Monday, December 27, 2004

I have had a day to play

From my girlfriend I got an awesome shirt, green, long sleeve with the text World's Laziest Ninja and a picture of a fat ninja with akimbo sword. She also got me a flashlight, always handy to have around. 2 more stickers to add to my laptop (I'll get to this in a bit). A 100 piece Spiderman 2 movie puzzle which we've already pieced together. Oooh, I can't forget this one... she's getting my tongue pierced. I'll be doing that in a couple days, so it is mostly healed when school starts again. And who doesn't need a calendar before the new year? She got me this kickass Sea Monkey calendar. 12 months of sea monkey memorabilia. Her parents and brother got me a box of Pot of Gold (chocolates) and a bunch of Spiderman swag. A towel, toothbrush, comic book, binder. Gotta love that. I got a Dirt Devil vacuum from my Dad and his girlfriend. Money from my Mom and Stepdad. And a Lord of the Rings action figure of Eomer and his Horse. A few more figures and I can create a scene on my desktop.

I also got American McGee's Alice and "The Looking Glass Wars" from my Girlfriend. Isn't she the best? ^_^

Now, as for the laptop. Yeah, I'm writing on it right now. P4 2.8GHz... you've read it before. This thing is sweeet. I downloaded the HalfLife 2 demo and played through the two chapters, the game was butter. I can run it at max everything, looks good, run's not so good. It's still playable, though. So turning it down to the defaults (still great visuals) and the game runs awesome. No slowdown or choppiness. I love it. And when I get to school with it, I'll be able to access the wireless network around the school. And I'll get RedHat running on here so I can bring my research home with me as well. I'm just waiting a week or two so I can run it hardcore, break it in, etc then I can rip the existing HP stickers off here and put my own on.

I've got a sticker of the Mudflap girl with a flame fill instead of black, and a woman holding a large lolipop while wearing lingerie. Last years stickers were the dog licking himself and text saying "Because I can", the other was a topless redhead (mmm redhead!) sitting on a cherry with text saying "Everything to lose". So I'll stick at least 3 of those on the lid of my laptop. I'm thinking of putting another inside my laptop, to the left of the touchpad.

Oh! Last night when our friends got home, we visited them and exchanged gifts. I got a tamagotchi from one. And from the other friend I got a sushi set. Chopsticks, dried seaweed, mochi rice (sticky rice), pickled ginger and a tube of wasabi. She's going to teach me how to make sushi, I can't wait.

-Good things in life? Fun things in life

Sunday, December 26, 2004

It is now

4:42am and I'm filling myself with the fuel needed to keep warm the next hour outside FutureShop, waiting in line with the other faithfuls. This is it, this morning decides which notebook computer is going to be by my side at least until the end of my University career. I've got water heating for hot chocolate and Maple and Brown sugar porridge steaming in front of me. 15 minutes and I'd have planned to be standing outside.

-But I still need to brush the snow off my car

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Tomorrow's Activities

I stopped by Future Shop to see what time they open early tomorrow morning and there were already 5 people camped outside drinking mini-shot bottles of Jack Daniels and playing Magic: TG hudling together for warmth. They were camped out with lawn chairs and a small camping table, one of them had been there since 3pm Christmas afternoon.

I'll be there tomorrow to make a purchase. I'm buying that P4 2.8GHz system. They've dropped the price another hundred dollars (from $1599) to $1399 and upped the video card capacity from 64 MB ATI Radeon 9000 mobile to a 128 MB ATI Radeon 9000 mobile. I had bought it online today, actually, but thought better of waiting the 3 weeks for it to come in by mail; I cancelled the order just after I got a confirmation. So I'm going to try my luck at buying it in store at 6am tomorrow morning so I can get home and format it (who wants a computer registered with the name "Future" anyway?) . My machines have manly names like "Goober" and "Baggy" (not really, but they rhyme with it).

I'll be up at 4:30am tomorrow, about 4 hours before my girlfriend wakes up to go to work.

-Dropping large wads of cash

Friday, December 24, 2004

Portable Computation

How does this nice little lappy grab ya? It'd come out to just over $1.5k, of course I don't have the money, and would be sweeeet. I've never done the Pentium thing, I've always stuck with AMD (and my Duron 750). So Pentium IV 2.8GHz, 512 DDR, 60GB HDD, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 GPU ooooooooh. I almost walked out of the store with it yesterday.

Christmas Partying

Tonight is the Eve before Christmas and the same as every year before is a family Christmas party. Yet another excuse for friends and family to get together and drink themselves stupid (and drive home afterward :P dumbasses) but to eat and visit as well.

I've a couple more presents to wrap in preparation for tomorrow; I've got to dig out the stockings and lay them across the couch with care. And make a (hopefully) quick stop by the post office to pick up my parcel which came in JIT (just in time, like the Java compiler).

-I'll keep ya posted with Christmas goodies

Monday, December 20, 2004

School's out and it is proven

I'm at the University right now, monitoring the Library information commons area. Usually on a Monday at this time, I'd have had enough with the students requesting my help. Not so much that I don't like helping, it's the repetitiveness. However, I digress; Today it is eerily quiet. There 6 students sitting down at any of the 40 computers in this area of the Library, meanwhile the other part of the commons area is closed. It's so quiet in here, I'm almost falling asleep.

-Deitel Java Swing

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Programming Knowledge

I've written all my exams so they are out of my hands. Only 6 days to Christmas, wow. That's getting close. My birthday coming up here fairly soon, too. So now that the semester is over and the holidays are here I've found time to relax and do my own thing.

I've been playing with SuSE on my home computer. I've played through the original Half-Life and am now 3/4 the way through the addon, OpForce and will be playing through Blue Shift as well.

I'm also coding a toolkit for the game I'd been programming off and on since last year. I'd recently rewritten it with my knowledge of data structures and a new resolve. I read about serialization a couple days ago, combined the two and viola I can create my own database. I have tools that allow me to graphically create objects in my game.

