HK artists, the ones in China and Taiwan are much better in terms of technique) pretty much on one hand. I'm talking about active artists, and keep in mind that this is purely IMHO.
Composer and lyricist combinations I also pay attention to. However, in the current HK music industry, again there are only a handful of good composers and lyricist, so they usually get all the jobs and end up making all the good music anyway. Most of the time if a song is good/gets awards it's usually by some combination of those 3 or 4 composers and lyricists.
Arrangement/Background music
Sometimes if the song has good arrangement, it gets extra points from me. I enjoy having a nice arrangement to accompany the melody. Cookie-cutter arrangements are nice, but gets boring as they are over used.
Difficulty in Singing
Most of you should also know that I enjoy karaoke, and hence, I have a tendency to pay more attention to songs that are more difficult/challenging to sing, which, in turn kind of explains why I only like artists that I consider "can sing".
Ok, I think that sums up most of the major criteria I use. But it's not like I intentionally go through each song and run it through these criteria, these are more subconscious criteria that gets run through when I listen to songs.
Now onto the review:
Album: Smart ID
Artist: Hacken Lee
First you should note is that Hacken is currently my favourite HK artist (due to various reasons, but major ones include melodic, catchy songs that are difficult to sing by HK music standards). I've always liked his work, but recently his albums have been good and his partnership with Alan Tam (another artist I really like) really pushed him to the top of the HK music industry.
Usual setup of recent HK albums, features two, three singles that will be plugged a lot in the HK radio stations accompanied by seven other songs that you won't hear unless you buy the album.
The plugged singles of this album are pretty catchy, I like how the main hit of the album strays away from Hacken's usual song style. It requires him to use a slightly different style, away from his trademark. Variety in an artist's work is good.
The non-plugged songs of the album are not too bad. With the exception of one song, the rest of the album I will listen to. The album's theme seems to cover different kinds and types of love relationships (if you don't know already love is pretty much 85% of HK pop song's theme).
Lyrics were all done by Wyman Wong, whom I consider is one of the two best contemporary HK lyricist. So overall the lyrics of the album I consider well written.
Composer was different for every song, but they merge together nicely to portray the different types of relationships.
Overall the album is not bad, with 4 songs (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5) that catch my attention (I'd choose these songs for a compilation disc). The other songs are average, ones that I wouldn't mind listening to (except for that one bad one) but won't select for a "best of" or a compilation disc (which I can easily make in Media Player).
I give the album 3 of 5 stars.
After a couple comments inquiring about my closing statement of the previous post about Hacken Lee's new album, I decided to go on with the quasi-review. Actually, the way this will work is more like me describing what I like and look for in HK pop songs and once those criteria are established I'll do a small review on the album.
Most of you should know that any music that I listen to is pretty much all HK (aka Canto) pop. I guess I was just raised on it, I guess my brother is primarily responsible for that. Mainly it's because he listens to this stuff and I just got drawn in. That and I never listen to radio or watch Much Music.
Over the years I have formed some sort of rough guideline for which songs I'll like/dislike. Well, it's more of an after-thought kind of thing though, more towards "I liked it because of..." and "I didn't like it because of...", broken down into the following main categories:
Melody
This is no big surprise, as I think most people tend to like songs that are melodic or pleasing to the ear. This is of course, a very subjective area. (Which is why we have all these different genres of music) Overall I think I prefer slow, sappy melodies than fast ones, but I wouldn't shun a good song just because it's upbeat and fast. It's mainly because the HK composers don't know how to write good fast, upbeat songs. But they do know how to write good slow ones. So fast songs that are good are rarer. Melodies are what usually catch my initial attention as to whether I'll like the song or not (or whether I think the song is good or not).
Lyrics
Once a the melody catches my ear, I'll start to pay attention to the lyrics of the song, see if the message of the song is any good, and if it's well written or not. Usually a song can still be good with ok lyrics, but poor lyrics can ruin a perfectly fine melody. One big reason why I liked the early Twins (first 3 albums) songs was because the lyrics were very well written. They really captured on the group's "schoolgirl" theme. Just as poor lyrics can ruin a song, a song with really good lyrics (but perhaps an ok melody) will still be good to me.
