Summer Loving

I don't know what to make of my summer research assistant position. My professor, she's a nice lady, but I don't think she knows what she wants with my research. I'll give her credit, she's juggling three students at the same time, each with a project unrelated to the other. Justin with his simulation of a swimming nematode. Brock with his recolonization by squirells in clear-cut forests. And myself, with my dispersal of codling moths in the presence of a network of pheromone traps. I found that the longer the title, the more impressed people are with your work. But that's getting off topic. Rebecca, my professor/supervisor, has her own research going on as well. And the school is forcing her to take her vacation time at the moment, which she is taking up until the end of this month.

However, her research runs parallel to mine. She's covering codling moth dispersal using a mathematical model. I'm doing a cellular based model on the computer. This is where it gets hair-brained. We started on my project last summer to coincide with hers. Toward the end of last summer our work was beginning to overlap. At that point, all I had was a simulated orchard with a central release point. I'd release a mass amount of moths in 4 trials of 2000 moths each. The moths would fly around their orchard and either die, become trapped or fly out of bounds; all of which would remove them from the program. OK, that's cool, but then she wanted more features. And then more features. And then she wanted me to throw together a presentation. Then she wanted me to run the experiments to gather data, from a program that I felt still needed to be polished.

The data was run, imagine 1000 trials of 500 moths each in a small simulated orchard. Now a program needed to be written to injest the 1000 large files containing data from the simulation. Enter MatLab, another language to learn. Now for the whole school year all I did was type what Rebecca dictated. I felt I could better be used in polishing the program, fixing my bloated code. I'd only had two semesters of programming experience, and that only in Java, before she had me writing this simulation for her. So 8 months of meeting with my professor for 3~6 hours a week, writing a program she was more than capable of writing herself. She knows Matlab inside and out. She could have written up the analysis program in a week, where it took the two of us almost 8 months! And I couldn't have done it that quickly on my own, I had my own classes to tend to.

So now that it's summer time again; she informed me that I was to have a paper written by the end of the summer with the intentions of having it published early next year. So the whole first month of my summer position I was modifying my program, fixing the code, tweaking it, generally making it speedier. When the program takes 30 minutes per trial of 500 moths (doing a trap efficiency experiment) you don't think that's too bad. 30 minutes 1000 times, well, that's getting a bit much. But when the program takes 8 hours for one simulation of 2000 moths, and you have to run 4 of those experiments to have enough data to say you've emulated what scientists do in the field... yeah, that's a bit extreme. But fixing my program, with the knowledge I gleaned this year in classes, I have the program going as quick as 2 hours per quarter. It takes only 8 hours to run the whole experiment!

As I said in the previous paragraph, I'd spent the first month making my program more efficient. But she wanted something I could show for. So I added sterile female moths to my program, to accompany the sterile males I'd had for the year. Though, we're not even close to ready to use these female moths in our simulation. I feel we still need to polish up the male aspect of the simulation. Get the no-wind model analyzed again now that I've made some modifications. Then we can move on to an all-male analysis using wind, since I just recently (this last week) fixed a minor bug that prevented my moths from moving in certain directions (they should be able to move in a full 360 degrees along the x-y plane). Then after we've got that data, and have analyzed as best we can, maybe we could then how the data changes when females are introduced.

But wait! Sterile males and sterile females aren't enough. Now we need to add wild males and wild females. Because, you know, we can. And when that's done, we need to have these moths mating with each other... you can see where this is going. This simulation is getting bigger and more complicated. I've got my boss looking over my shoulder (once a week, Wednesdays) telling me, "Looks good, now do this". And all the time, no research is being made. I'm just programming and programming. But don't get me wrong. That's what I'm here for, I'm here to program this awesome simulation that takes in the important parameters so the Scientist can use my program, tweak the numbers, analyse the data and write the paper.

However, my role in this project has grown. I went from just having programming duties to having to analyse the data. Then creating presentations. And with the presentations came the mathematical formulas I had to make sense of (I'm not a math student by far). I just want to go back and polish my program. I want to make it user-friendly. I want to write the document to allow the world to use my simulation (open-source if I had my way) to study the movements of more than just these Codling moths. The program could be modified to work with, say, salmon swimming up stream. Maybe even cows wandering across a field, eating grass and rolling in mud along the way. I'm here to program, that's how she sold this job to me.

And when you consider how much this program is worth, think of this. I've been employed for the last year and more to work on this. 4 months of 35 hours weeks, that's 560 hours right there. And 8 months during the school year of, say, 5 hours a week. That's another 160 hours. Plus the last two months I've been doing my summer position, another 280 (I hope I'm getting my math right). So that's a total of, wow I didn't this number, 1000 hours. And let's say I'm being paid an average $9.50 canadian for this (none of which I have managed to save) and that's $9500.00 that has been put into this simulation. So, thus far, this simulation is worth $9500, and if it were commercial, you'd want a product that you can sell to make a profit. If you wanted a profit, you'd be polishing the program and making it the best thing you could. But sadly, as you've read this far, that is not how this is going.

So now I'm going to read the stack of scientific papers I have sitting in front of me. Hopefully this will give me some insight as to how and what I should write about. That's the topic of meeting with my professor today, we're going to decide what I am to write about. All I can think of is writing an advertisement for my simulation. How it may benefit the scientific community. How to use it.

Providing I'm not contractually obligated to keep it under wraps, this is going

-to be open-source

Guess who's back

Gorillaz!!! They're 'performing' a virtual concert today for 99x listeners (everything alternative, radio Atlanta, Georgia). Click and enjoy.

-I've got sunshine in a bag

This may be a paddy-wagon used by the ZomCon people. I haven't seen it in use, but it may be what they pick up bad zombies in, or what they deliver zombies in. Just guessing.

A view of the entire ZomCon car.

This picture was taken on the North end of Maple Street, where it intersects with Riverside Ave. The movie is being filmed perpendicular to the car (behind and to the right of me as I take this picture).

