So many Tootsie rolls left over. Mmm, Tootsie rolls.

Breaking out the coconut rum and cola.

Being the crotchety old man, complaining to myself about kids and their firecrackers.

Helping the children of today become the diabetics of tomorrow.

Trick-or-treat'ing in the world of Medievia. You're never too old in Medievia.

Compounding interest on a $0.71 loan at 1/4% per second. Over 30 minutes later I'm currently owed $112 and counting.

Am looking forward to Pirates, Ninjas and Zombies (and Robots) tonight. Happy Day, everyone! Cheap candy starts tomorrow.

Pumpkins, carved: http://ping.fm/dFh1j

Downloading, yet again, the NeverwinterNights Linux installation setup. Those disks go missing more often than socks in a dryer.

Wow! The "DarkRoom" theme in Ubuntu 8.10 actually looks good.

When I eat my smarties I do *not* eat the red ones last.

Succumbing to the temptation. Reading a flamewar on alt.linux: Linux is a Child's Toy. Asshats a-plenty.

Installing Ubuntu8.10 in a VM and the process is looking slick.

Happy twice-annually Ubuntu Day!

Kickin' it in Dead Space. And then stomping on it.

Carving pumpkins

A look into the (potential) decision of speed of turn base battles within BioWare's Sonic Chronicles. http://ping.fm/ntWrY

Contemplating Sonic the Hedgehog and where he fits in relation to the rest of the Peaceniks.

"Don't think of pink elephants"... the effect of a Usenet post with the contents "Please ignore". You just can't do it!

Finding that I don't use 4 of these 10 "essential applications included in Ubuntu 8.10".

A few hours into it and still trying to figure out how Far Cry 2 is a sequel to Far Cry 1.

Surprise! Flamethrower plus dry grass in FarCry2 = awesome! Whoa.

Sitting at work, wondering what it might be like to step into a post-apocalyptic world after a life from birth to 28 years living in a vault

Happy Fallout 3 day, everybody.

Cool. I've just been declared Master of Peggle.

It has taken a year but my bonsai potato has finally started to sprout upward. Pics to come soon.

It's that time of the year again. Sitting down to watch Dead Alive (aka Braindead).

Updating VirtualBox and adding OpenSolaris to my troupe of Ubuntu and Debian guests.

Amazon has got to be joking! Items: CDN$ 8.58
Shipping & Handling: CDN$ 58.41

Trying to remember the term for storing data across many tables in a database rather than just one or a few... R-something? Level? Number?

Missing out on Medievia's Halloween-week festivities. I usually dress up as the Goblin King in the Labyrinth. Maybe the lurking grue.

Maintaining code to the tune of "NOFX - You're Wrong"

BioWare presenting "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMORPG?!?! I almost pooped my pants!

Still messing around with OOP in Perl. It's now making sense. Might give MOOSE a try later.

Finishing up a 7.5 hour stretch with some MC Frontalot. Ping Pong, step up to the table. Ping Pong, put the ball in play!

Rawking out to Gob. One week with Rockbox has proven it's convenient and functional... and a little slow at times.

Learning how to create Perl classes. Always in the back of my mind I wonder if I should just skip Perl and head straight to Python.

Sharing the PSP and Ubuntu love. http://ping.fm/IPFwk

Max Payne, the movie, was freaking awesome! With an exclamation mark awesome.

Rawking out with my Hawk out. Going to watch Max Payne in theatres. Bullet-Time FTW!

I vote for a weekend of horror movies. I'll supply the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "Alien Apocalypse".

I'm becoming my parents! >-|D:{

Messing around in SQLite and probing my data with SQLite Manager in Firefox. Nifty!

It's the middle of October, which means University students are in mid-term mode. I've been out for 10 months and don't feel sorry for them!

Rawking out to "Rhyme Torrents Halloween E.P."

This just in: Mice Run Amok in Office. Hilarity ensues.

Rawking out to Beefy. http://ping.fm/iJFXJ

Still Here

With the purchase of a website and hosting, as well as living on other sites such as Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, etc. It's kind of hard to find a purpose for Blogger. It's dear to my heart, my first blog.

So here's the occasional update saying, "I'm still alive". And I'm still trying to find my purpose in life.

OH HAI!

I haz a website!

So I'll probably export my blogger and archive it for history.

The bigger the tool...

It seems that the bigger the blogging tool the more work it takes to update. Mostly true only in the sense that Blogger allows one to type an almost unlimited number of letters/characters. Twitter restricts the user to 140 characters and Pownce, while not strictly limited, allows a much smaller viewable post than Blogger but still slightly more than Twitter.

So it follows that I update my Twitter the most frequently, followed in turn by Pownce and the least frequently updated is my Blogger account.

http://twitter.com/kdnewton
http://pownce.com/waggy

And for those with even more curiosity,
My flicker page.


Socially networked. Giving in a little at a time.

-Kyle

Blogged with Flock

From the desktop of... Flock

Yeah, I'm testing out this nifty new web browser. You might have heard about it. It's called Flock. You know, no big deal.

Actually, it seems that it will be a big deal. I'm really enjoying this whole integration of media and social tools into a web browser. Sure, everything that is done here in Flock can be done in Firefox with the use of plugins, but it's nice to have something working out of the package like Flock.

Blogged with Flock

Wii commercials

Crazy that Nintendo is considering pulling Wii advertisements because the system is selling so well. I purchased mine in April of this year, and that was after almost three weeks of searching.

Engadget has the story.

To do

Things to get done:

1. Complete the story line to The Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion


2. Move on to the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion


3. Purchase and complete Bio Shock


4. Purchase The Orange Box to play through the rest of the Half Life 2 episodes

Introverted

Digg recently brought this article to my attention. It's about people who tend to keep to themselves. People who are introverted. I liked it.

the cost of support

Holy crap!

For lack of a better exclamation. Yeah! Holy crap! The kind of holy crap that's brown and sticky, like a stick. What have I been learning during my training at work? Well, I'm not sure I can say too much. But I've learned that in the first half of a work day there easily 400 calls placed for tech support. 400 people in the first half of the day (and I've heard it can get up to 8000 in a single day) willing to pay $39 to $69 for someone to uninstall and reinstall a freaking piece of software! And that isn't even the business rate! That's the personal home-computer rate for regular people. I understand not everyone has a daughter's boyfriend who can troubleshoot their computer for them. But get this, I'm paid to search through the product websites support page. Yes, that is right. Most everything available to me is available to the public through the product support page. Look here, I've done a search for "blue screen" and come up with lines I can feed the customer over the phone. For $39~$69 per troubleshoot I think I'd look into fixing the problem myself.


-I'm fine with helping people, I just don't agree with the outrageous fees

More flair

Like Jennifer Aniston's character in the movie Office Space

I don't have enough flair. I mean this in regard to how I write my blog posts. I don't even want to read them myself. Regardless, I begin my training tomorrow as awesome expert-tech support for Symantec's Anti-Virus software. I will keep you posted. And maybe have a little flair. If I make fun of the customers who call then that might bring a little something extra [Edit: I meant if I make fun of them here in my blog. Not on the phone!]. T-Minus 6 hours 30 minutes until I need to wake up (yes, 5am) to get ready for work.

-Totally wicked awesome phone answering guy

how to ace an interview

How to ace a job interview.

I'd been looking for work this last week and a half. Usually I'd be working with my professor at the University I attend, continuing the research I've been working on since summer 2004. My professor didn't get the funding she was expecting this year so I've had to look for work elsewhere.

I thought I'd try my luck with emailed resumes this year. It's worked. Monday morning I email a cover letter (forgetting to attach the email) at 9:30am (mere moments after waking up ~ my laptop is set up beside my bed). I get a phone call at 10:25am to set up my assessment and interviews for Wednesday.

How do you ace your interview? Apply somewhere you will be comfortable working. I'd applied at a technical support call center. I'll be working on a computer and telephone speaking with people about something I (for the moment) am interested in. So I showed up at 10:55am and was calm. I smiled and shook hands and dressed to impress. I had written my application and 45 minute assessment and had my first interview within the first half hour. I was asked to come back for a second interview at 3pm and unofficially I had the job. The 3pm interview lasted less than 5 minutes and I was off back with the first interviewer congratulating me on my new employment.