Artist/Composer/Lyricist
I tend to only buy albums of artists that I "respect", hence, that kind of influences on what I find "good". And by "respect" meaning that those that can sing with at least some sort of technique/talent. The HK music industry has this nasty habit of pushing "artists" out based purely on looks, and the sad part is that the society usually eats up these "eye candy pop stars" (I consider them entertainers, not artists). So the majority of the artist mainly focus on their looks, sex appeal, etc and hardly ever bother learning/improving on their singing. In fact, there are only about a handful of male artists that I consider "respectable". It's worse on the female side, as they can cover up lack of talent with false setto much easier. I can count the female artist that can sing (HK artists, the ones in China and Taiwan are much better in terms of technique) pretty much on one hand. I'm talking about active artists, and keep in mind that this is purely IMHO.
Composer and lyricist combinations I also pay attention to. However, in the current HK music industry, again there are only a handful of good composers and lyricist, so they usually get all the jobs and end up making all the good music anyway. Most of the time if a song is good/gets awards it's usually by some combination of those 3 or 4 composers and lyricists.
Arrangement/Background music
Sometimes if the song has good arrangement, it gets extra points from me. I enjoy having a nice arrangement to accompany the melody. Cookie-cutter arrangements are nice, but gets boring as they are over used.
Difficulty in Singing
Most of you should also know that I enjoy karaoke, and hence, I have a tendency to pay more attention to songs that are more difficult/challenging to sing, which, in turn kind of explains why I only like artists that I consider "can sing".
Ok, I think that sums up most of the major criteria I use. But it's not like I intentionally go through each song and run it through these criteria, these are more subconscious criteria that gets run through when I listen to songs.
Now onto the review:
Album: Smart ID
Artist: Hacken Lee
First you should note is that Hacken is currently my favourite HK artist (due to various reasons, but major ones include melodic, catchy songs that are difficult to sing by HK music standards). I've always liked his work, but recently his albums have been good and his partnership with Alan Tam (another artist I really like) really pushed him to the top of the HK music industry.
Usual setup of recent HK albums, features two, three singles that will be plugged a lot in the HK radio stations accompanied by seven other songs that you won't hear unless you buy the album.
The plugged singles of this album are pretty catchy, I like how the main hit of the album strays away from Hacken's usual song style. It requires him to use a slightly different style, away from his trademark. Variety in an artist's work is good.
The non-plugged songs of the album are not too bad. With the exception of one song, the rest of the album I will listen to. The album's theme seems to cover different kinds and types of love relationships (if you don't know already love is pretty much 85% of HK pop song's theme).
Lyrics were all done by Wyman Wong, whom I consider is one of the two best contemporary HK lyricist. So overall the lyrics of the album I consider well written.
Composer was different for every song, but they merge together nicely to portray the different types of relationships.
Overall the album is not bad, with 4 songs (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5) that catch my attention (I'd choose these songs for a compilation disc). The other songs are average, ones that I wouldn't mind listening to (except for that one bad one) but won't select for a "best of" or a compilation disc (which I can easily make in Media Player).
I give the album 3 of 5 stars.
...And So Ends Weekend of Stuff
Well, the long weekend is pretty much over, kind of went by a bit faster than I thought, I guess. Maybe it has something to do with how I didn't get anything productive (in terms of homework) done for the weekend. Oh well, my deadlines are to the end of the week anyway, so I still have some time (in fact, final Calc assignment is tankable, since well, the take best 4 of 5 and I think I did alright on the previous 4 already).
So basically for the weekend I pretty much spent with my gaming buds:
Friday I went over to Jia's with Bao, Duy, and (surprisingly, I guess) Vinh. Vinh wanted to go over 'cause he wanted to play on Jia's piano and such. Probably also 'cause he knew we weren't gonna only play Smash all day. Well, we played Smash from about 2 to 8 or so, split between Original and Melee I'd think. Ray joined us at around 4 or so maybe.
On a side note, wavesmashing is rather fun =P
For dinner we dug through what Jia had in the house and decided to open his pack of frozen hamburger patties. We were originally going to BBQ the patties, but we couldn't get the BBQ to start 'cause the igniter wouldn't work and Jia couldn't find any fire producing apparatus. So in the end I panfried the patties on the stovetop. Ray washed the lettuce for the salad and Jia baked the chicken wings. So it was like, a BBQ meal that wasn't cooked on a BBQ, heh. After dinner we played Mao, which we taught Ray. Ray left at around 9:30 or so, and I proceeded to take Jia and the 3 Nguyen-Huu's back to DB's place for the night.
