Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Thingies and Stuffies, What Has Up Been.
Whoa, it’s been about a month since my last entry, where has all the time gone?
Answer: World of Warcraft.
P.S. Hmm…seems I wrote quite a bit, so it’ll be a longer read should the reader intend to go through all the stuff below (I wrote this note last chronologically, but it doesn’t make much sense to put it at the end of the post)
Yeah, that’s pretty much been my time sink for this co-op term post-SoA. My weekday routine runs something like this:
- Wake up and go to work
- Alternate between checking numbers/formulas and chatting/surfing/thottboting at work
- Come home and play WoW
- Eat dinner
- Play more WoW
- Sleep
Well, that’s the most common routine; sometimes replace “play WoW” with “watching NBA Finals”, “read comics” or “watching DVDs”.
Ah yes, the NBA Finals, I expected the Finals to be a good one, and it did not disappoint whatsoever. Going back on my previous post about Detroit’s defence, after watching them go head-to-head with the Spurs for a full 7 games, I must say that I did not give Detroit’s defensive prowess the respect they deserve. Yes, Detroit’s defence is really good, enough to push a close to 100% health Spurs to the limit. But I still hold my view that although Detroit’s team defence is excellent, they are still no match for the ’96 – ’98 Bulls’ “stop you at 4 positions” excellent 1-on-1 and team defence.
It’s sad to say that what ultimately cost Detroit back-to-back championships were Rasheed’s mistake at the end of Game 5 (that left “Big Shot” Rob Horry wide open) and Rasheed and McDyess getting into foul trouble in the 3rd quarter of Game 7. Prior to McDyess picking up his 4th, Duncan was not playing well at all, and Detroit had a solid 7-9 point lead throughout the quarter. Once McDyess had to leave, forcing Detroit to play small, Duncan tore them up inside, getting into a nice offensive rhythm. Not only did that allow the Spurs to even up the score, it gave them the momentum they needed for the push in the 4th, and also stagnated Detroit’s offence to a point where they never recovered.
The NBA draft wasn’t that interesting, well, I never pay much attention to it anyway. However, it seems Rob Babcock (Toronto Raptors GM) once again made questionable choices in the drafting. Most people/analysts are “shocked” and “angry” at Babcock’s choice, especially with the 7th pick in the draft. I think I will try to remain neutral until we see some of these rookies in action next year, but give Babcock’s track record (drafting Araujo, trading Vince for nothing, not trading Donyell), it doesn’t look too good for him.
Oh, I forgot about my weekends. There has been about 4 weeks since my last entry. The first two weekends consisted of playing WoW and watching the NBA finals with my Dad and cousins, seeing as DB wasn’t back yet anyway. Bao had a Magic draft the Saturday they came back, I went over to play games and watch movies and such. Actually, the draft was on the 2nd weekend since my last entry. That weekend was also Father’s Day, and I went out for Jap buffet with my Dad and Aunt’s entire family. The food was pretty good, but I think another Jap buffet is better, and the prices were about the same.
The third weekend we organized a dinner + movie night out. I believe Jia was over at DB’s since Wednesday or so that week, because I recall going over to play some basketball with them, since DB showed an interest of getting some exercise. However, they didn’t play very long, perhaps a combination of not enough motivation to play and it being close to dinner time when we started. So the deal was Batman Begins 3:50 show, followed by dinner at Red Lobster. Originally we wanted to make reservations, but it turns out that they don’t take reservations, but we decided to stick with our plan anyway. So altogether we had 7 people for the movie, DB, Ray, Jia, Alan, Geoff, and I; for some reason we forgot to ask Jason about it : ( and had 6 for dinner, as Geoff had to go home or something of the sort. The movie was pretty good, although I felt that the first half of the movie dragged on a bit too much. There was about a 2-minute blackout at the theatre, right when the movie started to get good (Bruce Wayne looking at all the potential Batman armor and tools). Not much was missed in terms of plot, however, because of that short power outage, we got vouchers for a free ticket, so that was a sweet deal. Red Lobster wait was only 20 minutes, so we stayed for the seafood. My meal was pretty good, except that I can now say that I don’t like their fried shrimp much. Next time I go there I’d probably try something like Alan’s where I put my own meal together. Jia beasted it up by eating 11 biscuits and drinking 5 ½ glasses of pop (as well as finishing his entire meal).