Apply somewhere you will be comfortable working. You'll come across naturally in your interview and make a lasting impression (at least I hope so, I'd like a raise already) on the people you meet.

-Will be looking for a real job for January 2008.

sea monkeys

Raising countless little creatures

I had a great weekend. Most notably, I'd like to reminisce over Saturday. My girlfriend and I visited every single pet store in town. We were hunting. We were looking for artemia salina and we found them! $10 for a 6 gram bottle of suspended brine-shrimp cysts (eggs). $3 for a hefty box of sea (aquarium/rock) salt. $3 for micro-food (egg powder), all found at your local aquaria store. I can only estimate how many brine-shrimp (Sea-Monkey) eggs are contained in 6 grams but I'd guess it is well above the 100,000 mark.

Of course I didn't drop them all in at once. No! Here's what I did.

1. Measure out 1 litre of room temperature distilled or stale water.
2. Fill glass container with the 1 litre of water.
   
3. Mix in at least 2 teaspoons of aquarium salt until diluted.
4. Since the eggs stick to the lid of the egg bottle because of static I did the following:
1. Close lid, shake bottle. This gets eggs stuck to the inside of the lid of the bottle.
2. Open bottle, hold lid over the water and flick the lid, knocking the eggs into the water.
5. Do step 4 one or two more times.
6. Poke at the eggs floating on the surface so they stop floating and start sinking (use a clean spoon or something).
7. Wait 24 hours before you start seeing little white things (countless white things if you flicked eggs in 3 times) swimming around.

I've done sea-monkeys in the past, but at $10 a shot every time you want to follow their steps 1-2-3 isn't economical. Now I've got sea-monkeys possibly for life and for only$16 too!

Wii!

We also went hunting around for a Nintendo Wii. Tough luck with that. I've seen Playstation 3 consoles for sale but I have never found a Nintendo Wii available for purchase. Everywhere in a 70km radius sells out their shipment of Nintendo Wii in less than an hour of shelving the units. So I'm on the lookout for them. I've got a keen eye set out and I'm ready. I'll leave school early to get one. Yeah, we're really looking forward to some kinetic fun.

DS Homebrew

Tonight I also purchased a Nintendo DS kit for some extra fun with my DS. Just thought I'd point that out. I need more entertainment like I need... Well at this point I really don't need anything. I should be focusing extra effort into finishing up the last 2 weeks of class and last week of exams before summer starts.

-Hoping to finish my research this summer

Late-Winter fun

So the bars and clubs people my age go to are usually pretty quiet around this time of year. So I haven't been out dancing/drinking in a while. Last night, however, my girlfriend and I decided to change that. We went out with another couple, first bowling then wandering around WalMart and then out the a local pub, Monashees. We drank, we danced, we went for icecream afterward. It was good fun. Here's a particular quote I remember at the end of the night as Mark, of the other couple, was scooping some icecream from a container his girlfriend Deanne was holding:

M: Ack! I was going for it and you made me pull out and now I've got it all over myself.
All: Hahaha
M: Now I've got a sticky hand.
All: Crying from laughing so hard.

-Reading/Spring break coming up soon

The Watchmen

w00t! Here's to another awesome episode of Heroes

My girlfriend and I love that show. People with super powers coming together to save the day. But what about the people with mediocre powers?

You never hear about the person who never has to sleep or the person who can go without ever having to eat. "Hey, Bob. What's your power? Want to know mine? I'm totally immune to warts."

I suppose the story is where the super powers are. What's so exciting about the mediocre power to stop the growth of your hair and finger nails? The power to sprout zits all over your body. Hey, in a universe populated with people who have special abilities, any of these are possibilities.

-I think there's a graphic novel related to this called 'The Watchmen'

Sleep versus Eating

My girlfriend and I at times debate what would be the preferred power: To never have to sleep or to never have to eat. These are the situations; you can choose to sleep if you like, but you can go without it and still feel like it's the afternoon after a night of 8 hours sleep. Likewise, when you have the power to not eat you never starve. You can eat if you like, but if you go without you still have the satisfied feeling in your stomach like you at a healthy lunch only half an hour before.

With the power to go without sleep, your body never tires. You are never exhausted and are probably in a better mood because of it. You are awake at all hours of the day unless you choose to sleep (even though you don't have to, but it might make your significant other feel better if you do). In being awake you can get so much more accomplished. You'd have so much more time to spend learning that you'd probably become a genius. You can spend your knowledge working from your own home on things in the information technology path. Granted, in being awake all the time you'd probably have to eat more due to a higher metabolism but the money made from your personal home business could offset that.

You might be able to tell I really like the idea of not needing to sleep (though having the option to sleep at any time if I like). The power to go without food, in my opinion, has only the benefit that I'd save that much money in not having to buy groceries or go shopping for food. I'd never have to stop to eat which at times is an inconvenience. I could still choose to eat if I like, and enjoy social time eating with friends, but it doesn't grant me the extra time in the day that going without sleep could provide.

-I had a train of thought but it derailed

with the ex in laws

The more things change, the more they stay the same

As readers of this blog know, I was involved with someone for a long time. That someone can be referred to as my ex-girlfriend.

I just had lunch with her Dad. They always did treat me well, her parents. I hadn't seen him since March of last year. In fact, he handed me $40 saying he'd missed my birthday and Christmas and that was to make up for it. He said he was proud of me for what I was doing with my life. He said I was always a good guy. He said he'd really like to see me graduate and be there for the ceremony and then I cried. I think it was the bit about being at my ceremony. I hadn't realized how cool he was with me and that brought back the memory of just how much I was welcomed into his family. To be fair, his eyes teared up a bit, too.

Of course that is over now. Both he and his wife are great people. I'll give them a call when it comes time for me to graduate. Maybe I'll get around to going for a bike ride with him some time in the summer.

I've got another great family welcoming me in right now. I've got a great girl who replies to my I love you's. I don't think I could be in a better place right now. My time is being invested in the future I have going this very moment. I love my girl. We have a great future together and that can get even better now after making peace with another part of my past.

-Here's to a bright future, Crystal!

digg ringtone

w00t! DiggNation ringtone!

Using Audacity I 'trimmed' the excess podcast off the latest episode of DiggNation (episode 79) leaving only the introductory music. I have a Motorola RAZR v3c through Canada's Telus Mobility which kind of sucks ass.
It sucks ass not due to the phone itself because I'm having a great time playing with it. The situation Telus puts you in sucks ass.

The idea behind getting a new cell phone is that you want to put your own custom ringtones and wallpapers on there and be able to transfer off the images you snap with the digital camera. The idea Telus has is that they want to make that as difficult for you as possible. Using the tools mentioned in the next paragraph you are able to upload the "ringtones" you like (but Telus makes sure they go to the "audio" folder and not the ringtone folder). But when you go to assign the uploaded audio file as a ringtone, you can only play it! There's no option to set it as a ringtone.

Well! Thanks to the forward-thinking people at Motorola (Phone Tools) and the beautiful minds behind BitPIM we can finally stick it to Telus.

Want to know how to get those audio files out of the audio folder and instead being read as a ringtone? I found these instructions (1, 2) which I will paraphrase here:

Note)) The following instructions can be followed with the phone plugged in to the computer via a USB cable the entire time, until specifically stated. The USB cable I used was the same cable that came with my SanDisk Sansa m240 1gb MP3 player. The following are instructions for WindowsXP when using Motorola Phone Tools and either Windows or Linux for BitPIM (though I tested on my windows partition).

1))
Using the Motorola Phone Tools (MPT for short) that you purchased from Motorola you can upload as many mp3 or wav (possibly midi but I haven't tested that) as you like. This is done from the "Multimedia Studio" tab, and then inside there from within the "Melody Studio" tab.

2))
After you have transferred the audio files you want to eventually use as ringtones, close the MPT.

3))
Open up BitPIM and follow these very important steps for the Motorola RAZR v3c.

4))
You may have noticed your phone was auto-recognized. Forget that. Open up the phone profile settings "Edit -> Settings" and change the phone type from v3c to "Other CDMA phone".