Did it again


Picture of the ZomCon decal just in front of the drivers side door (the left side, here in North America).

The grumpy zombie couldn't keep me away. I rollerbladed by again today and stopped to talk with one of the security persons (persons because she was a girl). I couldn't go down Lake Ave today because they were filming toward that end, down south Maple Street. So I asked her what I could take pictures of. She didn't specifically say I couldn't take pictures of the actors (so I'm going to try to get a picture of a zombie later) and she said it was cool if I took pictures of the vehicles. So I got the cars and the Zomcon paddy-wagon. Unfortunately I couldn't find the Zomcon Milk truck. That was pretty cool-looking, too. It was a white truck, much like the ice-cream trucks you see today, with the Zomcon logo on the side with "Milk" written just below it.

They were firing the blank gunshots as I was there, too. I wanted to get closer, but wasn't going to press my luck. I was standing right by the set vehicles on my rollerblades and they hadn't kicked me out. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get right down to the house there. Oh yeah, back to the gunshots. Pretty dull, actually. I was expecting "BANG BANG BOOM POP POP POP" but it was more like a "Ok, go." ~~~ "Pop" ~~~ "PoP" ~~~ "pOP" ~~~ "pop" over the course of 15 or 20 seconds. And the gun fire sounded like somebody dropping a wooden plank evenly on the ground. Or even hammering a nail into wood really hard. Or when you go to the public pool and some little kick slaps his boogie-board down on the water and it echoes a little off the walls.

Oh yeah, check out horror-movies.ca for the rest of my pictures :) That is, if they choose to use them.

-Photo-journalist

Zombies have attitudes

Just 10 minutes ago I was rollerblading with my girlfriend. We were just coming passed the catering truck/rest area and were about to pass someone wearing what appeared to be a mechanics outfit. I whispered "That's a zombie". It was. As we went passed him I said to him, "So that's what a zombie looks like" and he said "Yes. And that's what it looks like to be hit by a car." referring to me not really paying attention as vehicles drove passed me.

-Need to bring my camera next time

Paparazzi


Fido the Zombie movie. This street (Maple St.) was blocked off, except to local traffic. You can see here both sides of the road are lined with old 1950s vehicles, as appropriate to the era of the film.

I really do apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. I don't know the policy of film sets allowed to be photographed, so I took this picture from my hip, with my non-telescoping lensed Olympus Camedia D-390 digital camera while zooming by on my rollerblades.


Another pic of the street Fido is currently being filmed on. This is the other end of Maple street. Not very exciting, really, but I've got less exciting pictures. Like, of the star-catering food truck used to cater the set.

-Better pics when I get braver

Even the dead need friends



Have I mentioned there's a feature film being shot only half a block from where I live? The movie is titled "Fido the Zombie" and casts the matrix star, Carrie-Anne Moss.

Click here for what Bloody-Disgusting.com has to say about the film.
And click here for a more in-depth description of what Fido is all about.

And here's what my city's local news-site has to say about the filming:

Road Closures For Fido

To accommodate filming of the feature movie Fido, the following roads will be open to local traffic only from June 8 to June 20th:

• Maple Street, between Lake Avenue and Riverside Avenue
  
• Lake Avenue, between Abbott Street and Water Street
  
• Riverside Avenue, between Abbott Street and Water Street

Filming will generally take place during daylight hours, however it will also occur overnight on June 10, 11, 16 and 17 from 5:00 pm to 5:00 am.

Residents are advised there will be blank gun fire on June 10th. Some blank gunfire will also occur on June 21st when filming takes place at the end of Chute Lake Road outside city limits, and again on July 11, 12 and 13 at the old Hiram Walker distillery site in Lake Country. The RCMP will be notified prior to any firing of the weapon.

I feel like this is some pretty exciting stuff. I love zombies.

-The walking dead invade my neighborhood!

Upcoming beach party

I'm fortunate enough to live in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

Yeah, this is a little piece of city park. Vendors set up tables along this stretch of walkway here. Farther down the walkway is a skate park and water park. All along the waterfront is sandy beach, which stretches from end to end of Kelowna's city limits. To the left is the grassy area of the park. Immediately to the right are the sails:

and a ways more to the right is the Grand Hotel with their dolphin fountain:

It is this area I want to discuss. Every year (at least for the last few years) WakeFest is hosted here. It's a 3 day beach party, really, with professional wakeboarders competing for $40,000 Canadian.

Last years party featured such bands as The Ataris (RAWK! >_<) and Andrew W.K.. At $18 a day pass or $43 for the whole weekend, it's a steal. Unfortunately I didn't make it last year. I did, however, stand at the fence and waited for The Ataris to play their gig. I stood in the rain for an hour, shielding my girlfriend from the rain, on our rollerblades. She did that for me, and we never did get to hear them play. But I'm sure the show was awesome.

This year is featuring Alexisonfire with Comeback Kid and some other bands (De La Soul with Sweatshop Union). Should be ok. Friday, at least. I'd pay $18 to see Comeback Kid and Alexisonfire. And let's not neglect to mention the local ladies and their bikinis (my girlfriend especially. She just bought a new bikini, pretty in pink).

And if I could bring your attention to a local band, Glory Nights. These guys are going to make it big. They are playing in the Warped Tour at the Vancouver show. Click and spread it amongst your friends.

-Back to my paying job, now

Game O' Life

(Yeah, John Conway's too). God games. I don't know where a developer decides to start with one of these. Peter Molyneux. Will Wright. Sid Meier. Great designers if you ask me. I especially like Wright's toys he creates. They aren't so much games as just kind of a set of tools that you can play with in regards to certain rules. That appeals to me.