Finally the previous long weekend, it was also fun-filled with games and such. Again Jia went over to DB’s on Wednesday (I had driven him home after the Red Lobster meal, which was Saturday). Thursday I got off work early, and went home to play some WoW. Got a hold of DB and Jia, and joined them after eating dinner. Played some Smashy Smashy until midnight or so, and I went home. That’s because I went out for dim sum with my Mom and Stepdad on Canada Day, one of the few days they get off. After doing some chores I proceeded to go home, since I was unable to find DB or Jia. Considering that DB had relatives visiting (and young cousins among them), I figured they must have spent Canada Day out sight seeing or BBQ or picnic of the sort. So I played WoW until 9 or so when I got a hold of them. Apparently they went to a water park. Went over that night, didn’t do too much with them as Jia and Bao played GW and Duy was a bit under the weather. Saturday was Jason’s “farewell” party, and overall that was fun. “Helped” with DB’s cutting of the grass before lunch, and then after that was more of watching people play games, Magic, and playing Legend of Mana with Jia. Dinner was good, lasagna and pizza, mmm….fattening cheesy goodness. However, since I slept too little previous night, I spent most of the time after dinner vegging out, and went home around midnight, just as David arrived =p Sunday was spent at church and watching movies with my Dad, wrapped up by some WoW-age.
So that about covers what I’ve done for the past month or so. Now onto stuff that I wanted to talk about:
I’ve come to realize that as of late, Canadian politics on the federal level has resembled that of a turf war between rival gangs. It’s pure resemblance of the Chinese triad movies that I’ve seen growing up. Paul Martin addressing to the public pleading to stay in power. Conservatives and the Bloc joining forces (votes) to get the Liberal minority government out (kind of like 2 smaller gangs joining together to take out the big gang that collects from them). The Liberals pulling Conservative member Belinda Stronach over to “their side” (kind of like offering a bribe to have a member of the opposite gang backstab his former triad) to survive the confidence vote. Allegations from Conservative MPs that Liberals tried to offer positions of power for a defect (blackmail), and allegations from Liberals that said MP may not have had proper immigration status (counter blackmail). Then the Conservatives tearing up the Bloc for siding with the Liberals on the budget amendment vote (more backstabbing). All this has made, to me at least, the Canadian federal politics very much a fiasco.
Annoying kids are, well, annoying. Yeah, that’s kind of like a circular reference, but the annoyance doesn’t really come from the kid’s behaviour, it comes from the fact that there is little you can do to rectify the source of the annoyance. I mean, I can think of lots of ways to rid myself of the source, unfortunately, none of the ways that I can think of will ultimately work out to my advantage. So what ends up happening is the kid continues to annoy, knowingly so or not, while the rest of us builds up our patience skill.
That being said, it seems to me that most of the kids, well, the ones that I come into contact with anyway, do not have much respect for their “elders”. Technically speaking, the kids are on the same “level” as I am, seeing as such we’re in the same generation in terms of family trees. However, seeing as such I have some 10-15 years and at least 60 pounds on these kids, logic and simple courtesy would suggest that they yield to me. But alas, that is usually not the case, especially when it comes to games. I see this “disrespect” more so in boys, but perhaps that’s because I don’t deal with girls of any age much anyway. I mean, it’s not like I can’t kick their ass, it’s just that it’s not worth it to do so.
I must admit that I realize I too, was once young like these kids. And I too, thought that I was “oh so smart” and must “share my knowledge and wisdom” with all my “elders” in my generation (brother, his friends, older cousins, etc). However, I do not recall ever trying to annoy those who have seniority over me, partly because I know they can kick my ass if they wanted to, and party out of respect for their seniority. I asked questions and tried to “show off”, but never in a “Fox Melee laser feed-age, repetitive and non-ending” manner. (I’m sure most of you are well aware of the source of this rant, those of you who disagree, feel free to provide some counter points). Well, maybe one good thing out of this is that you come to appreciate well-behaved kids more.
Had a sort of interesting series of events yesterday. My Mom wanted me to take her car to work since it was going to be hot and the A/C in my car has died. So took her car, I did. Went out to buy lunch, but on the way back, my Mom’s car started doing stuff. To be more precise, the car will not accelerate when I pressed the gas pedal, the engine just kind of rumbles in a “so close yet so far” fashion. So I managed to get the car into a Home Hardware gas station going 5 km/h. No one I knew was close by so I had to get the car towed myself. Managed to find a co-worker to explain my situation, so I pretty much took the rest of that day off. Waited about an hour for the tow, and met my Mom at the dealership. Good thing out of this was that I got home much earlier than usual (I got back by 5 pm), and got lots of WoW time in =p
My Mom got the call back from the dealership, it seemed something was loose or a problem of that sort, the car was already available for pick up this morning.
Haven’t done karaoke in awhile, just got a new Leo Koo concert karaoke VCD, so I think should make good use of that soon…
WoW stuff:
Not many “interesting” happenings in WoW as of late, I’ve been questing mostly solo (did some of the earlier STV quests w/ Duy). I’m approaching level 40, and that means mount! Providing that I have the money for it. So right now my key concern is raising enough money to purchase my ride. I have about half the needed funds, and level 40 isn’t too far away. I would think that I need to grind quite a few mobs to get enough money/loot for my mount.