5))
Click the Com Port "Browse ..." button from within the "Edit -> Settings" menu and select the "(*) Motorola USB Modem" (which should have been installed when you plugged your v3c into your computer the first time. The Motorola USB Modem drivers install off the MPT install cd. The warnings from WinXP during that install are normal).

6))
Click "OK" to finish the manual setup of the v3c in BitPIM. You should now be back at the BitPIM screen.

7))
Select that you want to view the file system on the phone by clicking "View -> View Filesystem" or hot-keys "Alt-V F".

8))
Click "Filesystem" in the very left browse window and expand the root directory "+/" in the second browse window by clicking the plus beside the directory. (As a reminder, we are still inside BitPIM. We closed MPT long ago).

9))
Another directory will appear under the root directory that says "retrieving". This will happen for a few seconds while BitPIM reads the content on the v3c.

10))
In the last browse window on the very right of the BitPIM screen will be a long list of files. You want to locate "MyToneDB.db" and "TmpTneDB.db" and delete them. Yes, delete them. This worked for me when following the instructions on the previously mentioned site. If you are sceptical, I'll note my phone's firmware version right now. It worked for me when using firmware version GATW_06.08.00R and you can find your firmware version by clicking "Edit -> Phone Info".

11))
After you have right clicked the two .db files mentioned above and selected "delete" for each of them, you can then close BitPIM and then unplug your phone.

12))
Before browsing to look for your ringtones, turn off your phone (press and hold the red phone button on the right side of the v3c's keypad).

13))
Turn on your phone by pressing and holding the red phone button on your v3c. The phone will restart and generate new "MyToneDB" and "TmpTneDB" .db files which will include your audio files as ringtones.

14))
Now you can browse to assign your ringtones. If you look in the "Media Gallery -> Sounds" you'll notice there is still no option to assign the audio file as a ringtone. Instead, go to "Settings -> Ring Styles" and then "-> {whatever} Detail" and from there you can change the ringtone to your own audio files.

Note)) Your ringtones can be found at the bottom of the list, regardless of alphabetization. They are easily found by immediately browsing "up" the list rather than scanning down through the entire list.

Enjoy your new ringtones!

-Hopefully helping the community

christmas time presents

Christmas and the meaning

I just deleted a post about the various presents I unwrapped (early) for Christmas. I had an early Christmas with family and friends as I am away for the holidays. I'm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada right now. I deleted the description of the cool gifts I got because that is not what Christmas is about. I was spoiled this Christmas, and to those who spoiled me (everyone who got me a present, honestly!) I thank you very much. I know you didn't gift me with the expectation to be gifted back this year or any time in the future when I can afford it. My Dad told me so, it's not about expecting in return. And he's right. But I really do want to make it up to you guys whenever I can. Be it giving my girlfriend 75 massages over the course of the next year (and not just sissy ones because that's just a waste of 5 minutes and don't count) or even getting my Mom and Dad a killer entertainment system 5 years from now or buying my Dad a remote vehicle starter when I can finally afford presents greater than $30 in value. I appreciate that you all put so much effort into making these holidays great. Dinner was awesome. The time spent together afterward was memorable. Christmas is about relationships and giving.

-I thank each of you. Merry Christmas

sexy geeks

I found this site listing the person's top 10 sexiest geeks

I didn't make the list. Not even an honourable mention.

-Maybe next year

gamestuff

Good times

I have finished writing my exams for the semester, 12:30pm Saturday was my last exam. My grades are in, I'm pleased to announce I have passed all my courses this semester. Saturday's exam was a redo, because I'd taken and failed that class last year. My final grade was a 22% increase over my final grade for that class last year. I exceeded my expectations for the course and the others as well.

So now I have time for games. I've been playing Bookworm Adventures which consumed two hours of my life tonight. It's a great game that will easily distract you from the other things in your life that you might want to do, such as working out kinks in your website or playing Neverwinter Nights or Paper Mario for the Gamecube.

To relax, after my last final, I went to a christmas play on ice. It was a figure skating thinger, whatever those are called... ballet on ice? titled "If you just believe" which consisted of 200+ figure skaters dressed up in costumes telling a story. It was pretty cool, and an awesome christmas present to my girlfriend and I from my Dad. So I took them out for dinner afterward. My girlfriend and I spent the night at friends' house in Sicamous (a town an hour from here). That was a good night, I hadn't hung out with them in almost a year. The next day consisted of bowling with those friends, and shopping at the Vernon mall. Good times.

Now it's 2:37am and I've got to get myself to sleep. How am I going to wake up early enough to work on my website before the primal urge to entertain myself sets into motion?

-Hoping this made sense as I'm getting pretty tired here

exam time crunch time

Much ado about nothing?

Here's to hoping so. In 80 minutes I write my second of three exams for this semester's course load. I'm going into it with 61.36 out of 75 (which is 81.81%) for the course, currently. That 61.36% is my current grade for the course, meaning even without writing the exam (which is worth 25% of the total grade) I've already passed the course. But in the pit of my stomach I'm still getting that eerie feeling of dread and stress. I passed my first exam, I had 70.71% and after writing the exam I finished the course with 67.32% (the exam brought me down because I scored 58.5% on it).

It's Saturday's exam that has me worried most. I failed that course last year. I ended up with 42% (magical number, w00t). But there is a glimmer of hope, I'm at 36 out of 60 at the moment, being 60% for the current grade. I need only 14 out of 40 on the final exam to pass the course. I think I can do it this time around, I had 52% the first midterm, 62% the second midterm... maybe this time around I can get 72% on the final exam :) Ok, it's time for me to go. It'll take an hour to drive there and I now only have 72 minutes until the exam starts.

What a pointless post... I suppose it has helped a little to get it off my chest.

-Two days to go and I'm all done this semester

Dentistry

Dentistry

So I finally visited the dentist. I haven't been there since before I had my tongue pierced (last visit was December 2004, the piercing was at the end of that December).

I asked the hygienist a few questions.

1) Who requires flossing more often: tightly spaced teeth or those with gaps? The answer, people with no gaps between their teeth should be using floss on a more regular basis (though it's recommended everyone flosses daily. [Editor: But who does anyway?])

2) Plaque, what is it? I'll try not to bastardize what she told me... The answer is that it is calcified sediment. Loose food particles are floating around in your mouth and stick to your teeth. The food calcifies within 10 to 48 hours, which is why it is recommended you brush at least twice a day. Your tooth brush can rub off the sediment that is soft and not yet calcified, but when it finally hardens then odds are it's not coming off until you visit a dentist.

3) What does mouthwash do for you? Is it just for the prevention of bad breath? The answer, the hygienist says it's mostly for making your breath smell pretty. She recommends "anti-bacterial" mouthwash which helps to kill bacteria and prevent disease in your mouth. Gingevitis being one of those things it kills.

So there you have it. Brush your teeth and floss. Use mouthwash if you like, it makes your breath stink less.

-An apple a day keeps the doctor away. What keeps dentists away? Bad breath.

snowing snowing like a dwarf

So it's snowing outside

It has been snowing since yesterday. There's some 6 inches on the ground right now and more coming. On the way out from my house this morning I saw a car in a ditch rested up against a fence. My girlfriend asked that I spend the night at her place tonight so I don't have to drive home in the snow.

Here's to hoping the roads are clear enough tomorrow so I can drive to school. It's already a 50 minute drive from my place and I'll be in grandma mode tomorrow I'm sure.

Only 5 days of school left before the end of the semester! 5 days in which 3 projects are due and 2 homework assignments as well. Oh what fun! I'm looking forward to a nice break. A break in which I can finally find time to finish "Paper Mario 64" and start and finish "Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door" and play through "Metroid Prime" again and possibly buy and play through "Metroid Prime Hunters". And, you know, keep working on my website a little bit, too.

-Not enough hours in this week

my site

Oh!

Have I mentioned my website WaggSoft ?

-I almost forgot

Find some aspect that is your own

Find some aspect that is your own

That is the message I got from my professor tonight. I'm one part of two 7 person teams working on a weather/radar system for some researchers in Iowa. I haven't yet found my niche in my group, where I belong. The 6 other people all seem to know what it is they want to do with it and they do just that. They do their part. I guess I'm just not as excited about this project as other people are.