Think of it: Animal Crossing combined with Diablo. You can live your life, tend your garden. Piss off bees in trees. Customize your wardrobe. When you get bored of that you can take it to the haunted cave on the hill behind the wise-mans house (but is he really wise if great evil lurks forever behind him). That set of padded butt-leather you just decorated with daisies and stars is going to protect your ass as you go toe-to-toe with whichever creatures from the pits of hell have decided to occupy the cave today. Didn't you just clear the cave out last month? And how about the ArachniQueen who won't agree to a treaty with the villagers. She's always menacing people in labyrinth found in the forest to the east of town.

This game, of course, is fictional. I came up with it off the top of my head just now. But there is a premise. Take the best of a few games and you have yourself an open-ended world where you can play to your hearts content. And providing the game is playable off a hard-drive then you have unlimited additions in the way of expansion packs and user-created items.

Like the beginning of Unix, perhaps they start small and it just kinda turns into something that takes on a life of its own. Create a space, call it your world. Drop in some entities. Populate it with creatures. Give those creatures the ability to interact with their surroundings.

I like to look at these worlds as a God myself. As a programmer/designer I call the shots when I sit down to design a game. I create what goes into my world. On the first day I can create the oceans. I can add land. On the second day I could create mountains and air. On the third day I could populate the world with asexual Richard Simmons if I felt like it. Then let's say I rest, but not before I spawn a player-character and drop him next to a tower fortified with a generous supply of artillery. Then we make fun of fat people and wait for the cavalcade of Simmons to come charging.

Richard Simmons has done very well for himself, and really doesn't deserve someone who doesn't know him picking on him. But you need to make fun of some people some times, don't you?

-Now you decide how you take care of the situation.

Happy Commenting

Pephemie kinda sorta helped me out with my comments. Well, she questioned me on it and I tried a few more variations. Apperantly I don't follow directions too well. I hadn't placed the comment code immediately after the 'posted by' code. And that took me a year and a half to figure out.

-Vroom vrooming around on my bike

Motorbike Madness

I finally have my motorbike registered in my name. I'd bought a motorbike from a friend of my Girlfriend's parents. This bike was bought by this friend but never registered. Due to this fact, I had to take the long way (but not the super-long way) to get the bike. First searching for the bike in the database and not finding it. Then paying a notary to officially stamp and sign my statement that the bike is mine. Then running the bike through the database again and finding it. Then saying "screw you" to that insurance agency and going to another that agreed to write up the bike in my name.

So now it's mine and I can insure it and legally ride it. It's about time, too, since the bike has been in my care for the last year. I'm taking it camping with me this weekend (before I insure it) so I can ride it up and down dirt roads.

-1981 Yamaha Exciter, measly 185cc

Of video games and icons

John Romero, I mean you. The two Johns, people I can only aspire to emulate. The other John being Mr Carmack at iD software. However, I think Mr Romero is the one I am most like. The guy spent the last few years (before jumping on board with Midway) doing what he wanted to do with his own company. MonkeyStone games doing awesomely fun 2D games. That is where it all started, back with the 2D, and that is where I'm at now.

It may be because I haven't played around with graphics programming, but I'd like to think that it's because I know what I want to do. I hope I can find myself a job, when I graduate in a couple more years (2 more left in my 5 year degree, 2007 here I come) doing some portable system game programming. I've got my current project underway and I think it may turn out all right. Or mostly right. I admit, I've only come so far as to get the keyboard input working with my (skillfully placed) stick figures. All that's left before I can really show the game off as an 'alpha' is to make a splash screen and replace my stick figures and flat ground with the textures and icons I've been drawing up the last month. Maybe if I get around to it I'll post some pics of my characters and the screenshots I GIMP'd together.

-Good to goal

Comments

I'd have a comment button if this blog would work. I've tried a few times but it never does seem to appear. Nobody reads this, anyway. If they did then I'd get an email once in a while.

I can give you a gmail account if you like. I've got some 50 invitations to give out.

-Though if you're a blogger, you've already got one.

I must post this for the purpose that it is preserved in my blog forever

There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.
-- Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior.

Now how true is that? Let this be a lesson... don't ever cut out the affection part. Once the affection is there, make sure it is there to stay.

-Unix fortune

E3 Goodness

I'm still hung up on Spore. I haven't bought too many games in the last couple years since I really got into playing my old GameCube games. But Spore, for the PC, is looking like it's going to be a pretty rux0r game. And I'm not really into the whole strategy thing, but I think I can slog through it to get to the interplanetary domination.

I think I gained a whole 15 pounds from the week I spent in Calgary eating the conference food. It suddenly expanded my gut, causing me to notice. My girlfriend notices as well.

Nintendo Revolution (the next step, after GameCube). WiFi. Library of vintage games for download (possibly for a small fee). Backward compatibility. That's what's got me tingling for the system. However, I'm going to try to hold out until the system is dropped in price and comes with accessories; yeah, probably a year after its release it'll finally drop in price, which would put it at 2 and a half years until I get my hands on the system. I bought my GameCube when it had just been released. It had a whole 4 or 5 games released when I'd bought it. The Cube, an extra controller, a memory card and game rang up at around $500 (Canadian). You can buy all that for $150 today.

Value gaming with Nintendo. I bought Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life. I've burned throught he first week and a half of game time. I've picked two tomatoes from my crop. I've got 5 watermelons on the way and19 more tomatoes (21 after the two I picked grow back) on the way. One cow, a hen and a rooster (and my dog). I've begun wooing the ladies. The shy (easiest to woo) girl is the one I'm avoiding. I'm going for the hard-to-get Nomi. She's a red head. Need I say more? The game is quite fun. A days chores leaves me with enough time to dig for artifacts and fish a little bit. Definately worth the $19 I paid for it.

-System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. gonna have a good time

Fido the Zombie

The film crew is staying on campus, where I'm working over the summer. I missed the casting call, which was held on Saturday, because I was away in Calgary for a conference. I was really looking forward to trying my hand at playing a zombie. How cool would it be to play a zombie in a movie? Even if it is a 'family-comedy zombie film'. So my hope is that the film is shot here on campus and I can just kinda hang out when they are shooting film. Then they can say, "You! We need an extra. Sit down and eat this pudding."