-Knowledge is power

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Wandering around in my head

3 hours and counting down until my third exam. I'm feeling alright about the test, really, I'm not feeling alright knowing that no matter how much I've studied the professor is still going to give me a bare pass. Like the post recently on Slashdot this professor has high expectations. The class is titled "Data Structures" but I call it, and appropriately so, "Introduction to Mark Allen Weiss". The prof doesn't grade fairly on knowledge and concept, no. He grades on how accurate your code is to the author of the book. Wrote some code that works as well or better than the example in the book? Well, if it were in the lab and it works, congratulations you've just earned yourself a grade of 2/2; however if it was on the exam and the prof actually has to look at your code and analyze it... I'm sorry, you've earned 0 out of 0.5 and there's nothing you can do to argue the grade.

-Reasons tenure is crap

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Exams

Oh what fun, I've written two exams. I've two more left. One tomorrow and another the day after. Data Structures and Statistics to go, Digital Logic/PC Hardware and Principles of Computer Science/Scheme are finished. I wrote that last one today, and was it ever tough. The first question was worth 43% of the exam grade, I did my best.

I've installed SuSE 9.1 pro on my computer. So now I can dual boot WinXP/SuSE 9.1 ! w00t. I've yet to configure my 'net in SuSE but that's just a few moments time.

Now, Half-Life 2. I want it. I really want it. However, to play HL2 I need a computer that can run HL2. The closest I'm going to get to a computer that can run HL2 is the laptop I'm about to buy. I'm waiting for Christmas and my birthday to come and go so I can put as much money into it as I can. Hopefully that includes a video card and wireless g card as well. Mmmm,

-technology

Friday, December 03, 2004

When Small becomes Medium

Some guys could only hope this happens to them, if you know what I mean. But this isn't a tale of growth in size, though it is about inflation. Tim Hortons, over the past year and a half, has undergone a total transformation. It started with their donuts; they stopped making them fresh in store and started bringing them in frozen. I stopped ordering their apple fritters when they started that. Next was their tea. It used to be that you could order any sized tea for $1, which made sense as you are paying for the tea bag, getting the hot water (any size) gratis. Since then, you are now charged per size; they claim they 'steep' their tea. Crap. And I've since stopped ordering their tea. Tonight, however, has struck me as the last straw. I walked into Tim Hortons craving timbits (donut holes). I ordered a 20 pack, a small pack of timbits. When asked to pay for the order, I gave the cashier $2. However the cashier informed me that it was not enough money. I look at the sign and it says 10 pack: $1.50, 20 pack $2.50 sooo WTF!?! When does a small pack become a medium? I'm sorry Tim Hortons, you'll only be seeing me in passing.

-Kreamy, Krispy Kreamy

Monday, November 22, 2004

OKLUG

Linux Users Group meeting tonight, I'm going to try to learn something. Last month, a retired professor from Waterloo attended. He'd been using Linux for a month at that point. He and a few other of the attendees got into a conversation of slide rules, and how the slide rule was his preferred method of calculation at the University (you see, he is a retired Mathematics professor). The meeting will be split into two sessions, one for new users and another that focuses on a specific area. This months 'specific area' is network security, which leads into hacking, etc. Last month I learned how to use the wget command, a very nice command to know.

Meetings
*I'd really like to attend a 2600 chapter meeting. As far as I know, there are none in the area. According to the 2600 site, the closest one is about 4 hours from where I live and I can't drive that just for a 2 hour meeting.
*I'd like to start a MUD meeting. I could call it the MMM for MUD Monthly Meeting. Or maybe Medievia Monthly Meeting. I dunno, but it'd be nice if there were people I knew who played the game.

-indeed
It's Christmas Time, again

I'm not being cynical, people wouldn't like that. I like the holidays. I love the holidays. My family throws a huge Christmas party every year, I go for the food and company. There are staff Christmas parties to attend; I have no idea if I actually have a staff party, but my girlfriend has one. And hers is going to rawk. Everything is paid for, there's no fee for bringing a guest (me) along. 2 drinks are paid for and a free taxi ride home, not to mention the buffet and 2 hours free use of pool tables.

I added a Tamagotchi to my Christmas list. I'd never had one before, so I thought it might be fun to try it out. They've got infrared technology now, so one "giga-pet" can talk to another and exchange gifts. Or if they are really compatible, they may have an egg together.

And books, I'm a fan of books. I've requested "The Looking Glass Wars" which is a look at the twisted world of Alice in Wonderland.

Speaking of Alice, I'd completed the story last week. I can remember how the first book ended, but I can't remember how the second, "Through the Looking Glass" ends.

-snow flakes cold

Monday, November 08, 2004

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland phase I

I've finished AA and have moved on to "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There". I had no idea how 'together' the two books were. I had long known of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, but did you know they don't make an appearance until book 2? And how about the Walrus and the Carpenter? Book 2 again!

I'm quite intrigued to play American McGee's Alice now. I can pick it up for under $10 at Future Shop in town, or at Electronic Boutique in the mall. I may have to do that. And the live-action movie of Alice remade in the late 90s as well, I've got to make time to watch that. I've had it for months but never looked at it.

-a classic
Chilling at work

Lab monitoring in the school's library Information Commons area, trying to find something useful to do. People speaking to me from across the desk, they are standing at the printer, I'm on the other side at my computer. The printer is acting up, forgetting print-jobs, etc. I'm trying to entertain myself, I've got 'The Annotated Alice' hardcover beside me. I'm half done that, I could finish the other half before I get out of here at 5. No, I've got two midterms this week. One tomorrow, another the day after.

The students are looking at the printer with an inquisitive kink in their neck. Like a bird trying to look straight up, it has to turn it's head 90* to the left or right so its eye is pointed in the right direction. A printer is out of paper, I get up to refill the tray. Something to do, I got my excercise.