I'm a Computer Science student. This is my 5th year in University. I've attended a total of 43 months of instruction within everything from English and Japanese to Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, Philosophy and yes, Computer Science. I've spent no more than 3 weeks away from this institution in the last 3 and a half years of the 4 years and three months I've been attending.

I'm not a great student. In fact, my grades haven't really mattered to me all too much the whole time I've attended. I've failed 3 courses. Since then, I've successfully completed two of those three my second time around. The third course I'm currently taking again and doing well enough. Why do my grades not matter? I feel I'm getting as much from my post secondary education that I could hope for. Which brings me back to my lack of interest in this weather/radar project...

My professor last week presented a lecture on the aspect of a human resource person within a company. One of his questions was something of the following: Who would you rather hire...

a) A veteran professional in the industry who has zero knowledge of the system he would be responsible for working on and the programming language it is maintained in.
b) A new graduate who may not have the best grades. He does have some idea of what the system does and has dabbled with the programming language the system is written in. His grades are lower than nominal but only because he spent his class and free time working on his own projects. He educated himself.
c) A new graduate who may or may not know what your company or your product does and who may or may not have any previous experience with the programming language the system uses. But he had top grades in his class.

I think it went something like that. If I can't recall correctly it's because my nose was buried in my laptop while I was teaching myself PHP and JSP. When posed with the question of who I would hire as an HR manager I chose the second guy. I guess the consensus of the class (and the professor) say the grad with the top marks is the best choice. I suppose I might be in trouble if that's the case.

I digress again. Back to the project at hand and my lack of enthusiasm for it. I've spent no more than three weeks (Christmas break) away from this University since the beginning of my second year here. Why? I'm not only a student. I'm also a research assistant. I know what it's like to work on a big project and I know the difficulties in managing time. And frankly, to quote one of my Professors, Dr Alan Paeth, "The smart programmer is a lazy programmer". So I've adopted that philosophy but replaced "programmer" with "student". I don't want to write myself into a corner here for the off-chance a future employer might find this blog and query me on it. I have two other class projects (an Amazon.com clone and a web-based multi (2+) player battleship game) to take care of. I'm not the only one who's getting burnt out with the sheer volume of project time that must be dedicated to the projects.

I wish I had a conclusion to put in here. As I write this I imagine I'm writing for Wired magazine and thousands of people would read this. I'm just tired. I have to find my place in this group and show the professor I can do something when it comes to working with a team. On the bright side, I'm developing a pretty kick-ass website for a first time around. Here it is at waggy.is-a-geek.org for all to see. I develope it Monday through Friday between the hours of 8am and 4pm. Always more to come...

-Educating myself

Lurv

I love you

I have said it and it has been said in return. Wow, that's an awesome thing to hear. To think, in a previous relationship I put up with not hearing a mutual "I love you" for three and a half years. To be fair, I heard it twice before this relationship, but she played it off like it was a joke I tricked her into. This time it just feels right, like I'm not the only one who's making an attempt. She's sweet! An awesome girl.

-Not just a computer virus any more

Ghetto

Broken glass

That's what I had waiting for me Wednesday morning as I went to my car to drive to school. The night before, someone had smashed my drivers-side window. There was still a lot of glass hanging from the frame, evidence that they were not attempting to break in. Nothing was taken, the door was still locked. Someone must have decided it would be fun to smash some glass and disappear.

-Boo-urns

Alternate Reality

On a lighter note, I've been messing around with an old computer that was given to me this summer. I've turned it into a webserver which can be found HERE, complete with a blog and forums. I'm still working on it, my next goal is to get the mailserver set up so I can operate emails out of it from addresses such as kyle@waggy.is-a-geek.org

-Wouldn't that be fun

two months later

Two months later...

Yes, there's been a temporary hiatus. I finished up my summer research (at least for the year) and took a little vacation. My girlfriend, her sister, and I went to Edmonton where I visited with my sister and her husband. It was nice to see the two of them again. While we were in Edmonton we made a visit to the West Edmonton Mall. Unfortunately while I was there I did not stop in at the BioWare studio. Most of the vacation was spent in Lloydminster, a city that exists on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

School's been going well. I failed a class last year, Algorithm Analysis. Thus far I have passed the midterm and done very well on the homework. The other classes are going great, too. But wow! I get a lot of homework this year, I've never been so busy. I do have plenty to keep me occupied outside of school.

My girlfriend is great. We're going to a gym together to work out. I'll attempt to get buff, she'll look even hotter.

I bought a Nintendo DS and a couple games. "New Super Mario Bros" is a great game. Since I've beaten it I can't say I've felt like replaying it. "Super Mario 64 DS" is a whole different game in itself. There are enough things changed between the Nintendo 64 version and the DS for even experts of the 64 version to want to play.

And I've been messing with an old computer I was given. You can find it at waggy.is-a-geek.org where I've got another blog going there. Not much in it though.

-Busy computer scientist

Stay off the sidewalk...

... I have my motorcycle license. I passed my road test yesterday and now hold my class 5 and 6 licenses. I celebrated by taking my girlfriend out for a cruise beside both Okanagan and Kalamalka lakes last night. I can finally take passengers with me.

My relationship is going awesome. My work is getting boring, frustrating, stale.

It seems to me that my life goes through cycles. While there are things that do not effect the cycle so much, there are others that definitely come and go in waves. CounterStrike, for example... I'll play it for a month at a time, and then won't touch it again for anywhere between 8 to 12 months, at which time I'll play it again for a month straight. Occasionaly I'll get caught up in work where my effort is noticed to great effect, but that's only for a month of a four month summer. Video games, that's a more frequent occurance. I'll play my games for a couple weeks, then drop them for a month or two then I'll pick them up again.

There's probably other cycles that I could call attention to but they aren't coming to me off the top of my head. A month ago I was looking forward to school starting, now I just don't know. I'm really looking forward to my work ending, but it's just dragging on so long. It's not that I don't like working, or even the project(s) that I'm working on. It's that my attention is being split between completing one project and getting another started and it's a different sensation.

My professor wants me to finish our codling moth project so we can get our paper into pre-publishing. On the other hand she had me start another project this summer, to do with honey bees and a transgenic apple gene. She wants that one completed so we can start running experiments so as to get another paper written. That's what is frustrating. I can't focus on any one project so I forget what it is I'm doing and then I play a video game (Super Mario RPG which I just finished 30 minutes ago. Next up is Paper Mario for the n64). If I don't have anything to show for, I feel my professor will be disappointed with me. And of course she will be. So I can spend the next two hours of my time filtering data and coming up with results for our codling moth project or I can spend that time programming bee/flower/hive behaviour and have something to show for the bee project. Ack!

Sorry, that's off topic, I just went on a bit of a rant. I'm going to get back to work here, probably just filtering data because it's monotanous and easy to fall into a groove.

-Taking the easy way out today

crystal clear

Looking back

The last few posts I've made over the last few months (starting at the beginning of May?) have much referred to a tight group of friends. Those included Adam, Jenn, Crystal and I. Adam is a friend of mine from University who is in the same degree/year that I am in. Have I told you the story of how we all came to hang out this summer?

I got a phone call from Del, my 'other mom'. She knew I didn't know too many people where I'm living. She gave me the number to a friend of hers who was my age who had given her permission to tell me to call her some time to go party. I called that girl, Stephanie, that night. She invited me to a party at her place and a bush party to follow later, for the next night. Steph said I could bring a friend if I liked. So I called Adam.

Adam and I show up, we're the first there. You learn :-p don't show up too early. Later that night while people are showing up, two girls arrive together. Two gorgeous girls, one brown haired with brown eyes and a pretty face and another tall bombshell of a blonde. These were Jenn and Crystal respectively.

Now, I didn't know anyone at this party before I showed up to it. Not even Stephanie. Adam didn't know anyone either, so we were there and relying on Stephanie to keep us entertained. It turns out Jenn and Adam worked together a couple summers before, which had them talking. Crystal and I didn't really talk to each other at the house. Later that night we're at the bush party and I'm kind of hanging out with Stephanie, but she informs me she's leaving. So Adam and I are left to our own devices, which in the end turns out to be a blessing. Adam, Jenn, Crystal and I spend the rest of the night until 4am talking. Once in a while we're harassed by a guy named Mike who doesn't drop the subject of "Labia" and "juices flowing". It almost got physical a few times as Adam and I did what we could to have him stop bothering the girls. That would be another story all together.