War of the Worlds...
what can I say about that? I read the book (both books, actually). All ~140 pages of martian invasions. I then borrowed the 1950's movie from the campus library and I have to tell you that the modernity of the changing times really sucks. The story tells of an invasion of martians on 100 foot tall tripods with mounted heat-rays and a slight reference to a single martian flying machine. Keep in mind the story was written in the late 1800's. The 1950's movie tells the story of a martian invasion using flying ships that are near indestructable.

The martians in the book were not indestructable, the martians simply took out the earths defenses before they could be drawn upon the invaders. And the martians of the book were huge round bodies with big eyes and small face who were too weak to maneuver about in earths gravity. The old movie shows bipedal creatures with a single eye who have no problem running about in earths (comparably) strong gravity.

At least the endings compare... I won't spoil it for you because the 2005 Spielburg film is released in just over a month. You'll probably want to see how it ends for yourself. So I just have this to say about the new film. I've watched all the trailers and TV spots in both english and japanese versions and it looks good. I am, however, a bit skeptical of how Spielburg is handling the mobility of the alien invaders. I'd still like to see 100 foot tall tripod walking machines with mounted heat-rays. But I guess with the ever-changing technology of earth as time continues, the walking machines would seem antique and truncated. It can be done right in reference of todays technology, I suppose. But I'd still like to see weak, fat blobs riding tripods while they roast people to death.

-One third a major city's population wiped out in the course of a month

Asshole of assholedness

You know, thinking back to who I was and who I am now; looking back on my old blogs and comparing them to my new; before today I has always thought I was a nicer guy 4 years ago than I am now. I call myself a cynic now, someone who could be nicer. I thought I was a nice guy back then but reading my old blogs I come across as a jerk. Maybe that was my night-time personality.

I'm just trying to be me, and I see myself as a nice guy. Sometimes I'm told I'm not, but I don't know. Maybe I don't know myself. I've lost my train of thought.

-No catching up to the locomotive now

Done and Done

The MITACS conference is over, at least for me it is. There's a few more hours of seminars and some meetings for the professors. However, the profs are leaving in the early evening and I'm staying behind.

I've got another night here on campus at the University of Calgary and will be leaving tomorrow, mid-morning. A professor from the school I attend was nice enough to offer me a ride back with her, which is great because that saves me spending $72 on the Greyhound (Greyhound is a bus-line here in North America).

Last nights dinner was great, a five course meal. Starting with tiger prawns with mango salsa followed by minestrone soup. Caprese salad came after that, which I didn't like too much. The salad was a ring of tomato slices seperated with brocrmksdf cheese on a leaf of lettuce with cracked pepper and basil oil. I thought I was eating dandelion. The main course came after the salad; beef roast with whiskey gravey and a couple pieces of potato with zucchini and carrot. Desert was mango, raspberry and blackberry gelato with strawberry sauce.

I didn't win anything with my research, not that I was really expecting to. This guy won one of three first place awards for his research which is kinda fun to play with. In just over 24 hours I'll be back at home with my girlfriend. I can hardly wait.

-See you soon, sweetie

You have been judged

I'm all done. The hard work is over. I've been questioned and judged and can now enjoy the food. Dinner tonight at the Calgary Tower, I've got no idea how to get around this city. A friend of mine from the University has offered to show me.

So I was in the Science building "A" yesterday and asking around for an aquarium. Hey, I like fish. Well, I get pointed in the direction of an office. When I ask, there, for an aquarium they said "Oh yes, we have one" followed by "Who are you trying to find?" and I said I just want to see fish. Show me an aquarium. She was singing a different song after that. Suddenly the aquarium didn't exist. What are they hiding? Sea-bass with lasers attached to their heads?

-Done for now

From the University of Calgary

I'm presenting my research in 30 minutes, and again 40 minutes after that, and again 20 minutes after that. Then my job here is done. From then on all I have to do is show up for food when it's available. And, I suppose, attend a seminar given by a professor from the University I attend.

I'm eating breakfast, and don't have too much time.

-Back to the food table

Punishable by law

For the last year, I've been trying to gain ownership of a motorcycle sold to me by a family friend of my girlfriend's. Hoops upon hoops, I don't know if I have the energy to jump through any more. The point of todays story is a declaration with my signature that guarantees my statement is the truth and is punishable by law if it turns out to be false.

I wasn't told what to write, I just assumed I was to write my story of what has happened so far, which was what I did. The guy at the notary asked if I was sure, if I wanted to add more, that more is better than less. He signed it, stamped it and charged me half price. I hope it's enough and doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. I've been looking forward to riding and want to get on it already.

-Vroom vroom

Helping those in need

I stopped in at the library this morning, before starting work for the day. I borrowed Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds for some reading, after I've finished Bram Stoker's Dracula of course. The latter should be finished tonight.

My sole purpose of entering the library was to pay my late fees. My school is in transition from one institution to another and I am worried that if I do not pay my fees ($10) that even so small a fine will hurt me later on. For all I know, the fine could prevent myself obtaining my graduation. I was prepared to pay the fine, and had in fact placed my money on the counter (it's about time, as the fee has been growing over the last 3 years), when the librarian informed me they are promoting "food for fines". This means, they will accept one food item per late fee to clear the fines. 5 food items, in the form of pasta/canned/etc seems a good deal to me, in helping the local food bank.

-Feedy the Needy

Helping those in need

I stopped in at the library this morning, before starting work for the day. I borrowed Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds for some reading, after I've finished Bram Stoker's Dracula of course. The latter should be finished tonight.

My sole purpose of entering the library was to pay my late fees. My school is in transition from one institution to another and I am worried that if I do not pay my fees ($10) that even so small a fine will hurt me later on. For all I know, the fine could prevent myself obtaining my graduation. I was prepared to pay the fine, and had in fact placed my money on the counter (it's about time, as the fee has been growing over the last 3 years), when the librarian informed me they are promoting "food for fines". This means, they will accept one food item per late fee to clear the fines. 5 food items, in the form of pasta/canned/etc seems a good deal to me, in helping the local food bank.