Saturday morning I had dim sum with my family (Dad's side), haven't seen them in a short while, so it was good. Talks about various topics, good stuff. Makes me look forward to upcoming weekends since I'll have relatives visiting from HK. That'll be fun too.
Saturday was the supposed D20 game (for details read Bao's weekend update part 2), but we never played anything. So the entire day was kind of lack-luster (semi-failed), since we didn't really know what to do: Ricky and Wen were playing CSI, Duy, Jia and I were Smashing, and Bao was thinking what we could do together instead of the D20 game. Eventually we went with 6 player Settlers, in 3 teams of 2, but still first player to reach 10 points wins. I think overall the match was pretty close, but my team (Jia and I) were Robber'd the most, at least it felt that way, heh. After the Settlers game we played a bit more Smash, and then when the pizza arrived we watched 1 episode of CSI. It so happened to be an episode I watched before on TV, but it was still alright (the episode was average to me). I went home around 9 for dinner, watched some TV, and out of curiosity I picked up the first Initial D manga. I proceeded to read the first 4 or so that night...
Sunday (that's today) was initially slated for work. Unfortunately, due to me wanting to read more Initial D, combined with the Euro 2004 finals match, I did like, next to 0 work. All I did was read the Calc course notes and the questions for the assignment.
So I guess this means that I'll have to work harder this week so that I can go home and spend time with relatives upcoming weekend. Them being here means I won't be able to attend Bao's anime-a-thon event, I might be able to pop up for an hour or two, but that's highly questionable. But since the event runs for so long, I know that I can just show up if I can, so that's good. Oh, that means Jia will need to bus or get a ride or something like that...
Hm, I was thinking of quasi-reviewing Hacken Lee's latest album that I've been listening to for the past 3 days, but no one besides Ray would likely know who he is (and care for HK pop) so I'm not going to bother.
So basically for the weekend I pretty much spent with my gaming buds:
Friday I went over to Jia's with Bao, Duy, and (surprisingly, I guess) Vinh. Vinh wanted to go over 'cause he wanted to play on Jia's piano and such. Probably also 'cause he knew we weren't gonna only play Smash all day. Well, we played Smash from about 2 to 8 or so, split between Original and Melee I'd think. Ray joined us at around 4 or so maybe.
On a side note, wavesmashing is rather fun =P
For dinner we dug through what Jia had in the house and decided to open his pack of frozen hamburger patties. We were originally going to BBQ the patties, but we couldn't get the BBQ to start 'cause the igniter wouldn't work and Jia couldn't find any fire producing apparatus. So in the end I panfried the patties on the stovetop. Ray washed the lettuce for the salad and Jia baked the chicken wings. So it was like, a BBQ meal that wasn't cooked on a BBQ, heh. After dinner we played Mao, which we taught Ray. Ray left at around 9:30 or so, and I proceeded to take Jia and the 3 Nguyen-Huu's back to DB's place for the night.
Saturday morning I had dim sum with my family (Dad's side), haven't seen them in a short while, so it was good. Talks about various topics, good stuff. Makes me look forward to upcoming weekends since I'll have relatives visiting from HK. That'll be fun too.
Saturday was the supposed D20 game (for details read Bao's weekend update part 2), but we never played anything. So the entire day was kind of lack-luster (semi-failed), since we didn't really know what to do: Ricky and Wen were playing CSI, Duy, Jia and I were Smashing, and Bao was thinking what we could do together instead of the D20 game. Eventually we went with 6 player Settlers, in 3 teams of 2, but still first player to reach 10 points wins. I think overall the match was pretty close, but my team (Jia and I) were Robber'd the most, at least it felt that way, heh. After the Settlers game we played a bit more Smash, and then when the pizza arrived we watched 1 episode of CSI. It so happened to be an episode I watched before on TV, but it was still alright (the episode was average to me). I went home around 9 for dinner, watched some TV, and out of curiosity I picked up the first Initial D manga. I proceeded to read the first 4 or so that night...