I would later learn that Crystal might not have even showed up to the party at all. She just happened to see Jenn walking passed her house that same day. Jenn asked Crystal if she'd like to go to a party. Crystal hummed and hawed and was finally convinced to go. Upon arrival at the party, they picked out the two guys they *might* like to get to know. Adam and I were the ones they picked out. Jenn knew no one at the party before-hand except Stephanie, and then Adam. Crystal knew no one at the party except Jenn. When Stephanie left later that night, we were brought together by necessity and a few social ties. The rest is history.

What history? Since meeting the girls we have played pool together. Gone camping. Walked Kal Lake park during the day and night. Had our fair share of scares along the Kal Lake Park trails at night without a flashlight. Built a fire along the beach at Cosin's Bay. We have made up stories one word at a time between the four of us. Enjoyed frappuchinos and slurpees and icecream blizzards. Gone out for dinner countless times across the Okanagan and Shuswap Valleys. Danced too many nights to count, weekend or weekday. Gone ten pin bowling in Kelowna. Watched more movies than I dare remember. Enjoyed each others company at the cinema and drive-in theatre. We've done coffee at a lot of the coffee shops around here. We've watched the "Teen Girl Squad." Gone floating down the river in Enderby on tubes we bought and blew up the same day. We all went together when I got my ears pierced. We've done barbeques and family get togethers. Roasted marshmallows and made smores in my back yard, and movie nights on the big screen.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. That is the history. We did this for two months, Crystal and I paying special attention to one another. We finally made it official. We've been together for almost two weeks now, July 9 being a date for us to remember. We have more plans for the rest of the summer.

-Best summer ever!

the living living

I am alive

What has happened in the last month? I went to a conference at the University of Notre Dame in Southbend, Indiana. So I got to see some of Chicago, and most of the Notre Dame campus. I was there from June 21 to June 25.

My ears are doing well. They are well on their way healing.

My Mom is visiting, so I got to see her for the first time in 4 years.

The clutch on my motorcycle died, so I've replaced it.

I went cliff-jumping all last weekend during Canada Day long weekend. I am now a nice tan colour.

-Still living

pierced times 4 times

Metal person

I now have a total of seven piercings. This last Saturday (two days ago) I brought out my friends Adam, Jenn and Crystal to my 'hometown' I grew up in. I went to the piercing shop my friend from highschool works at. She ran a needle through my ears four times, twice in each lobe. Now I'm set up for orbitals, where one ring sits within two piercings. At the moment I'm wearing four rings as the swelling goes down within the next few days, and soon after I'll be good to go with my orbitals.

Motorpickle

I've insured my motorcycle, a Yamaha Virago 750cc all cherry red with flame tints. I've been riding that around the last week, save for the days it rains (3 of them, today included because it's rainy).

People

I've still been keeping busy. I got kicked out of a bar two weekends ago, I think because I was too drunk and stumbling when I walked. Not very proud of that, but it was my first time getting kicked out.

Likewise, there have been lots of movies to watch and beaches to walk and frappuchinos to drink and lakes to swim and sun to soak up and floors to dance on. This is still an awesome summer, and only 1/4 started.

-I've seen the ex around, maybe she's seen me too

Frappuchino on the lake

Frappuchino on the lake

For my own records; Frappuchinos on Kal Lake, at the end of the dock. Laying on our backs, pointing out constellations and realizing no one else can see where you're pointing. Getting cold then getting someone else to warm you up. Game of Questions. Long drive. This blog sounding like a yearbook writeup.

-How many times...

beach and movies

Learning so much

I've been busy this entire last week and a half. I've been trying to maintain a decent amount of sleep and it has been tough. Take yesterday for instance; I wake up early in the morning so I can stop in Summerland to visit a friend at her work before meeting my other friends for a hike and barbeque. She's a hostess at a vineyard and looks very nice in her work uniform. She sets up a little-wine tasting for me and we visit for a short time.

I finally get to Penticton to visit my other friends as we're all supposed to be going for a hike and then back to their place for a barbeque. Seven of us do our hike, and between the 7 of us we find a total of 20 ticks (lime-disease carrying pests that burrow into your skin) on ourselves. As far as I know, no one has found one buried into their skin, so we must have found them all.

We do the barbeque, have a water fight, chill out for a while then gradually all leave. I left at 5:30pm so I could make it back home to Vernon for 7 or 7:30, giving me enough time to get myself showered and ready for that night. I stop at my Grandma's before heading over to yet another friend's house in town, so I can give her her Mother's Day card a little early.

I arrive at my friend's place at quarter to 9 and find she knows another friend of mine from University, Kevin. So they all partied it up there for a couple hours. Steph didn't like that I wasn't drinking before heading out, so she fixed that problem.

Adam shows up, after I talked him into it. Steph calls Jenn, on Adam's behalf, for her to come out. I call Crystal, but she didn't have the opportunity to go out. So our group all went out, we drank, we danced. I don't think I ever drank so much while out in town before. Even after the night was over and I was back at Stephanie's place, we talked until 5am, the sun was coming up and I was still feeling the alcohol. When I drove home, I still hadn't slept and the sun was shining in my eyes.

I woke to the sound of the phone ringing at 11am. So today I hung out at the beach all day, followed by dinner elsewhere and hours worth of movies. We watched "Zoolander", "8 Crazy Nights", and "Anchorman", all of which I had never seen before. Adam missed out on the fun at the beach and the movies so I rented "The Machinist" and watched that at Adam's place.

Now I'm home and I work in 6 hours. You can see the problem... so many things to do and not enough hours in the night to do it. It has been like that the last 11 days. I've done coffee, chilled at the beach, shot pool, cooked dinner, walked, partied in a gravel pit, fed ducks, more coffee, gone clubbing, gone hiking, tasted wine, barbequed, gone to Karaoke, hung out in a pub, partied at a house, played Nintendo64, played GameCube, watched the above mentioned movies as well as "The Family Stone", "Donnie Darko", and "Austin Powers 3: Goldmember", and stayed up all night watching infomercials and cooking shows; I've probably forgotten what else might have been done, and all of the above has been done with at least one member of the opposite sex.

-Shaping up to be the best summer ever

ex bleh

Too Awesome!

This shirt is dedicated to the one ex-girlfriend every guy has in his life that makes a man wonder, "What the hell was I thinking?" Sure, your buddies knew she was the devil from the beginning and they did try to warn you, but did you listen? Of course not. Were you blind? Were you just too stupid? Nope. You were just going through a Rite of Passage every man must make in his life. Like those National Geographic specials where the young male villagers must go wrestle a crocodile to be declared a man. Well, think of that crazy ex-girlfriend as that crocodile. Just be happy that you didn't put a ring on that crocodile's finger and decide that you wanted to wrestle it for the rest of your life. Because there are those poor, unfortunate bastards out there. I mean, who the hell would want to do that forever? Well, there are some guys who just plain like to wrestle crocodiles. Or how does this sound, "Sorry guys, can't go out tonight and have fun, have to stay home and wrestle the crocodile." You see where this is going? So to the young bucks who are just coming up, don't worry, your crocodile is out there and you will get to wrestle her soon enough. To the veterans, I raise my beer to you and say, "When going through hell, keep going."

-Had I the money, I'd buy that shirt

entertain me

Michael Shantz

I'd like to take up some space here on my blog to bring your attention to a very talented artist and good friend of mine, Mike Shantz. If you know of anyone needing some original art done in a unique style, contact him through his myspace account or email me and I'll pass the message along to him. He's particularly interested in album art for musicians. He does posters too, as well as water colour, acrylics and designs for clothing.

-Check him out

Summer time is here

Everyone has moved home for the summer break. Motorcycles are on the road. People are getting out during the day to enjoy the sun.

I went for a hike Friday afternoon throughout Kalamalka Lake Park. That was a good walk. I didn't see any rattlesnakes or marmots or really anything else of interest. Not that I really really want to come across a rattlesnake anyway, but I'm the typical wide-eyed boy about strange creatures. I guess I'm just curious.