-Feedy the Needy

Mothers

It's Mothers day, soon. I have not forgotten. I've got a card for my Mom right here, waiting for me to write something nice in it, address it and post it. I love you, Mom.

Back to Work

Tomorrow, the first official day of my summer occupation. Back to the moth research after only a couple days off.

-Summer Fun

I'm blogging this!

Times like today when you wish you had a shirt with those words written across it. My girlfriend's Dad, tonight, wanted to treat us to dinner. He'd bought a cake for dessert; had expected to pay $6.99 for it but was charged $25.99 at the till. He shrugged and went home.

My girlfriend and I had picked up dinner and appies from a meat deli her Sister works at and drove to her parent's place. We had the appies and dinner, followed by the cake for dessert. Heh, more dessert than we bargained for. While eating my slice I thought I'd noticed a funny taste around the place where a banana slice was placed. I ate the banana and DAMN it was gross. I'd warned the others not go to there. I'd eaten my entire piece of cake; my girlfriend couldn't finish hers. She'd eaten a quarter, from the bottom.

So I proceeded to finish hers off. Got to the banana slice on her piece, tasted different again. Decided that it must be the different coloured whipped cream used on that part. Yeah, different coloured. Reddish, with little green spots. Wait a minute, the spots are fuzzy. Moldy cake. Her Dad had eaten two pieces, her Mom had one. Her little brother one, and I'd almost eaten two.

That thing was no doubt meant to be priced at $6.99, and should have been pulled the day before, for sure. The cake was returned, money was refunded. The shirt "I'm blogging this" would have come in handy during the refund. To warn the public, it was bought at The Real Canadian Super Store also affiliated with Extra Foods. So buyer beware.

-Fear Factor

Study Study

Updated my profile, added some items to my wishlist. Posted a picture, he's everyones favorite criminal. Replied to a new random question, something about the taste of pennies in your mouth. Misread as the taste of penis in your mouth.

Still studying here. Systems Analysis and Design along with Linear Algebra. Haven't touched SAD today, going with LinAlg. SAD later, maybe tomorrow. Just taking a break here, covered determinants, will now review eigen-vectors/values.

Reading Dracula by Abraham (Bram) Stoker. Excellent book, opened my eyes to the world of shorthand (as written in this blog). New style, may be a bit annoying to read, but easy to write. Back to studying for me.

Oh yeah: ChairDancing O numa numa song

-Girlfriend still got a sore side

Home Time

My girlfriend has been home since Tuesday afternoon. It's good to have her back.

I've written two exams so far, still have Systems Analysis and Design left, as well as Linear Algebra. I've written Discrete Structures and Machine Architecture. It feels good to have those classes over with. And to never have that professor again, as he's taking a long vacation.

-Study, buddy

Blogging from the Hospital, sort of

I gathered up my bravery today and ate the hospital food. My girlfriend was never going to touch the "FF Cream of Broccoli Soup" and I was feeling curious. It was almost like they'd poured cream and broccoli into a blender and mixed it up. She told me not to be silly, that it probably comes from a box and I was giving them too much credit. She's probably right. And what does "FF" mean anyway? We guessed "Full Flavoured" as opposed to half/half.

I'll be posting this when I get home, seeing how there's no wireless connection to be found anywhere in this hospital.

-They need to be tech'd

Trackmania

Great game for racing. Very much so unrealistic, but that's the kind of game that appeals to me. Unrealistic in the sense that I can escape the real world and occupy myself for a brief moment in another. Think F-Zero but with modern cars. Jumps, track editing, skin/paint editing, video save/replay. I haven't tried multiplayer, but the single player part of the demo I've seen shines very nice. The full game was just released April 8, so maybe I'll have my hands on it soon.

-vroom vroom

Master of Doom

Way back in the day, my Grandpa bought Final Doom (yeah, when you could still find Final Doom on store shelves ~ ie it was just released). I'd been exposed to Doom long before that, in the form of Doom 1. I've been playing around with Doom II lately. Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, as people have been playing the source ports for quite some time. I've tried out zDoom and jDoom (Doomsday).

zDoom is quite nice, for playability. The graphics are nicely updated for higher resolution, much like jDoom. But jDoom lacks in the gameplay department. Sure, jDoom shares jumping with zDoom and higher resolution textures, but jDoom just doesn't have the keyboard customizability that zDoom does. I like having my mouse wheel swap through weapons. You know, I think if jDoom had just that one little feature, I might play through Doom II with it, rather than zDoom. But in the mean time, it's zDoom all the way.

-Yeah, I've read the book Masters of Doom cover to cover

Just to let you know, I'm calling security!

Escorted out of the hospital last night for sitting beside my girlfriend after visiting hours.

-Not as exciting as TV makes it out to be. Bo-ring!

More Hospitality

That's a good word, isn't it? Hospitality, being hospitable. Welcoming and catering to another and their needs. We've had a good run of nice nurses and volunteers at the hospital, which helps to make the stay more pleasant. At least tonight nobody was pressing me to get out of there before I was ready, I left when my girlfriend was ready to fall asleep for the night. I'll be back there early tomorrow morning, just as I was this morning.

-I watched her sleep for almost an hour

Transitioning... Conglomerating... Consuming

The school I attend is being consumed by a larger, better known school. I figure it's just as well, seeing how I'm paying big-school prices, I may as well get the big-school degree. To help ease students into the transition of one school consuming another, the new institution has printed up brochures to help inform the new and transitioning students. It just happens that I'm 'featured', as one friend called it. Here's the quote:

rak ~ (8) take the skin and peel it back... doesn't it make you feel better? (8):
hey, dude... you're featured prominently in that [big all absorbing conglomerate] transition booklet they were handing out.