Sunday (that's today) was initially slated for work. Unfortunately, due to me wanting to read more Initial D, combined with the Euro 2004 finals match, I did like, next to 0 work. All I did was read the Calc course notes and the questions for the assignment.
So I guess this means that I'll have to work harder this week so that I can go home and spend time with relatives upcoming weekend. Them being here means I won't be able to attend Bao's anime-a-thon event, I might be able to pop up for an hour or two, but that's highly questionable. But since the event runs for so long, I know that I can just show up if I can, so that's good. Oh, that means Jia will need to bus or get a ride or something like that...
Hm, I was thinking of quasi-reviewing Hacken Lee's latest album that I've been listening to for the past 3 days, but no one besides Ray would likely know who he is (and care for HK pop) so I'm not going to bother.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
And Weekend of Stuff Begins!
A very good day to start the extra-extra long weekend.
Woke up this morning and drove over to Markham to have dim sum with my Mom. The food was excellent, and the service was pretty good for a Chinese restaurant, heh. I don't really go over there and eat that often, so it was kind of a treat, heh.
Then went over to Times Square to check out new HK CDs and movies, picked up the latest Hacken Lee album and the new HK triad movie "Jiang Hu" (more on Jiang Hu later).
Got back in 'sauga in time to catch Spider-Man 2 with DB, Jia, Wen, Ray, and Ricky. Must say that it didn't disappoint. I think the 2nd one was pretty much on par with the first one, which I liked. There were a few points of the movie that were debatable logically, but I guess it's ok since this is a superhero flick.
Since the guys decided to eat right after the movie (who eats at 5pm?), there wasn't really enough time for me to wait for them to finish food and play some games after, so I headed home. Played some single player Melee, kind of learned how to do some of the stuff I keep reading about on the Gamefaqs Melee board, one of which you will notice as the new tip. We had some of my step-dad's family over for a simple Canada Day BBQ. As usual my Mom prepared enough food for twice the number of people present. So we ended up making like 60% of the prepared stuff. Cooked all the chicken wings and kalbi though, mmmmmm.....meat....
After dinner proceeded to watch the new movie we just purchased, Jiang Hu. Simple HK triad movie, with a small plot twist at the end. Overall the cinematography is pretty good for an HK flick, with some interesting camera work. Movie was enjoyable overall, however, one portion of the ending lacked closure, at least for me. I don't know, I guess I like to have closure on plots, perhaps one reason why I like detective/mystery books so much, they always explain everything. Oh well, can't win everytime...(or can you...)
More stuff (i.e games) tomorrow, yay!
Woke up this morning and drove over to Markham to have dim sum with my Mom. The food was excellent, and the service was pretty good for a Chinese restaurant, heh. I don't really go over there and eat that often, so it was kind of a treat, heh.
Then went over to Times Square to check out new HK CDs and movies, picked up the latest Hacken Lee album and the new HK triad movie "Jiang Hu" (more on Jiang Hu later).
Got back in 'sauga in time to catch Spider-Man 2 with DB, Jia, Wen, Ray, and Ricky. Must say that it didn't disappoint. I think the 2nd one was pretty much on par with the first one, which I liked. There were a few points of the movie that were debatable logically, but I guess it's ok since this is a superhero flick.
Since the guys decided to eat right after the movie (who eats at 5pm?), there wasn't really enough time for me to wait for them to finish food and play some games after, so I headed home. Played some single player Melee, kind of learned how to do some of the stuff I keep reading about on the Gamefaqs Melee board, one of which you will notice as the new tip. We had some of my step-dad's family over for a simple Canada Day BBQ. As usual my Mom prepared enough food for twice the number of people present. So we ended up making like 60% of the prepared stuff. Cooked all the chicken wings and kalbi though, mmmmmm.....meat....
After dinner proceeded to watch the new movie we just purchased, Jiang Hu. Simple HK triad movie, with a small plot twist at the end. Overall the cinematography is pretty good for an HK flick, with some interesting camera work. Movie was enjoyable overall, however, one portion of the ending lacked closure, at least for me. I don't know, I guess I like to have closure on plots, perhaps one reason why I like detective/mystery books so much, they always explain everything. Oh well, can't win everytime...(or can you...)
More stuff (i.e games) tomorrow, yay!