-Slow update season

school is almost out now

What can I say here?

I don't really know what to write here. I want to write about all the cool things that have been happening to me lately, but at the same time I know there is the remote possibility that Melissa is reading this. I don't want to rub salt into any wounds that may be present. I currently have a scar, which is why I'm able to continue living with all these great people and have a good time doing it. I'm sure one day that scar may open and I'll be left with a big ugly wound again, but nothing that won't make me tougher the next time around.

And with that, if She doesn't want to be hurt reading my stuff then she doesn't have to read my stuff. And if She wants to read so she can see I've moved along and am having a good life, so be it.

Black Nails

I had black fingernails all day long yesterday. I felt pretty damned good about it, too. One girl told me she thought it was hot for a guy to be comfortable enough with his 'feminine side' to wear black nail polish and feel good about it. Another girl offered to help me out with my right hand next time :-/ I'm no lefty. She also offered her nail polish, seeing how I don't have any and had to use a black sharpie marker.

Hmm, what else? I spent two hours in the school weight room last night. I feel pretty good about that. I went there with a friend of mine from residence here (Did I mention I've moved into residence on campus?) I've got Aikido tonight but unfortunately it is year-end and all my classes are asking for the class projects to be completed.

I have met some great people up here in residence. One is the little sister to a girl I went to school with/lived in residence with three years ago. The girl who offered her assistance with my finger nails is from Salmon Arm (it's about an hour from here) which is cool because she went to/graduated from the same school I went to while I lived there (as some may recall, I moved away from there at the end of my grade 11 year to graduate in Georgia for my grade 12 year).

I can stay up waaay late :) which is what I did last night. I've been working on an "Artificial Intelligence" class project. I finally got my intelligence working in my Minesweeper program. So my Minesweeper can partially solve a board. I just have to tell the program what not to do, because some times it picks blatantly wrong choices that no human would choose.

There's my quick update. I was up until 4am last night. It is currently 9:48am and I have class in 12 minutes.

-Busy school life

Teh Funny

Teh Funny Cyanide and Happiness

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
-Hooray for theme parks

lit happy

"Lit - Happy In The Meantime"

It's just another reason why
It all comes down to you and I
Just have another drink
Waste some time with me
We're happy in the meantime

I've gotta make up for losin' time
Cuz I've been spinnin' my wheels all night
And I can't wait
Can't hardly wait to see you
Things seem better off now
I think I'm better off now

[CHORUS:]
It's just another reason why
It all comes down to you and I
Just have another drink
Waste some time with me
We're happy in the meantime

I guess the rain's gonna follow me
Cuz it's been droppin' in minor D.
And I can't wait
Can't hardly wait to see if
Things seem better off now
I think I'm better off now

[CHORUS]

Well save a little rain
And wash away the pain
I'll try and keep it clean
I'll show you what I mean
I don't wanna keep you holdin' on
Cuz in the morning I'll be gone

-So long.

great people

Great people did not become great by following others.

Mahatma Gandhi gained independence for India through civil disobedience.

And there is that Che Gueverra guy.

The little engine that could never gave up when the others expected him to fail.

The ugly duckling didn't drown himself in a pond.

Ok, so I ran out of real world examples. The point being, great things happen when people follow their own path and listen to their heart, figuratively speaking. So do what you feel is right to do. If you follow others, either through advice or opinion, you may regret it later. Blaze your own trail and you may one day become a great person who has touched the life of many people.

-It all starts with touching the life of one person.

falling out here

It's tough.

My exgirlfriend and I had a bit of a fight yesterday. She came home with waffles, a nice gesture because she doesn't eat waffles, I do. There were a lot of waffles. Then I found out she had done something that upset me. I should not have been upset. At least, I wouldn't have been upset had I moved out of our apartment two months ago. As was written previously in my blog, I had decided to live with her as a room mate, and if I had it my way, a friend. Things were good, until I got upset.

I apologized sincerely soon after my words were done. She invited me to go with her into town for errands, nice enough, but she said she would not talk any more of what had upset me. I agreed; my exact words were, "I won't ask, you won't tell. What I don't know can't hurt me." To which she replied, "Then maybe I should tell you everything so it hurts you."

Ouch. How uncalled for was that. I hurt, I was really hurt. I told her she could leave without me, that I'd do what I needed to do without her, later. When she left, I locked my computer with a password. I also password protected the screensaver. I was more upset at what she had said than what I inquired her about earlier that hour. I reacted, I removed her access to the social aspects of the internet.

I packed what I needed and left. When she came home, she was angry to find I had locked her out of the computer. To be fair, I had said she could continue to use the computer after our breakup and that should she find she still needed a computer after she and I moved out and went our separate ways that I would allow her to continue to use the same computer in her new home. She phoned me, pleading for me to grant her the password to the computer. She even said 'Please' which almost broke my heart to continue to deny her. I retaliated to her hurtful words when now I know I shouldn't have retaliated at all. At least that's how I feel.

I phoned her back soon after, getting her voicemail, and left her a message with the password. Later, still, I went back to our home and I unlocked the other password protection I had committed; the login screen. She wasn't home when I did this, but she walked in just as I was walking out. Again it hurt me so much to hear the anger in her voice. Nobody deserves to be yelled at, and nobody deserves hurtful words regardless of what another has done. And I expect, after hurtful words have been exchanged, the conscience comes around and that person feels it appropriate to apologize.

Here I am, I apologize in regard to my actions. I'm sorry I retaliated by locking her out of the computer I gave her permission to access. And as such, I think I am being an honourable person when I say (knowing that she has access to read this and I hope she does) that she need not apologize to me. Am I naive in seeing (or thinking I see) the good in all people? I forgive her for her harsh and unexpected words. I could very well just go home, but that would be me causing a thorn in her side. I've paid rent up to the end of this month, I'm entitled to be there. But if she really hates me and wants to cause me hurt like she said she did, I don't think I can go back there.

I want to make the best of the next few weeks. Maybe we'll agree to disagree and I will just move my stuff out next week. Either way, this issue needs to be resolved. I want to talk to her. I want to thank her for the waffles. I want to be comfortable in my own home.

-Story of a lonely guy

waggy lyrics

Blink-182 - Waggy

Watching your house shrink away in my rear-view mirror
As I drive away
Wishing that I could take back all those words
That meant nothing that I didn't say

I'm trying
To be what you want me to be
But it's so damn hard to keep playing the part
Of the fool, week after week

I think you need some time alone (I think you need some time alone)
You say you want someone to call your own
Open your eyes, you can suck in your pride
You can live your life all on your own

Is this all going to be just another time
That we play this game?
I've tried to convince you that things could be different
But somehow they end up the same

But what
Did you expect from me? What am I supposed to do?
You say that you're starting to feel like you're getting lost
Well, I do, too

I don't wanna live this lie again (I don't wanna live this lie again)
I know I'll get it right but I don't know when
I'll open my eyes, I've got something in side
I'll just jack off in my room until then

It's never over 'til it's done
And I don't think that you're the one
It's never over 'til it's done

-And I don't think that you're the one

much ado about sex

Much ado about sex

The title says it. But I'm thinking more along the lines of how to become a better lover. Back in my youth (ok, so I am still in my youth) my Dad gave me The Talk by giving me a book to read and telling me, "If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask."

So I've grown up (but still not that grown up) with that in mind. I ask questions when I want to know more about something. I can still call up my parents and strike up a conversation with them about things that would make others blush. We were not hedonists in any sense at all; there was still very much a sense of privacy in our home, while growing up. And look at me, I'm getting off topic here. Point being, I'm looking to better myself and I'm expanding my resources.

The aforementioned book is titled "Sex: A Mans Guide" by Mens Health Magazine. It's some 600 pages long and covers most anything a 15 year old boy could want to know about sex. I read it cover to cover, appreciating what my Dad did for me in providing me with this book. It was his book, so I returned it to him when I was through reading it. This is the point where I'm supposed to tell you the words of wisdom he imparted on me that day, but I really can't recall if he said anything. Years later (two years ago) I came across the same edition of the book in a used book store. Needless to say, I purchased it.