-Someone complains they've printed twice and there's nothing happening... yet

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Knowledge

Knowledge is power. I realized this yesterday morning, that knowledge -- to know -- is a better quality to possess than general intelligence. I don't have facts or figures to back this up, it just hit me that in order to be successfull in studies you must in the end possess the knowledge you are attempting to learn. Maybe intelligence and knowledge are the same thing, I don't know as I haven't though of it.

I was just browsing the bit bucket at dev/null and found an interesting read on liberty and freedom of knowledge, aka hackerism. They quote a founding father of America:

"The spirit of resistance to government," Jefferson wrote, "is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."

-That makes sense to me

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Just noticed

MSN Hotmail has increased storage capacity. They now allow 250MB of storage per user for a base account, and their plus offers 2GB of storage. Meh, I've already got gMail so I've no use for MSN plus.

On a side note, my girlfriend is driving a sexy Toyota Echo Hatchback with a spoiler et al.

-Schmoove

Monday, October 04, 2004

Circus Freak

Balancing act. Get it? Clowns in a circus sometimes balance things, like plates, on big sticks. Balancing act... circus... clowns.

So I feel like a jackass. My girlfriend has been great to me only deserving of praise, and behold! she reads a blog from September 21 that had me venting my frustration about the two of us. I'd since forgotten about it; I'm sure anyone reading this and familiar with blogs can understand how it feels to write something down and get the frustration off your chest. It was history to me, just a record of what happened and now in the past. She was hurt by it, and rightfully so. I had written some pretty harsh stuff.
But the thing is, it means nothing to me now. I'm feeling good, she was feeling good. Now I'm feeling pretty bad because what I had written really hurt her. So for that, hun, I'm sorry. I'll be careful with what I write and I'll come to you if I have any serious problems, rather than turning to my blog and broadcasting it to the world.

-Don't go looking for it, I've removed the post

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

What's going on?

My girlfriend has an appointment (or something to do) tomorrow at 10:15am and when I asked, curiously, what it was she said she couldn't tell me. Weird. I try to ask her again, she says she'll tell me later. Odd behaviour. She got mad, thought I had snooped around in her papers and stuff trying to find out what is going on tomorrow. I've got no idea; after getting slightly irritated I decided that 'what the hell', if she doesn't want to tell me then she has her reason. Maybe it's something that will benefit me in a pleasurable way?

I'd been reminded, through this situation, that things aren't always what they seem. You see, I'd received my 'Zen Flesh Zen Bones' book and thought of one of the quips I'd read today. It was of a painter who charged an exhorbitant fee for his paintings. A geisha had hired him to paint something and said she'd pay any price. The man charged her the most he'd ever, which she did actually pay to the man. She commented to her friend that the man cared only for money and asked for another painting. Again, the man asked for a large sum, which he was paid. Unbeknowest to everyone that the man used the money to stock-pile grain for the village he was from. The village was frequently struck with plague and famine for which the man freely gave away the grain. As well, the man's master never saw the realization of his dream of a temple completed. The painter used the rest of the money to construct the temple. After doing so, the man never touched a paint brush again.

-Puts things in perspective

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Wonder of books

I love books. If I had an easily replenishable source of currency I'd be buying books. I'd ordered a text book online, for school, at the beginning of September. I got the book the day before the class started; the book came in mint condition and I bought it used! I had such a great experience (it was my first time every buying something online) that I bought another book through the same retailer. I got my "Schematics of Computation" book in record time, so I ordered "Zen Flesh Zen Bones -- 1968 edition" soon after. The description was "like new" so we'll see when it gets here. I paid $1.44 for it plus shipping and handling which brought the book to just over $10 and the import fee I'll have to undoubtedly pay as it's coming from Michigan.

It's addicting, I really want to buy more online. I was thinking a RubicsCube from Ebay or something... but I need to know when to stop. I could buy a RubicsCube at Toys'r'us only 5 minutes from here, and that comes with a Rubics study guide to help solve the cube.

Work starts tomorrow. I'd finished my summer research project and took a couple weeks to relax before school. Now in addition to continuing my research, I'm working as a lab monitor around campus as well. My first shift is a three hour shift tomorrow that ends at 5pm. You know I'm just going to be sitting in front of a computer playing Medievia (Arrecobn of Crimson Rose, Town 2) trying to get someone to walk me through the catacombs so I can get my 38 comb eggs and level to 28. I've been ready to level for almost a week now.

I cooked an awesome dinner tonight. Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. My girlfriend was very pleased, and I was pleased to see that she was pleased. Godamn I need to get that Zen book and fast. "Expect Nothing" is the motto I'm trying to grind into myself. Oh, road trip this Thursday. I'm skipping Thursday to Monday to drive 10 hours to a wedding for my girlfriend. She's the maid of honor, she's got to be there. So I'm going to try to make the best of it.

-Another time I should be in bed but I can't bring myself to lay there right now

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

School Ties

It's the day after Labor Day and you know what that means: Back to school today, except I don't really have to go. My first class (and only class) starts at 2:30, ending at 3:50 but today is 'orientation day' meaning if you're not a first year student then don't show up because you already know what the hell you are doing. I've got to go to campus today to fill out some paperwork so they can start paying me for my services to the school, ie, lab monitoring. I've got two shifts a week (Monday and Tuesday) for a total of 5 hours. On top of that I can put in a maximum 15 hours a week working on my moth project for my calculus prof.

-Meet you at the quad

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Fsck the System

I had borrowed 4 library books from the regional library a few weeks ago. Yesterday they were due back, so I renewed them all. All except one, it had a hold on it. Fair enough, I thought. It's late, I'll bring it in and pay the late fee. Well, I drop it off, returning it. I then wander the library trying to find something that might interest me. Know what I found on the shelf? The same book that I couldn't renew because it had a hold on it. The book was returned late and I was being fined meanwhile the book they wanted was already in store and on their shelf. Know what else? When I asked "Could you remove that late charge, please?" with an explanation they gave me a venerable "fsck you and have a good day".