I haven't had a chance to look at the page in detail, but from what I've glanced at, it's me striking a pose (because I was posed) talking to some girl. That's how those brochures are thrown together. They aren't reallystudents doing real student stuff, it's a photographer gathering a bunch of ... well, ok, students ... and posing them doing student stuff. I'm also smattered around the website of the new (and as of yet still non-existing, but soon to be new and existing) school. I'll give you a hint, I'm in the middle wearing the grey sweater bearing the school initials. 'rakslice' is the guy doing the 'hey ho, kool-aide' in the white shirt behind me.

-Sleep time, gotta visit and take care of my girl some more tomorrow

Hospitals and their ilk

I've spent the majority of the last 29 hours at the hospital; my girlfriend went under emergency surgery. So I spent the night at the hospital last night (seeing how she was out of surgery at 12:30 midnight) and skipped school and work today to be with her. I made up an hour and a half of work today, seeing how I'm on salary for researching. I ate hospital food... that I paid for. $4 for 2 sausages, 2 eggs (scrambled), 1 english muffin (crumpet?) and 2 scoops of shaved hashbrowns (because nobody likes hairy hashbrowns).

I'm going to sleep now, though. Now that I'm back home, and I'm going to work and school tomorrow.

-Checking up on her early in the morning and after school

Guru of sorts

I've been playing with mazes as of late. Attempting to solve the secrets to creating one, actually. And there's a method to my madness, it's for level generation in my game. So, I'm learning to program mazes.

Anything I'm learning, I'm learning from this site, Think Labyrinth which truly is a great source for anything maze related. This guy really knows what he's talking about, and was even blurbed about on Ripley's Believe It or Not section of a newspaper .

I'm trying to code my own 'Hunt and Kill' agorithm, which basically, when no more rooms can be carved in a certain segment, scans the array of rooms and searches for the first available room that is not too crowded, which means there's room to start another segment of room creation.

Start at one location and carve a room. Next, choose an adjacent room at random. Test to see if that room is not too crowded. If it's not too crowded, place the room and choose another adjacent room at random. Test and repeat. If a room is too crowded, 'Hunt and Kill' to find the next available uncrowded room and continue from there.

A room is concidered too crowded if there are two rooms adjacent to that room. What you want to ensure is that every room you add is a continuation of only the preceding room. This ensures that there are no loops in the maze, which guarantees there is only one path to the exit. This is called a 'perfect' maze.

Admittedly, I've been having trouble with my program. But only because I did not understand these simple concepts. It took me the last two hours laying in bed for my brain to really dumb it down to something I could understand. And here I have crawled out of bed to make a note of it so I don't forget my brilliance in the morning.

-Because that's something I would do

The home stretch

I've finally put the finishing touches on my research poster... you know, how exciting is it to read about another persons life? I can't see that it's really all too exciting. I don't expect people to be even slightly entertained in reading my blog. It's here for me, as a record of events in my life. Maybe one day my grandchildren will read my blog and write up a family history of it or something. I don't know.

But I know I've got nothing to offer the random passerby. Go on, find another blog. There's nothing of interest here, at least not yet.

-Heh, that was fun

The Day after the First Day of Spring
Yeah, today is the first day after the first day of spring, so that makes it the second day of spring, right? So why is it snowing outside? I haven't seen it really snow since January. It tried to snow this past Friday morning, but weakly.

So this is what it's like when posters collide
I've a presentation to make in just over a month, at the University of Calgary. I exagerate on that, seeing how all I'm really doing is standing in front of my poster, answering peoples questions about the sort of work I do.

...And blog sucked for a moment. I'd gone on to describe the work I'm doing but it decided to fart and lose it all.

-Put an end to it

As luck should have it
My girlfriend's best friend has been seeing a certain guy for a little while now. Turns out, I went to highschool with this guy. I saw him tonight for the first time in 4 years, and he's doing really well. The title, 'as luck should have it' relates to him. Not so much in the sense of me meeting him again, but his luck in landing a good career job.

After graduation, he started seeing a girl. Her Mother worked at some place that involved aptitude tests, and he ended up taking one. His results landed him with a job at a fairly new software developement agency close to where we attended highschool. He started in tech support (and this is a lot like the sims, so it seems). The bottom rung of the ladder, tech support, making a fairly decent wage for someone fresh out of highschool.

Now, 4 years later, he works in sales and marketing. He makes twice as much as I do at his job, and he gets to travel the continent. Twice this month he has been flown to California. What luck! He admits, the software development department is where the real money is at, they make over twice as much as he makes in his department, and that's five times as much as I make in a University level student research position. Not bad for a small, local developement agency.

-Good for him

Game Developers Conference

Year after year the GDC occurs and year after year I wish I could attend. Some time soon I'll be sent to the GDC by my employer to promote our latest game... but I've got to graduate university and get hired first.

The big news, originating from the GDC, is of Will Wright's evolution game, "Spore". I'm really looking forward to this game! To think you start as an indiscriminate round blob and you evolve yourself to fit in with the changing world. And single player that uses a global database to populate the world with other players creations. GamingSteve has some screenshots and a recording of his views of this game.

-I can't wait to play GOD again

The games

I found Lucas Arts Armed and Dangerous for $5 at my local Electronics Boutique. For a $5 game, it's really not all that bad, but for the game itself I can see why it's only $5 after a year from it's release. I thought I'd have more to say about it than that, but I don't. Hrm, go figure.

My spring break has come and gone, and I stayed in my town for the duration of it. In fact, I worked through the whole thing. Well, not without entertaining myself, of course. I had 16 hours of monitoring a computer lab on campus during the break. 16 hours of The Simpsons: Hit and Run as well as my homegrown game being developed in my spare time. I squashed a few bugs in my game, got some AI going as well, so that's a start. I also played around some more with my moth simulation. I needed to output some information to record the center of mass of my cloud of moths as they progressed through my simulated orchard.

Back to school tomorrow. Some day soon I'll find out how terrible I did on one or two of my midterms and hopefully how I rocked another. I don't pick the classes I'm good at, they seem to pick me.