That about covers my book experience, short of "Penthouse Letters" and the various porn magazines bought for me as practical (and how practical!) jokes over the years. Have you ever heard of Sue Johanson? She's this wonderful lady (at least she comes across as a wonderful lady on TV) who plays host on the television show "The Sunday Night Sex Show", though now I think it has been renamed "Talk Sex with Sue Johanson". Well, almost every year she comes to the University I attend, and every year I've missed her appearance. She'll be visiting here March 3 and I intend to attend. I don't know if it'll be a taped (for TV) event, or if it's just a seminar with a question/answer period at the end. Jeez, wouldn't that be scary? asking questions about your (failed?) sex life in front of a forum of people. I love the lady, and I hope she's as pleasing in person as she is through the CRT.

I've ordered the "Kama Sutra" by Anne Hooper. It's another text to study. You can't by this book used. Well, you physically can because it is possible to. But it's a sex guide, people. Do you really want to order someone else's used sex guide? I didn't think so.

-I'm blessed to have such open minded parents.

peph and myspace

Afterthought: I'm on MySpace

Yeah, after reading Pephemie's most recent post on her blog, it appears she's got a MySpace profile as well. And that brought to my attention that I don't know where hers is on MySpace... which led me to the "Aha!" moment that no one knows where my profile is either. So here it is.

-I don't blog on MySpace... that's what this is for.

wisdom of cliffy

Some advice from Cliffy B

I would have asked his permission to post this on my blog but the guy never responds to my emails so I can never be sure he even gets them in the first place.

-----
Find someone that makes you feel like a king/queen. Hang on to them.

The second they stop looking at you "that way" it's time to leave.

Relationships are like cell phone providers. None are perfect. You just find one that works most of the time and doesn't flake out on you when you need it most.

Spooning is fun... until you wake up with a numb arm.

Clumsy is the new sexy.
-----

Excellent words of wisdom, thanks CliffyB.

-Back to studying for my Artificial Intelligence midterm

upkeep of me

Philosophy

Sitting here in philosophy class, Phil 121. It's a first year course and doesn't ask much work of me. That's kind of a good thing, as I don't really want to work to get a grade here. One of my computer science professors tells me 'The smart programmer is a lazy programmer' so why not extend that to first year classes? The smart student is a lazy student. So study when you need to and have fun otherwise... maybe.

-Don't take this advice if it is your first year of post-highschool education

just a bad time of my life

Was busy for a while

My girlfriend and I, of the last 3 years and 4 months, have seperated. It's not an easy thing to do, but she wanted to go through with it. I loved her, and indeed still do, so it is really tough for me. How do you get over something like that? I'm doing my best to keep myself busy. I've joined my University's Aikido club. I get out to visit my friends more. I sleep in more than I used to. I don't want to have to keep myself busy, but it helps to alleviate the hurt. I hope I never get good at things like this.

So in honour of our lost relationship, I present to you Craig's Brother and their song "Set Free".

Craig's Brother - "Set Free"

I guess there's only one place to go from here
I think the options are clear anyway
I'm sure you're tired of waiting for me
To figure out where you fit in
I guess I'm afraid of what we could be
Cause I don't want to sell you short of your dreams
I'm sorry for making you wait for me
Cause I don't want to hold you down
But I don't want to set you free
I don't want to make you run from me

I guess it's hard to believe that I
Could make myself give up
After all this time you and me
Trying hard to make sense of our differences
Pretending we both had everything
I guess I believed in our fantasy
You only loved the one you wanted me to be
I'm sorry for breaking your faith in me
I don't want to hold you down

But what if you're more than I could please
Could you accept apologies?
I don't want to squander all your time
I don't want to mislead you
I think we both knew that it was done
Sorry I had to be the one
Sometimes I wish it were the other way around

-I wish you weren't supposed to be set free

deck of cards

Ace of Spades

I got this cool Bicycle magic card set. Two packs of Bicycle cards, red and blue, with 20-something card tricks inclusive. This is mostly for my own record, as I'm programming a deck of cards for use in a future game of mine. I want to be able to find this post and look back on it as a sort of guideline for myself. Here's what I need in the future:

Deck order:

With the deck face up (face of cards facing me) the order is
Joker one.
Joker two with the Bicycle guarantee.
Ace of Spades followed by 2 of spades consecutively to the 10, Jack, Queen, King of Spades.
Followed by the same order of the Diamond suit.
Now the order changes to the King of Clubs followed by Queen, Jack, 10 down to 2 then Ace of Clubs.
Followed by the same King, Queen, down to Ace order for the Heart suit.
The last two cards, face up, are a Special Mail-In Offer for Official Rules of Card Games with instructions on the back of the card.
Then a card with an offer to join the American Contract Bridge League. This card has the normal blue back on it, the only card without the blue back is the Mail-In offer card.

[Edit] I really should also note the following:
The One-Eyed Jacks are of Spade and Heart suit.
The Kings with swords are Spade, Club and Hearts.
The King of Hearts is stabbing himself in the head.
The King of Diamonds has an axe.
The King of Diamonds is the only King with one eye.
The King of Diamonds is not holding his axe, but has an open hand.
The Jack of Clubs is the only Jack to have a feather in his cap.
The Jack of Hearts isn't holding his axe, he is holding a flower.
All Queens have flowers, except the Queen of Spades is not holding hers in her hand.
All the Jacks and Kings have moustaches except the Jack of Diamonds and Clubs and the King of Hearts.


The back of the cards look like a standard blue back. Doesn't look like there's any indication as to what the card might be on the other side. I only mention this because my cousin once had a deck of cards that by looking in one specific corner, there was a set pattern that would dictate what the face and suit value on the other side of the card would be. Theoretically, if you learned the pattern, you could say, "I know what card this is,it's the Queen of Clubs," just by reading the pattern.

I wasn't expecting the order of cards to change have way through the brand new deck. Honestly, I was expecting Ace through King for all of Spade, Diamond, Club, Hearts. This order might be exclusive to Bicycle brand cards.

I've got a red deck as well, that came with the pack. When I say 'Blue' deck or 'Red' deck, I refer only to the back of the cards. I'm sure the face of the cards are the same for the Blue and Red deck. And as far as I can tell, the picture is the same for both decks, just a different colour. There are 4 winged cherubs that appear to have a fish bottom with a tail in the corners of the cards backs with two winged cherubs in the center on either half. These cherubs in the middle have legs and look to be riding bicycles in the direction of "out of the card" toward the viewer.

I'm not looking to rip-off Bicycle with any design of my cards for my game. I guess I'm just recording everything I see because that's the way I am... crazy.

I'm installing a Christmas present to my computer as I write this and study these cards. "Beyond Good and Evil" by Ubisoft, and it's playing some "Propaganda" song while I'm doing it. It's a catchy tune, and probably the main theme of the game. I've been looking forward to this game since its release, and 3 years later and a $12 price tag it's about time I give it a try.

[Edit] The book of tricks that came with the set says on the inside that the
"Blue deck is the 'trimmed deck'"
"Red deck is the 'standard deck'"
That means, the trimmed deck is physically cut differently at manufacture so that one end of the cards is slightly narrower than the other end. So when you are to, say, look for a certain card in the deck chosen by another person, you can flip the deck around and have the selected card put in 'backwards'. This allows you to easily feel for the card that was chosen by the other person.

-Time to learn some magic card tricks again!

dinner at the outlaws

Nothing bad to say today.

christmas tunes

Christmas Night Of The Zombies

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I dreamt that there were zombies right outside my window Christmas night. Hungry for some flesh to eat, but I was hungry for a fight. The living dead they walk the earth, to bite on you where death do meet.

Christmas night of the living dead, my face is green and the snow is red.

Whoa. Whoa. I'm breaking bones with my bare hands, theres hundreds of them closing in. I'm running out of ammo now. I need to get the axe again to split some heads in two and by to see their bodies falling down. Struggle to survive the Christmas night when zombies came to town.

Christmas night of the living dead, my face is green and the snow is red.

I creeped in with the shotgun blast straight to the head. Bloody entrails, staring eyes. Now I'm the living dead.

Christmas night of the living dead, my face is green and the snow is red.
Christmas night of the living dead. We won't rest until your dead.