-Some people's children with mullets

Monday, August 16, 2004

Working Late

I slacked a bit today at work, but never fear because I am working late. I've just finished my rough presentation for the UBC seminar this Wednesday. I've got to polish it up some tomorrow in front of my fellow students and professor.

*Sidenote* Hehehe, one of my cats was just sneaking along the heater that runs along the floor on the wall. The cat was sneaking around behind the entertainment centre, which I didn't like. I stuck my head down there trying to get her out but she wasn't budging. So I blew at her, which she didn't like, I guess. It scared the piss out of her and she booked it out the other side. I think she may be staying away from there from now on.

So my girlfriend just started a new job, congratulations to her. The downside to that, I leave tomorrow at 4pm and she doesn't get off work until 5pm. The job she works at restricts her from seeing me, so I won't get to see her again until I get home Wednesday (or Thursday) evening. G'night to you all.

-Wish me luck

Friday, August 13, 2004

Sleeplessness (forced)

It's 12:40 am and I'm out of bed. I spent the last 40 minutes reading D.B. Weiss' novel Lucky Wander Boy. I'm tired, and I should be in bed. I've got another day of work ahead of me tomorrow.

As per usual, I tell you when I've started playing Medievia again. I ditched my mage, Cimn, choosing to start over as a cleric, Arrecobn. I play it at work, and it does prove to be a distraction at times. Which leads me to my next topic.

Work; I'm tired of it now. I'm stressed by it. I've got 3 days of actual work left before I'm finished for the summer. The other two days are reserved for my seminar at UBC and the drive home the day after. I'm stressed because I've got so much work to do and no time to do it. My professor hired me for my programming skills and at different times along the way she took it upon herself to add activities and responsibilities to my workload. Now I'm expected to write a report (approx. 5-8 pages) on my findings thus far, as well as the short speech to give at UBC.

However, this is not the most stressful part of my job. No, I've also got to use the program I've created to cultivate data. On top of that, I'm also the one who analyzes the data. I think this should be left in the hands of my professor as she's the mathematician. She knows Matlab, the program used to analyze the data; I, however, do not.

Today (Thursday) I was supposed to run the program 100 times with 500 moths each time and 5 traps, using a different seed every session. To do that would have taken 8 hours 20 minutes alone. A bash script was written to run the 100 sessions automatically/consecutively so I could play Medievia. My work day is 7 hours long, so I didn't get any work done today. Now I'm stressing that I'm going to get in shit for that when I get in to work and she sees what was done. Maybe I won't tell her about the script.

-And I should sleep or I'm going to be mean tomorrow

Monday, July 19, 2004

The hating game

God must hate me, it's as simple as that. My girlfriend has been looking at rings for some time, and I think she's expecting one from me. We'd agreed on a ring that was obviously better than the rest, a nice gold one with 8 diamonds on the outside and a larger one in the middle.

The store had declined both her and I in-store credit cards, so why did I get one in the mail, a week later, with a huge (over $1000) credit limit? Without her knowing, I left work early one day to make my purchase. The store did have a "we pay the taxes" sale a couple days previous, I was only slightly disappointed when the sale was over. The difference would have only been ~$34 anyway.

I'd bought the ring July 9. The idea was that I was going to leave the ring in the store in the repair drawer so when I was ready to present the ring, I'd just have to pick it up. Also, my girlfriend wouldn't find any evidence of it at home, except maybe a receipt for jewelry repair (which she didn't).

However, and this is where the god-hating-me part comes in, she and I were at the mall again yesterday and we visited the store. Of course she notices the ring was missing, but she'd noticed two weeks before and I'd already planted the idea that I was disappointed and would find another ring for her, or maybe they'd order another ring like it. Well, we were there yesterday and they were having a fscking %30 off sale. ARG. And the person that sold me the ring, the sales person my girlfriend wanted us to buy the ring from, was working. He played it cool, not mentioning the ring. I, however, mentioned the sale in as much an inconspicuous WTF manner as possible. The salesperson laughed and said, "Oh, you missed the %50 off sale!"

Bastard better have been joking about that. If I didn't have my girlfriend there, I'd have asked him for the difference on the spot, saving me the trouble of having to bring the ring back with its 30 day money-back return policy. Getting all the cash back and then buying it again at discounted price. My girlfriend is worth every penny that I paid, but her birthday is coming up here and that extra cash could have bought her 1/3 a bed set, or almost two diamond stud ear-rings.

I'd picked up the ring over a week ago to give to my girl, but it's going back today. I hope they save me the trouble of having to return it and buy it again. And don't even get me started about not having given it to her yet. I know, I've had two weeks. Well, there hasn't been a perfect time yet. Last night would have been perfect but... well, don't even get me started on that. Let's just say the dinner I had planned got fscked when her Dad told us to babysit her brother all night.

-Don't be a hater

Thursday, July 15, 2004

I'd like a plate of work please, with a side of work. Thanks

Summer Reading:
. Dungeons and Dreamers: From Geek to Chic: The Rise of Computer Gaming Culture
. Dragonlance "Dragon's Of" Chronicles
. The More Than Complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
. Java 2 Game Programming
. Lucky Wander Boy
. The Art of War

Dungeons and Dreamers was a great read. It took about 5 days to read, reading whenever you have a chance. If you're interested in the history of video games and the direction it is headed (or are a fan of Richard Garriott of Ultima Fame -- aka Lord British) then give it a read.

Dragonlance - "Dragons Of" series. I'd read this series way back in elementary school. There were three books to it back then, I think there are 4 to it now. I admit, I started reading it again, but couldn't get much further than 3/4 the way through the first novel. It went back to the library and I never borrowed it again.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was a good read. I'm not terribly satisfied with my experience, however. The author, Douglas Adams (RIP), leaves so many loose ends I can't remember many details of any major events afterward. And when I can remember details, I think, what was the point of that? It did nothing for the plot! But I digress, it was an entertaining read. I just wish it satisfied more.

Java 2 Game Programming is my project this summer. It's what I'm doing, besides work, to keep my brain fresh for when I start school. I'm about 1/4 through the book and it's really opening my eyes.