-Though the classes I suck at do a good job of picking me, too

So, what's the right thing to do?

What to do when your girlfriend is mad at you, and making it quite obvious? Theoretically, of course. What to do when this happens to you? What's the right choice of action? This is all a theoretical basis, of course, as if your girlfriend is mad at you for any reason.

Say she's playing the "You don't even care" card. What do you do? And why is she saying that in the first place? I see two things that you can do. One, you can keep your calm and try to reason the situation out. This, how I see it, is where she's getting the "You don't care" attitude. Second, you could yell right back at her. Maybe she could see this as a caring attitude? It boggles me, I'll tell you that. Personally, I'm more of a 'keep calm and reason with her' kind of guy. I've no enthusiasm for yelling at my girlfriend when she's clearly distraught. I know it's not her fault she's acting that way, she's a girl.

And you just know she's going to try to get you to yell at her if you don't. So what can you do in a situation like that? I'll tell you what I do... I fall into her trap. She knows exactly what to say or do to strike that nerve, and I fall into her trap almost every time. But I keep hopeful, I know that's what she wants. She wants me to take the bait and snap back at her, to show her I care, right? Not that I'm asking you if I'm right, I'm sure that's what she wants. So I retort and she gets angrier. But that's what she wants, she expects it. But what else could you do, if you don't take the bait and yell at her? She'll take it that you just don't care and she'll keep using that against you. And you know that all you want is for her to give in and give you a hug but we don't live in that universe. If you don't lose your temper, she'll get angrier and more distant and that'll just fsck with your mind.

Remember, this is all theoretical. Nobody is mad at you or me; this is all a 'what to do' discussion. I really don't understand why they don't stop when they get what they want. Forgive and forget, right?

-Forgive and forget

Homegrown Concerts

Glory Nights, let me tell you, they are up and coming. Vocals like Dashboard Confessional and music to match. I just got back from a CD Release show for The Bleeding Alarm, with guests Red Light Roulette and Glory Nights.

-Awesome show

The lyrics, the lyrics

Dashboard Confessional - "Hands Down"

Breathe in for luck,
breathe in so deep,
this air is blessed,
you share with me.
This night is wild,
so calm and dull,
these hearts they race,
from self control.
Your legs are smooth,
as they graze mine,
we're doing fine,
we're doing nothing at all.

My hopes are so high,
that your kiss might kill me.
So won't you kill me,
so I die happy.
My heart is yours to fill or burst,
to break or bury,
or wear as jewelery,
which ever you prefer.

The words are hushed lets not get busted;
just lay entwined here, undiscovered.
Safe in here from all the stupid questions.
"hey did you get some?"
Man, that is so dumb.
Stay quiet, stay near, stay close they can't hear...
so we can get some.

My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me.
So won't you kill me, so I die happy.
My heart is yours to fill or burst,
to break or bury, or wear as jewelery,
which ever you prefer.

Hands down this is the best day I can ever remember,
I'll always remember the sound of the stereo,
the dim of the soft lights,
the scent of your hair that you twirled in your fingers
and the time on the clock when we realized it's so late
and this walk that we shared together.
The streets were wet
and the gate was locked so I jumped it,
and I let you in.
And you stood at your door with your hands on my waist
and you kissed me like you meant it.
And I knew that you meant it,
that you meant it,
that you meant it,
and I knew,
that you meant it,
that you meant it.

As Always, thanks to AZLyrics.com for always having the lyrics.
I'm here at school, programming my game and this song starts playing in my Winamp. It starts me thinking of my girlfriend, so I'm thinking of her, feeling good.

-Yeah, uh. Guess I just wanted you to know

Bookworm

Since Christmas, I've read 4 books (and counting). My girlfriend got me "The Looking Glass Wars" which follows Alice through a variation of the charmed Wonderland. I've also read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series from "The Philosopher's Stone", to "The Chamber of Secrets" and "The Prisoner of Azkaban". Not to mention I've watched all of the coresponding movies after I'd read the book. Also, I'm 1/3 done the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, "The Goblet of Fire". And I've got "The Order of the Phoenix" on order at the library. I plan to have all the books read by the middle or end of February. At this rate, providing I get the book promptly from the library, I'll be done in the next couple weeks. Sadly, after this series, I don't really have anything else planned for reading. Which is just as well, seeing how midterms are starting next week.

-Keener... no, but I try

Concerts abound!

I saw Sum 41 in concert just this last Friday! Great show! Black Maria from Toronto opened for Sum 41, but the lead singer had larynghitis [sp] and only lasted 20 minutes. The were pretty good. After their set No Warning rawked the dome. No Warning was awesome, high energy, good music. And then came Sum 41 themselves. They were introduced via a video projected onto the backdrop of the stage. StevO ends up murduring Cone during a basketball match (literally) and drags Cone back to his apartment where StevO chops him up and serves him as dinner to Deryck and Dave. Boing :funny pose:

The backdrop falls and StevO opens the show standing on his elevated platform next to his drums, wearing a bloody butchers apron and wielding a chain saw. Deryck makes several references to GWBush and pays homage to the King and his Throne (you know which Elvis and which toilet I'm referring to) as well as their Anna Nicole Smith homage. Comedic show, they played their stuff from all 4 albums and are even better live than recorded.

-Super happy fun time

Crisp Mountain Air

I spent the day on a mountain. I'd start at the base of a hill and would travel up that hill. I'd then slide down that hill, only to get up and travel back up the hill. I went tubing, as it's called, at one of the local ski resorts. I did it with a group, which consisted of my girlfriend, her brother, a friend of ours she works with and her boss and boss' son. It's good to take advantage of what nature has to offer, once in a while. My only complaint: today was particularly warm, which caused the snow to turn very much into slush. The first pull UP the hill (on a pulley) soaked my
back to the point of no return. It just got worse from there on. But the sliding down the hill was still fun.