-I recommend the album: A Santa Cause - It's a Punk Rock Christmas

not long now

The end is near

Two weeks and regular classes are over. December 2 is the last day of classes for me and then it's time to study.

I'm waiting for DoomRPG to be released for my cell phone. Currently it's only offered by Rogers wireless and not for my carrier, so I'm forced to wait. I've been waiting for DoomRPG for a year now, it's still the last post in Carmack's blog (accessible from the links section to the left).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opens in (North American) theatres tonight. I'm thinking of maybe just spur-of-the-moment going to see it. Who knows, it depends what my girlfriend feels like doing later. Yeah, 3 years in and I'm still whipped :P

-Lord Voldemort is back

crossroad of life

Dropouts

School is starting to take its toll on me. I'm taking more classes now than I have in recent years. I'm enrolled in 5 courses, and I haven't done that since my first year... when I failed my first class ever: Intro Chemistry 1. There are currently four classes in which I'm enrolled that I can handle. The fifth isn't going too well. Previous posts in my blog point in the direction of that class, Algorithm Analysis. I've discussed it before. With a course-load of five classes I feel I've had to choose one that I must sacrifice. The smart thing to do would to have not taken the course at all and spared myself the failing grade. Instead, I'm enrolled in it, doing the best I can with the available resources. I'm learning in the class, don't get me wrong. I'm picking up enough information that in the case I need to repeat the class, I'll know enough to get that passing grade. But currently, it's too tough when compared to my other classes. Multivariable Calculus is tough, too, but I'm putting lots of effort in that class to ensure a pass. It's better to complete Calculus with a passing grade and fail Algorithms than to put as much effort into both classes and fail both of them, right? Neither class is a requisite to any other classes I'll be taking, so I'm aiming for a 55% or better. I say 55% because any average overall grade lower than that and the student is put on academic probation. Fail to bring your overall average higher than that at the next semester end and you're out of school for a semester. Do it again and you're out a year. Or something like that. Which brings me to my next topic of discussion. Dropouts.

Most well known of the worlds dropouts from school is this man, Bill Gates. Famous for not completing his degree at Harvard, and going on to develop the (unfortunately) most popular operating system for computers. Another you might have heard of is Steve Jobs, the guy who brought you the iPod, and many other Apple products. And how about Steve Wozniak? The brain and engineer behind the Apple computer.

There is a theme here, they are all figureheads in the computer technology world. I, in no way, am touting myself as a future figurehead in the world of computer technology. I'll be happy with a solid position in a game development company as design guy. I'm just tired of school now, it's weighing down on me. I've been going to school for 3 years already, I've failed two classes. I've repeated them and passed. I've covered computer science, english, philosophy, or at least the basics therein.

I have an Algorithms midterm this coming Monday. I have a 4-part (6 to 8 page) essay due in Philosophy by Wednesday. I have another test in Multivariable calculus on Thursday. Instead of studying for any of them or writing my essay I'd rather read game-design theory or flesh out the ground-work for my games. I'd rather spend an hour reading reviews for newly released games, on either PC, console or handheld/mobile, finding out what worked for them and what doesn't. This school hasn't taught me game design (well, maybe it has this semester with Dr. Allen Paeth's Modelling and Simulation class). Nobody here wants to teach me what I want to learn.

I'll get to my essay now. I've got the weekend to write it and study for my Algorithms class. I'll do the best I can for Algorithms, if that even means putting off the essay until Monday night. I'm in no way intentionally sabotaging any of my classes. Just with a course-load as I have, I'm having a hard time making time for everything that needs to be done and attention payed to. That last part refers to my girlfriend, whom I seem to be neglecting this semester as school has taken priority. I don't know how other people do it. I'm sure I'll know how by the end of the semester, though. I'm only enrolled in 4 classes next semester.

-Not dropping out, I'm not smart enough for that.

hallowseve

Happy Halloween
It's Halloween again, and with it comes the feeling of having to dress up. My girlfriend is a devil this year, she was a cow last year. And with the cow, she won first place in the costume contest at her work, which won her $50 in gift certificates to the theatre in town.

We drove all over town last night looking for devil horns she could wear. Almost two hours of looking we finally found some, only 2 blocks from where we started. And yes, we drove all over town. Along the way we found a mask for myself, so I'm here typing this blog while wearing a $0.94 mask, a devil mask.

We're not doing much tonight. We'll set up our pumpkins in the back patio, because that's the entrance to the basement suite in which we live. We're probably not getting any trick-or-treat'ers tonight, but we'll be ready if there are any.

Halloween festivities going on in Medievia today, as well. I've already donned my costume and walked through the Gods offices begging for treats. Unfortunately they are all no-rent treats, which means when I'm done with the game today, the treats disappear, which is very disappointing.

Animal Crossing is celebrating Halloween today as well, so I'll be trick or treating there later tonight.

-Trick or treat, smell my feet. Give me something good to eat

upon a highschool day

Bad Attitude

I mouthed off one of my professors today. He didn't like me already, and I didn't like him already because I knew he didn't like me. In fact, I believe he just doesn't like standing in front of a classroom full of what he believes to be challenged individuals, teaching a subject he believes a highschool student should be able to catch onto in 5 minutes or less.

I seem to be falling into my highschool habits. I had a few teachers who thought I had a chip on my shoulder (and I never really quite got that idiom). But that's not a bad thing; I never failed a highschool subject. Maybe I was angry back then. Maybe I'm getting angry now. It really seems to work for some people whom I know to be angry and quite intelligent.

This one professor said to the class, "Judging by the blank stares on your faces I may as well be speaking French to you" (this guy is from France and has the horrible guy-french accent). I responded with, "You're just speaking Math to me," which didn't really seem to be a problem.

Later he comes hovering over my shoulder as I'm supposed to be working out the proof for some algorithm complexity. He waits, I keep my pencil still. He waits longer, I pretend to be thinking hard. I'm thinking this guy is wasting valuable class time that I'm not going to be able to make up. I'm thinking he should be going over the example on the board and doing it slowly so the class can grasp the concept. Instead, over the course of a 80 minute lecture, he covers three examples by leaving it for the student to work out (by himself so as not to plageurize) and then he quickly goes over the proof on the board. Anyway the professor hovers over my shoulder and waits. Waits longer. Sees I'm not doing anything. He turns to walk away, I relax. He sees that I moved and begins hovering over my shoulder again, apperantly thinking I've discovered the solution.

Now when he waits and sees that I've still not solved anything he says to me, "You really have no idea where to start, do you?"

I could have taken that to mean, "Let me give you a hint" but the past has proven he's not here to help. And the pompousness carried over in his accent. So I simply told him, "I really don't understand why we're doing this," because I was taught to always ask questions. Always ask why. And I don't find too many opportunities when I get to ask the question why.

Why can go on a long time, and I don't believe one can really understand the whole picture until that why comes down to the fundamentals.

"I really don't undertstand why we're doing this. How is this going to help me in my profession?"

He replies, "You want to be able to find out the complexity of your algorithms, don't you?"... Uh, no! I don't. If I was interested in that sort of thing, I sure would. But why do I need to express interest in complexities? So I tell him, "If I wanted to know the complexity of an algorithm I'd look it up on Google."

I didn't mean to offend. I don't think he was offended. But apperantly other students thought it was a big deal.

-Bring back the highschool habits

Leaving on a prop plane

Oh Brother, where art thou

My brother has arrived, visited and left. One whole month, and it really feels like it came and went so quickly. We played computer games, gamecube games, mind games. It was great fun, and it won't be for another 2 years probably that I'll get to see him again.

Classes

I'm kinda sucking with school right now. My classes are tough and I hardly find enough time to get everything done on time. Except today, yesterday was the end of my mad dash to complete an Algorithms assignment, a two-part Philosophy essay and write a Multi-Variable Calculus midterm. So, naturally, it is Friday and I get to play. Except I haven't had a chance to play (except for two hours this morning after driving my brother to the airport at which time I was doing some MAD Dungeon Siege 2 adventuring.

Oooh, and I made time (1.5 hours) to work on my moth simulation. I haven't done that in a while.

-Back to lecture and then working on another class project