Lucky Wander Boy is yellow. The book, that is. It's the story of a man who, as a youth, played games. Lots of games. This is his story of how he's reliving his past through the reclaimation of one of the games that 'rocked his world' so many years ago: Lucky Wander Boy. At least that's more or less the excerpt. I bought the book for it's gaming and eBay references. I hope it's good.

The Art of War is the last book on my list. Well, not really a book. I'm going to read it off the interweb, but it does come in book form.

-If I didn't have to work, I'd be finished the list and it'd be longer

Saturday, July 03, 2004

In my head

Bleach: I'm wearing a Spider-man shirt that used to have red highlights around the collar and sleeves. Used to be red.

Root-beer: Good stuff.

Rain: Nice when it's been hot out.

Linux: The most ecstatic feeling of success... when the friggen thing actually works.

I've been trying to get SWARM working on the work laptop because of two presentations I have to make on Tuesday. One is a meeting with Agri-Foods Canada, the other is with UBC executives touring our campus.

The best thing about UBC executives touring the campus -> They hold their meetings in the building I work in. Their meetings are catered. Therefor when no one is looking, I get lunch.

-Free food
A little late

Happy Belated Birthday, Canada.

-fireworks

Thursday, July 01, 2004

G-Mail pwns

I love G-Mail. The "Label" feature is great. And highlighting mail with stars and the 1000MB of storage. It's awesome.

EDIT: Whoa, type "google" without the .com or .ca in the link bar

-wooooo

Monday, June 28, 2004

McDonald's

"If you believe in magic,
and I hope you do!
You'll always have a friend
wearing big red shoes!
If you believe in magic."

Remember that song? It holds a much more magical place in my heart than the newer 'hipper' "Baduh buh buh buh... I'm loving it" crap they've got going now. And where is Ronald, Grimace, Birdy, Hamburgler, Fry-Guys, the Pirate Dude, etc ? You probably don't even remember the Pirate guy. Yeah, they offed him years ago, and it's only in recent years that the rest of the gang have been ousted a job.

-I just thought I'd bring that to your attention
Election Day

I don't usually name names but I live in a country and you know which country that is. Therefore you would already know who's running for Prime Minister. I can't say I was too excited about voting, but my girlfriend made a big deal about it. Funny thing was, I think she just wanted to vote for the sake of voting. Before we'd looked into the parties and decided who we should best vote for, it seemed like she was ready to pick her poison and check a box.

After some thought, I decided I didn't really like the direction Canada has turned in the last 10 years. You know, that's half my life right there. That direction is the effect of Liberal control. It's the Liberals who'd lifted the tuition freeze on my University and caused me to pay 100s of % more $$$ than people years before me. I heard people used to be able to attend school at $300 a semester. Myself, taking 5 courses with respective labs, I pay $1400+.

Back to politics. Liberals are going to get what they deserve. The Conservative group, well, the guy looks like he's wearing a plastic mask and too much mascara. That and he wants to turn our country into a war-manger like our constituents to the south. They want to fight our wars, that's great, let them. We've got them to fight our wars for us.

NDP. Good old NDP, they raised minimum wage by almost $1 back when I first started working. That was great, I like you NDP. Now please, do something about my tuition and you've got my vote.

-New Canada

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

What is there to say?

Not much motivation today, it's been a sleepy time lately. I've finished writing my program, at least most of it, mostly. I've still got a couple things to do with it, like.... wait a minute. I probably haven't really explained all of what the program does.

Here's the poop:

I was 'contracted' by a professor of mine to program a simulation for her. She, herself, was hired by Agri-Foods Canada (a goverment agency) to come up with a mathematical model of codling moths and their behavior with and without traps. I haven't actually seen or heard anything of her research but I trust she's been doing her job. Insofar, I've been doing mine.

Back on topic, my professor hired me to write a model of the moths and their behavior in the presence and non-presence of pheromone traps. Starting around the second week of May, I've now nearly completed the program.

The moths I've created in the program respond to pheromone plumes created by the traps I've created. The traps are placed in a networked fashion across a grid of specified length and width. You can choose to place the traps every 100 'meters' or '50' or any other number you may come up with, providing it is a whole number.

The traps dispense pheromone, which reacts accordingly with the weather about it. If the wind is blowing from the east to the west, the pheromone is stretched to the left, the trap placement is no longer centered in the pheromone; the pheromone is now placed farther to the left of the trap. The area remains the same regardless the shape of the pheromone.

Moths, when in a pheromone plume, sniff out areas of higher concentration. If they are interested, the moth then moves itself to occupy a space of higher concentration. The test continues until the moth has either found the trap or 'escaped' the pheromone plume.

If a moth maneuvers its way to a trap it then runs the test to see if it becomes trapped or not. To be as accurate to life as possible, the program still needs to be tweaked so only about %5 of the moths actually get trapped. Then we as researchers can tweak the strength of the trap and experiment with that.

-I've lost my train of thought

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

I'm a freaking clown

Chock up another one for the clutz life. My girlfriend just had me file her feet, and like a good boyfriend I agreed to do it. So I'm filing away, periodically knocking the collected dust off the file. I figure this is how I'm supposed to be doing it, and I was right, she does the same. However, the file has never snapped in half when she's ever used it. Yeah, the file was waiting for me to handle it before it called the penalty and snapped in half with a tell-tale 'snap' (literative, aren't I).

I laughed and joked about it. She got mad, then started laughing herself. Composure regained, though, she told me she didn't want to laugh. Now she's pissed (not really, but she has to act some way and it won't be in my favor). It's not going to be a good night tonight.

Maybe it would have gone better if I hadn't...

-broken a plate while washing dishes this afternoon

Monday, June 14, 2004

G-Mail

I just activated my G-Mail account. It's pretty nifty (Google is going to get their advertising worth out of me). 'baaad seplling werd' typed in and click "check spelling" red underlines all the mispelled words. When you click a word, a list pops up with suggestions as to the correct spelling. That is a very nifty feature, rather than going through one word at a time.