-But wait, there's more.


About Games

Half-Life
I'd have to say that the original Half-Life has the best story/script of any game I've ever played. I've played through the original game (Half-Life) and the add-ons (OpFor, BlueShift) many times, it's that good. And the mods available for it are killer. Especially the official DeathMatch: Classic. But more on that later.
Still on the subject of Half-Life, HL2 is awesome as well. Not so much for the story, as it's not groundbreaking there (imo). HL2 is rawx0r for the engine. Source is where it's at. Picking things up and throwing them around is shweet. Counter-Strike: Source wins big kudos as well, especially for the bots recently made available. No need to play online with lamers any more. Not when there are bots to play with/against. I just wish the mod community would get around to releasing some quality. I want my Half-Life 2 to be put to some good use.

Quake (DeathMatch: Classic in Half-Life)
Tenebrae. You should really check that out. Doom 3 lighting algorithms in the original Quake engine. It makes playing through the original Quake another time worth it. Advanced texturing and lighting and wow. Smoke coming out of the ground and light from a stained glass window refracting through it. Wow. I can't really say what I want to say. There's no words. Try it, you'll like it. Definate eye candy.

I've been playing the original Quake, I'm currently in the lobby standing outside the entrance to episode 4. Episodes 1 through 3 standing completed, exhausted by the total rape of which I had just performed. Maybe those are too strong of words, regardless, I brutalized them. GL Quake is what I'm playing, as even my laptop lacks sufficient power to play Quake Tenebrae. Yeah, I'm too lazy to link anything tonight. Maybe you're not too lazy to Google what I'm referencing. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Codename UGOD
My own little concoction I've had in the works for over a year now. It always makes progress but never sees the light of day. Maybe some day I'll get to polishing it to something I think is worthy of the public eye. My latest accomplishment was overcoming a hurdle that was something of a shortcoming. We all know that when you are using an array to store some information (I may lose some readers here, as this is programmer talk) that you can't have two objects in the same cell of an array at the same time. Doing so causes one object to overwrite the other. You can clearly see how this limits using a 2 dimensional array in your game. You can't have two objects (two players for that matter) occupying the same cell of an array. So how are you supposed to have your players interact with each other? Sure, you could loop and
check every cell around the player (that would be 8 tests to see if another player is in an adjacent cell). But that is a severe limitation. So you think, ok, maybe I'll make a 3 dimensional array. No, that won't work either, it's too inefficient. If I make a 3 dimensional array with a height of 10 but only two players are in the game then that's a waste of 8 2 dimensional arrays. So! why not program a room and create a 2 dimensional array of rooms? The trick is, every room has a list to store one or more players! You've just turned your 2 dimensional array into a static 2d array with a dynamic 3rd dimension! Of course you can play around with variables, you don't have to limit yourself to a static 2d array. This is programming and anything is possible.

Moth Work
The above example was worked out in part to the limitation in my moth simulation. The simulation, written using the SWARM library (.org) is limited to a 2 dimensional array. I've been seriously considering rewriting the whole simulation in a standalone programming language using my own tools and libraries, thus circumventing a static array. Moths fly, .: (therefore) they exist in a 3 dimensional space. It's not fair to them if you prevent them from occupying the same x y coordinates in an array.

Doom 3
I shouldn't rule this guy out. Doom 3. I'd have to say it is extremely unfair to ATI and it's family of video cards. My laptop should be able to run this beast with all the eye candy turned off, but unfortunately it's brutally choppy. This means I have to wait until a PC upgrade comes my way before I can enjoy this one. From what I've seen so far it scores points. I just wish I could enjoy it now.

-My neighbor insists on sharing the bass-line of her country music with me 24/7

Delayed Posting

I get around to this a little slower than I would other times. I had one of those dreams a couple nights ago that leaves you feeling quite happy when you wake up. For one, it involved my girlfriend. And another, it included sexy vampire and zombie girls hungry for my flesh.

Now that I remember it, I was in Europe and there was some freaky doctor guy who was at the middle of the whole diabolical scheme. Some werewolf kept bothering me, and there was some sort of experimental and primitive rail gun involved as well. The doctor impaled himself on his rail gun. With the doctor dead, the institution became swarmed with headcrab zombies from Half Life.

-And I still woke up with a huge smile

Research of Moths

So it's been a long time since I last programmed anything for the codling moth project. You know what? That really sucks. I was hired as a programmer and all I've done over the last 4 months is mathematical analysis. I don't know math, I know my program. My professor told me she wasn't hiring me for mathematical skills, which is good because I still don't have them. I just want to get back to programming.

I've got Redhat Enterprise, as supplied by my professor. So I can now take my research home with me (well, when I install Redhat and get it dual booting with my existing WinXP). I'm looking forward to that, getting Redhat working.

-Half-Life 2 a second time around is just as fun!

Wired

This is fun, I just have to share my thoughts. I'm at work now, it's 8:24am. This was the only lab monitoring shift that would fit into my schedule (that I was hired for). Funny, I applied for 5 shifts and the two that I originally got assigned to conflicted with classes. So I cancelled those and applied for an early morning shift. Hey, I need some cash flow.

Now I'm sitting here at 8:25am and waiting for some downloads to finish. I figured I'd give Half-Life 2 DeathMatch a try. Why not, what can it hurt. It'll take up some hard drive space and I'll rarely play it. For that matter, I'm re-downloading Codename: Gordon. I'll try to finish it this time.

-Rawking out to Billy Talent

First day back

I've finished my first day of semester 2, year 3 at University. Today was the first day I had a notebook computer to write my notes in at school, as well. It was fun. I played Half-Life 2 during my breaks (Awesome game, I finished it last night and am playing it again on HARD difficulty). The notebook is definately a nice toy to have. I also picked up Redhat Enterprise from my professor, so I can get that going on my computer and take my research home with me. Now I think I'm going to join my girlfriend and lay down for a nap. It was a long day.

-Technophile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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