That about covers it for now, until next month? =P
Answer: World of Warcraft.
P.S. Hmm…seems I wrote quite a bit, so it’ll be a longer read should the reader intend to go through all the stuff below (I wrote this note last chronologically, but it doesn’t make much sense to put it at the end of the post)
Yeah, that’s pretty much been my time sink for this co-op term post-SoA. My weekday routine runs something like this:
- Wake up and go to work
- Alternate between checking numbers/formulas and chatting/surfing/thottboting at work
- Come home and play WoW
- Eat dinner
- Play more WoW
- Sleep
Well, that’s the most common routine; sometimes replace “play WoW” with “watching NBA Finals”, “read comics” or “watching DVDs”.
Ah yes, the NBA Finals, I expected the Finals to be a good one, and it did not disappoint whatsoever. Going back on my previous post about Detroit’s defence, after watching them go head-to-head with the Spurs for a full 7 games, I must say that I did not give Detroit’s defensive prowess the respect they deserve. Yes, Detroit’s defence is really good, enough to push a close to 100% health Spurs to the limit. But I still hold my view that although Detroit’s team defence is excellent, they are still no match for the ’96 – ’98 Bulls’ “stop you at 4 positions” excellent 1-on-1 and team defence.
It’s sad to say that what ultimately cost Detroit back-to-back championships were Rasheed’s mistake at the end of Game 5 (that left “Big Shot” Rob Horry wide open) and Rasheed and McDyess getting into foul trouble in the 3rd quarter of Game 7. Prior to McDyess picking up his 4th, Duncan was not playing well at all, and Detroit had a solid 7-9 point lead throughout the quarter. Once McDyess had to leave, forcing Detroit to play small, Duncan tore them up inside, getting into a nice offensive rhythm. Not only did that allow the Spurs to even up the score, it gave them the momentum they needed for the push in the 4th, and also stagnated Detroit’s offence to a point where they never recovered.
The NBA draft wasn’t that interesting, well, I never pay much attention to it anyway. However, it seems Rob Babcock (Toronto Raptors GM) once again made questionable choices in the drafting. Most people/analysts are “shocked” and “angry” at Babcock’s choice, especially with the 7th pick in the draft. I think I will try to remain neutral until we see some of these rookies in action next year, but give Babcock’s track record (drafting Araujo, trading Vince for nothing, not trading Donyell), it doesn’t look too good for him.
Oh, I forgot about my weekends. There has been about 4 weeks since my last entry. The first two weekends consisted of playing WoW and watching the NBA finals with my Dad and cousins, seeing as DB wasn’t back yet anyway. Bao had a Magic draft the Saturday they came back, I went over to play games and watch movies and such. Actually, the draft was on the 2nd weekend since my last entry. That weekend was also Father’s Day, and I went out for Jap buffet with my Dad and Aunt’s entire family. The food was pretty good, but I think another Jap buffet is better, and the prices were about the same.
The third weekend we organized a dinner + movie night out. I believe Jia was over at DB’s since Wednesday or so that week, because I recall going over to play some basketball with them, since DB showed an interest of getting some exercise. However, they didn’t play very long, perhaps a combination of not enough motivation to play and it being close to dinner time when we started. So the deal was Batman Begins 3:50 show, followed by dinner at Red Lobster. Originally we wanted to make reservations, but it turns out that they don’t take reservations, but we decided to stick with our plan anyway. So altogether we had 7 people for the movie, DB, Ray, Jia, Alan, Geoff, and I; for some reason we forgot to ask Jason about it : ( and had 6 for dinner, as Geoff had to go home or something of the sort. The movie was pretty good, although I felt that the first half of the movie dragged on a bit too much. There was about a 2-minute blackout at the theatre, right when the movie started to get good (Bruce Wayne looking at all the potential Batman armor and tools). Not much was missed in terms of plot, however, because of that short power outage, we got vouchers for a free ticket, so that was a sweet deal. Red Lobster wait was only 20 minutes, so we stayed for the seafood. My meal was pretty good, except that I can now say that I don’t like their fried shrimp much. Next time I go there I’d probably try something like Alan’s where I put my own meal together. Jia beasted it up by eating 11 biscuits and drinking 5 ½ glasses of pop (as well as finishing his entire meal).