So my blog e-mail address is now changed to my G-Mail

-More as the mail comes in

Sunday, June 13, 2004

I'm a clutz

You'd think my feet were skis and I had a tire around my belly and my hands were made of unfeeling metal.

-Just thought you'd like to know

Monday, June 07, 2004

Late night mind-not-sleeping-ness

I'm laying in bed and my mind is just not shutting off. Now is as good a time as any to share my thoughts. First of all, I'd really like to thank my Dad for always supporting me and taking an interest in what I'm interested in. You listened to me rave about my scuba classes. You helped me out with my first (and subsequently only) guitar and amp and gig-bag. You're the reason I graduated in the top 10 percent of my highschool class. And now, thank you for supporting me with my programming. You bought me a book and saved me money, and now I can bring myself to the next level. This is early, but happy father's day.

Next off, I was laying in bed thinking about my long-term gaming project. I did tell you it was a game I've been working on, I believe. Forget about the moths, I've been doing the game longer. School, and now work, have taken away the time I'd use toward it, but I learn more every day. I learn more through work and through theory, and I make my game a little more in my head each day. The book my Dad has bought me will greatly boost me.

Second, how about that Interplay thing? Crazy, really. I've been reading IGDA's Quality of Life White Paper and BAM here's a prime example of what you really need to watch for. I hope Interplay makes a comeback, but what the hell is this not paying employees for a month business. The rent is past due, employees don't have health insurance and you still owe Bioware over $150k for Baldurs Gate. Good on you for thinking positively, though. Come back and maybe you can hire me.

-This life or the next. You know, whenever you come around to it

Monday, May 31, 2004

Creator of Worlds!

I did it! The last few days at work here I'd been trying to have my trap objects and moth objects coincide with each other on the same plane of existence. I'd become very frustrated when my program either didn't run or everything did what it was supposed to do but with blobbing. Blobbing being the moths leaving a trail behind them. They should be just a dot on the grid flying around, however they felt the need to leave a line behind them everywhere they flew.

I have, however, managed to have my traps and moths coexist together happily. They'd done it before, but the traps were simply values on a lower-layer grid. The moths read the values on the lower layer grid, while flying about. Any grid position with a value 0 was seen as the ground. Any value of 1 was seen as a trap, and the moth promptly committed suicide. The Observer layer drew any spot of value 1 as a yellow square, for human viewing purposes. Now there are no more values. We have trap objects.

The benefit of trap objects: They can count the number of moths that have become 'trapped' inside them. Trap objects can relay their position on the grid and any other piece of relevant information that may later be thought of. This makes me quite happy, and less frustrations now.

I lied a little, though. At the moment, the trap objects only work as a thing that's in the way. They don't trap moths yet, the moths just don't run into the same square as a trap. But I am a creator of worlds and I can have them do what I want.

-Destroyer of worlds, too

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Musical Musicness

I hadn't used my MP3 player for the last 12 months because it was presumed dead. It'd play, but it kept monotonically telling me its door was open (MP3 CD Player). Staring down at it, door closed, you could understand the confusion. I gave up on it when it stubbornly decided to stop playing my tunes.

A year later I get the bright idea to poke around and find out what its problem is. It turns out, having it sit in my car on those hot summer days made a few parts extremely warm. One part in particular is the spring that holds the door open while you are replacing CDs. It had melted the plastic mount it was sitting in, which incidentally shifted to lid, preventing the player from realizing it was, in all accounts of reality, closed. Screw the spring, he's been evicted. And my player works fine again.

-MP3 goodness

Monday, May 17, 2004

I present to you

An unnamed poem (EDIT: I'd like to name the poem "Keep Digging" -WiLD2)
-By WiLD2

Once upon a long time ago
there lived a Man who owned a hole.
He dug and dug and dug each day
until the time He could finally say,
"Why was that hole I dug so deep?
I'm way down low and I've got to keep
my head on straight and my shoes on tight
as I settle down for tonight, tonight."
And He went to sleep when the very next day
He awoke again with a yawn to say,
"I'll scratch my belly and then my bum
as it appears the dawn has early come.
The question is why I've done this so
to dig myself my very own hole?
I'll lay down now, close my eyes and rave.
It appears I've dug my very own grave."

-Thank you

While at work
I've finally shown off some of my cunning lingualism. I know it'd shown a long absence. I'm at work right now, programming and such, but I had to take a break and get my mind off track. You know, for some creativity. I hope you enjoyed the poem, I found it rather witty.

-Nutty like a log after christmas

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Bird Flu

When is it going to stop? There was a huge outbreak of the bird flu in the Vancouver area just over a month ago. Hundreds of Thousands of chickens were slaughtered. I think even the price of chicken dropped where I live, which is great because chicken is a necessity. And now there's chance that the new strain of bird flu found in the same area is capable of spreading to and killing humans. Here's the thought that came to mind:

Zombies.

Let me explain

In Resident Evil, Umbrella Corporation manufactured a medical mishap they called the 't-virus'. This thing, when ingested or inhaled by living flesh, turned its host into a shambling mass of murder. In George Romeros zombie films it is a virus as well. Sure, flu is a bacteria (isn't it?) but it has the means of spreading from one person to the next. All that needs to be done now is beta test the mushball strain which simply turns people catatonic. Then upgrade the mushball strain with features such as 'consume thy own flesh' and 'hunt anything with two legs and a heart-beat' and we've got the zombie strain.

-Not bad for a days work

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Oh!

E3 starts tomorrow. The Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles. Oh, how I wish I could be there.

I spent part of this morning reading about E3 and people's experiences there. To be a consumer and there it sounds like fun. To be an exhibitionist and there sounds like fun.

-to be there
On the job

I've begun work as a research assistant for the summer. It's great, I'm a 'software engineer' as my position. I'm writing a simulation in SWARM involving codling moths, and their actions based on the presence or non-presence of pheromone traps.

So I'm at work right now, on a Linux machine. I'd never used Linux before a week ago, I kind of like it. I should dual-boot my system at home with a Linux partition. You know, for Linux software and stuff. Have fun getting SWARM to work on a Windows machine, they dropped support for that years ago.

-A good guy

Sunday, May 02, 2004

I should clarify

Our kitten, contrary to what I posted weeks ago, is male. We were under the impression she was a he, but Nefret is now a Loki. We kept him, rather than an exchange for a female.

-And he scratches the hell out of everything
How to do

I guess I have no idea how to clip a cat's claws. I was under the impression that as I was doing this, my purpose was to stop him from pulling threads out of our pants and to stop him from leaving nasty scratches on our arms and feet. So I cut about 1/3 of his whole claw off (roughly 1/2 of the dead-skin claw). I steared clear of the flesh under his claw, and three times I cut his nails without so much as a sound of discontent from him. Then my girlfriend offered her help, I clipped a fourth claw. He let out a disgruntled meow which freaked her out. She's upset at me now, and I've got a kitten running around playing as he normally would, which is exactly what he should be doing.

I guess I'm wrong, I wasn't supposed to cut off enough claw so he'd never break our skin or rip our clothes. I was supposed to blunt the claw, take off a fraction of a millimeter from his claw. In doing so, he'd still be able to climb, still be able to 'play with his toys' but he wouldn't be able to scratch us.

-I was wrong

Friday, April 30, 2004

I almost forgot

I went hiking up Enderby Cliffs last sunday. Follow this link for the pics.

-sunburned
Summer working

I started summer work today. It wasn't programming or anything, and I didn't even see my employer. She stayed at home because she was out until 12:30 last night setting up a display. Which leads me to tell you what I did today. The University was having an open house research expo and I was manning the Math/Stat department's display. Hey, I thought it was volunteer work but an email tells me that I'm getting paid for it. Rawxer.

I borrowed a book from the public library the other day. I had to return another, though. I was returning the Annotated Dragon Lance Chronicles, which I read before back in grades 5 to 7. I couldn't renew it any more, I suppose twice is all you can. Funny, though, when they check it back into the computer I can sign it out and start renewing it again for another total of 63 days.

Right, back to the book I borrowed. Dungeons and Dreamers: The rise of computer game culture from Geek to Chic. Great book, I highly recommend it if you're remotely into games and/or game-design. On top of that, while I was at the University library today I borrowed a couple more books. Deitel & Deitel's Java 2 text and Programming Pearls which may give me some nice reading material.

Zombies ate my fingers - I've finally watched my Night of the Living Dead DVD I got for Easter. I have to say, it's as bad as I remember, but good at the same time. The freakiest part of the movie is seeing the corpse of the house's owner upstairs in the house everyone boards themselves up in. The corpse doesn't move and you only see it twice for a second each time but it sets the atmosphere and emotion.

Speaking of zombies, I had the opportunity to watch the remake of Dawn of the Dead. I'll try not to spoil it too much. It was awesome. It holds true to zombie mythology in the way the disease is spread and shines light in new areas. Let me just say one word 'pregnancy'. It's nice to see a world going up in flames (cinemagraphically) the way the world went to hell in this movie. The car crash scene just after the woman escapes her suburban neighborhood rawked. I wish I could rewind it and watch it again (because it just shows how the world is going to hell). I could go on and on.

And have you noticed how fast zombies move these days? I think the only recent zombie movie that holds true to real zombie speed is Resident Evil. The latest movie to introduce speedy-zombies was 28 Days Later which was alright because to me those weren't bread and butter zombies. Those were rage-infused humans. The new Dawn movie had speedy zombies.
Let's look back to the original Dead series. Night was the first, and their zombies were slow-ass. Slow ass. Grandma with her walker running full force was the top speed of even the healthiest zombie in that movie. Dawn's zombies were slow, too. The remake, however, strapped roller-blades on them and let them loose on top of a hill (figuratively). No longer can Grandma with her walker outrun these beasts, until she's been bitten and comes back. The ultimate cure for back-pain, Grandma's ready for a marathon.

-another 2 cents

Thursday, April 22, 2004

I have a dream!

There was snow on the ground, and I was at the home I lived at before I moved away to finish school elsewhere. Zombies is what my dream focused on. There were zombies everywhere and the scene was right out of 90's Night of the Living Dead (remake).

The zombies were being commanded by a larger minion who was searching for a ring that was being kept in the house. Violence ensued and I witnessed my Dad and neighbor dropping many-a-zombie with shotgun blasts. Have you ever seen a zombie from 5 feet away through a sliding glass door? I have, and it's awesome.

World Peace and Unity - It's just my idea that what we need to bring the world to peace is a goal all countries can work towards. So we need a zombie outbreak; then all countries can agree to set aside their differences and together annhilate the population of zombies spreading across the globe.

Good grades
I've passed 3 of my 4 classes, and that RAWKS. No more chemistry for me!!! I finally passed Math 122 and Java Programming is done like dinner. I'm still waiting for my results of Physics, but that's in the bag.

-In the bag of doom! (but that's a good thing)

Friday, April 16, 2004

Got to love those exams

I've written three of my four exams, and have confirmed that I've passed at least one of them. I'm crossing my fingers for the rest. At the moment, I'm studying for physics, which will be written at 9:30am tomorrow. An exam on a Saturday.

My girlfriend bought me Will Rock for Easter, along with the classic Night of the Living Dead (black and white. 1968) DVD!!! I've almost completed the game, I just kicked Medusa's ass. Since when can Medusa fly? And since when can you look at her in the eye? She also shoots homing fireballs at you.

-Zues Almighty

Sunday, April 04, 2004

A baby

I've got one, only two days ago; Friday night. It's a feline. A kitten, and she's beautiful. Nefret is her name, which means 'The most beautiful', as in the name "Nefertari" or "Nefertiti", the egyptian queens of old.