Finally the previous long weekend, it was also fun-filled with games and such. Again Jia went over to DB’s on Wednesday (I had driven him home after the Red Lobster meal, which was Saturday). Thursday I got off work early, and went home to play some WoW. Got a hold of DB and Jia, and joined them after eating dinner. Played some Smashy Smashy until midnight or so, and I went home. That’s because I went out for dim sum with my Mom and Stepdad on Canada Day, one of the few days they get off. After doing some chores I proceeded to go home, since I was unable to find DB or Jia. Considering that DB had relatives visiting (and young cousins among them), I figured they must have spent Canada Day out sight seeing or BBQ or picnic of the sort. So I played WoW until 9 or so when I got a hold of them. Apparently they went to a water park. Went over that night, didn’t do too much with them as Jia and Bao played GW and Duy was a bit under the weather. Saturday was Jason’s “farewell” party, and overall that was fun. “Helped” with DB’s cutting of the grass before lunch, and then after that was more of watching people play games, Magic, and playing Legend of Mana with Jia. Dinner was good, lasagna and pizza, mmm….fattening cheesy goodness. However, since I slept too little previous night, I spent most of the time after dinner vegging out, and went home around midnight, just as David arrived =p Sunday was spent at church and watching movies with my Dad, wrapped up by some WoW-age.
So that about covers what I’ve done for the past month or so. Now onto stuff that I wanted to talk about:
I’ve come to realize that as of late, Canadian politics on the federal level has resembled that of a turf war between rival gangs. It’s pure resemblance of the Chinese triad movies that I’ve seen growing up. Paul Martin addressing to the public pleading to stay in power. Conservatives and the Bloc joining forces (votes) to get the Liberal minority government out (kind of like 2 smaller gangs joining together to take out the big gang that collects from them). The Liberals pulling Conservative member Belinda Stronach over to “their side” (kind of like offering a bribe to have a member of the opposite gang backstab his former triad) to survive the confidence vote. Allegations from Conservative MPs that Liberals tried to offer positions of power for a defect (blackmail), and allegations from Liberals that said MP may not have had proper immigration status (counter blackmail). Then the Conservatives tearing up the Bloc for siding with the Liberals on the budget amendment vote (more backstabbing). All this has made, to me at least, the Canadian federal politics very much a fiasco.
Annoying kids are, well, annoying. Yeah, that’s kind of like a circular reference, but the annoyance doesn’t really come from the kid’s behaviour, it comes from the fact that there is little you can do to rectify the source of the annoyance. I mean, I can think of lots of ways to rid myself of the source, unfortunately, none of the ways that I can think of will ultimately work out to my advantage. So what ends up happening is the kid continues to annoy, knowingly so or not, while the rest of us builds up our patience skill.
That being said, it seems to me that most of the kids, well, the ones that I come into contact with anyway, do not have much respect for their “elders”. Technically speaking, the kids are on the same “level” as I am, seeing as such we’re in the same generation in terms of family trees. However, seeing as such I have some 10-15 years and at least 60 pounds on these kids, logic and simple courtesy would suggest that they yield to me. But alas, that is usually not the case, especially when it comes to games. I see this “disrespect” more so in boys, but perhaps that’s because I don’t deal with girls of any age much anyway. I mean, it’s not like I can’t kick their ass, it’s just that it’s not worth it to do so.
I must admit that I realize I too, was once young like these kids. And I too, thought that I was “oh so smart” and must “share my knowledge and wisdom” with all my “elders” in my generation (brother, his friends, older cousins, etc). However, I do not recall ever trying to annoy those who have seniority over me, partly because I know they can kick my ass if they wanted to, and party out of respect for their seniority. I asked questions and tried to “show off”, but never in a “Fox Melee laser feed-age, repetitive and non-ending” manner. (I’m sure most of you are well aware of the source of this rant, those of you who disagree, feel free to provide some counter points). Well, maybe one good thing out of this is that you come to appreciate well-behaved kids more.
Had a sort of interesting series of events yesterday. My Mom wanted me to take her car to work since it was going to be hot and the A/C in my car has died. So took her car, I did. Went out to buy lunch, but on the way back, my Mom’s car started doing stuff. To be more precise, the car will not accelerate when I pressed the gas pedal, the engine just kind of rumbles in a “so close yet so far” fashion. So I managed to get the car into a Home Hardware gas station going 5 km/h. No one I knew was close by so I had to get the car towed myself. Managed to find a co-worker to explain my situation, so I pretty much took the rest of that day off. Waited about an hour for the tow, and met my Mom at the dealership. Good thing out of this was that I got home much earlier than usual (I got back by 5 pm), and got lots of WoW time in =p
My Mom got the call back from the dealership, it seemed something was loose or a problem of that sort, the car was already available for pick up this morning.
Haven’t done karaoke in awhile, just got a new Leo Koo concert karaoke VCD, so I think should make good use of that soon…
WoW stuff:
Not many “interesting” happenings in WoW as of late, I’ve been questing mostly solo (did some of the earlier STV quests w/ Duy). I’m approaching level 40, and that means mount! Providing that I have the money for it. So right now my key concern is raising enough money to purchase my ride. I have about half the needed funds, and level 40 isn’t too far away. I would think that I need to grind quite a few mobs to get enough money/loot for my mount.
That about covers it for now, until next month? =P