School is finished for the year, now I just have to deal with exams. My first exam is this coming Tuesday. Java which should go over well. I just need to study. So, I'm going to study now. Yeah, I'm kinda lifeless right now but I should study anyway.

-Nefret, the black and white kitty cat

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Resourcefulness

I hope I spelled that right. I know, there's spell checker and all but what's the fun in that if you can't spell words correctly yourself? And it's fun when people make fun of other people's bad spelling.

I just found a nifty article on GameDev.net about programming your own MUD (Multi-User Dungeon). Not that I'm planning on doing that any time soon, but what the hell for a read, eh?

-Hehe, I said "eh".

Thursday, February 19, 2004

More language

This judges the success of skills. Based on this, however, you have a slight chance of success even if you aren't practiced in the art of that skill. However, because it's turn based (that's the idea, anyway), you don't really want to go wasting your turn just to fail an attack. This is if the highest skill level is 15, but that can be adjusted. Here goes:

int sLevel = CurrentSkillLevel;
success = ((int)(Math.random()*17);
if (success <= sLevel || success == 16) {
the skill is successful;
}
else (
skill fails);

You might be wondering what the 16 is for. Well, like I said earlier, that is the small chance of success if you haven't practiced the skill at all. You get a 1 in 16 chance of success. Likewise, the greater skill level, the more chance of success.

This may also be used as a damage modifier. Up to your skill level, it multiplies the damage of that attack by:

double half = 0.5
damage (sLevel*half)+((int)(Math.random()*attack);


These are just some ideas, anyway. I think of them and want to write them down for my later reference.

Here's what I'm doing today. I'm driving to my Dad's house so he can check out my car. It's about time it has a tune-up anyway. I've been driving it for 3 years and it only get's progressively less cooperative. I'd been jump-starting my car this winter on the coldest of days because the battery wouldn't sustain itself. My MP3 player melted in the summer time and keeps telling me the cover isn't closed even though it is closed. And the tire popped on it. As well as the car doing a funny 3 steps forward 1 step back dance while driving up hill. It chugs, it really does.

-Explosive

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

A flat

Got a flat tire on the drive home tonight, didn't help that it was 11:30pm and had no way to see in my back trunk while looking for the necessary tools: Tire iron, spare tire (ok, that was easy to find), jack, twisty piece for jack. 20 minutes later (and an impressed girlfriend, too) it was done. Now I'm home and going to sleep.

-Bed time and well deserved

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

The language

Java is the language. I'm still programming away, whenever I find time. That time is usually on Tuesday and Thursday mornings between 8am and 11:15am. I get to school early on those days to program in the library, and my Programming class starts at 11:30.

Not much to talk about, I guess. I'm just up at 11:28pm because I had a stroke of genius that got me excited and I couldn't sleep. I was thinking that in a game that determines the difficulty of play based on the level that you are at would be something like this:

int level = yourCurrentLevel;
difficulty = (level-3)+((int)(Math.random()*6));


This basically says, "Ok, you're level 8? Alright. Your opponent will be any level from 3 below you (level 5) to 2 above you (level 10)." Assuming anything below 3 levels lower would be too easy and any levels greater than 2 above your current level would be too hard.
You could throw a switch or a few if statements in there to determine what happens when a random level of difficulty is selected. Like which opponent at the suitable level to face.

-Bed time now

Friday, January 30, 2004

And for the cream filling

I was virtually transperant from the online world during my first semester of school this year. As you can see from my single post in late September and my absence until this very day. I'd been busy with school, and Medievia. However, I've again stopped playing dear Medievia. It was great and all for the first couple months, but like any game you reach a point where you feel you've progressed as far as you can and thus, feeling a)victorious or b)burned out, stop playing. You move on to bigger and better things. My bigger and better things were Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR).

GTA:VC is a great game. You have to love jacking cars and shooting guns, as well as money. That game was great fun. Was. I lost interest in the game (are you seeing a trend here?) right around the end of the game. So I moved on to KOTOR. Badass is what I have to say. I've never really had any great urge to watch any of the Star Wars movies but after playing this game I want to watch the original three movies right now. But like the other games I've played, KOTOR fell through to something else, I admit.

I've been working on a project at home since mid-December. I'm programming something in Java that should bring great enjoyment to many people. I spent an hour in the office of my Java professor yesterday afternoon going over my code and how I can improve it. Slated for an April release; I'm learning more tricks to use in the program with every class I attend.

Christmas was great. My girlfriend and I got a digital camera from her father for Christmas. It doesn't see extensive use, but we do have 100+ pictures taken since we got it. And since my birthday was just days after Christmas... hehe. My Mom and Brother bought me a 256MB Flash-Rom USB Hard-drive. I'm listening to Billy Talent here at school with WinAmp running off my hard-drive as I type this. It rawks. Thanks Mom and Brother.
On the topic of other cool stuff, my girlfriend bought me a sweet case for my computer. Follow the link and fill your shorts with envy. Thanks, hun.

-Always looking for my next entertainement fix
To read minds

I figure that if I was able to read minds, I wouldn't study as hard for test. And you know what? That would be all right. Why? Because, if I had the ability to read minds, I'd be able to know what people wanted and/or were looking for all the time. I'd know what my professor was expecting me to study; or better yet I'd know what to expect on the next quiz/test/midterm/exam. I would study only the questions on the exam, and I would ace it. And that would be fine.

After graduating with honors, I'd make it into the real world. I'd be prepared for anything in the work place. With my power to read minds, I'd have the combined knowledge of all my co-workers. I'd be a prodigy, that's what I'd be. And if I were to go on a game show, anything to do with knowledge, I'd be able to use my powers and come out on top.

You may think this is cheating; cheating == evil, but I'd have to disagree. If I have those powers, why not use them. If everyone had those powers then it wouldn't be such a big deal. Knowledge would be passed down from one person to the next, and everyone would be just as intelligent as the next. From here, society could go two ways. We either degenerate into a reliant conglomerate of false-knowledge or

-we feed on knowledge and increase our intelligence even more.

Followers