man -k woman

New Blog

2006-10-08T01:09:00.000-04:00

OK I've imported the old blog to http://harlinux.wordpress.com, so update them links if you actually care. It'll probably be some time before I start posting though. But soooon... :D

Edit: Now the blog is at http://harleyjcooper.com

My Munich Story

2006-08-15T16:44:00.000-04:00

So here's my story from today. I've got many, but this is the one I have decided to post because it's one of those "one thing after another" kind of stories.

I was in Baden-Baden yesterday, and wanted to go to Munich. Easy enough, I had to take a train to Karlsruhe, take one from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart and one from Stuttgart to Munich. When the time comes for me to catch my train I go to the station and there's a notice saying it would be delayed by half an hour, and on top of that it wasn't going to Karlsruhe anymore - we would have to get off at another station and take a local train to Karlsruhe.

So that tacked on extra time and I missed my connection. I wound up getting to know some American tourists (SOOO American! The guy was like: yeah, when we went to Rome I had this coffee that was like REALLY strong but in a tiny cup... *smacks head*) and we went for a beer. The bartender was slow, and I missed my next chance at making the connection to Stuttgart.

I grabbed the next possible train going to Stuttgart, and got there at like 11:00. Since it would be 1.5 hrs for the next train to Munich, I called the Stuttgart youth hostel and they told me that they were only taking guests until midnight. So that was no problem, it was just a 15-odd minute train ride away. I waited for the train and realised that I hadn't bought a ticket, so I ran up to buy one and when I got back down, the train had come and gone.

Now, by the time the next one came, I would be arriving past midnight at the hostel, which was really out of the way. So I thought "fuck it! I'll take the 12:30 train to Munich! I'll sleep for the 3 hour ride!"

I had plenty of time to kill, so I grabbed a Leberkäse sandwich (translates as liver cheese, but there's no liver or cheese - it's bacon and beef cooked in the shape of a salami and cut up like one, too. Delicious.) and a bottle of water, and the guy at the store where I got the water was closing up, so he gave me a cup of pineapple. The rest of the time was killed at an internet kiosk...

So anyways, I get on the train and manage to find a seat in one of the cabins. We go one stop, and then someone comes in with a seat reservation for where I was sitting. So I had to give up my spot and sit in the hall (I was only allowed on 2 cars with my pass, both of which were full). So there I am, sitting in the hallway - I can't sleep because (1) it'd be too easy for someone to steal my stuff, (2) people kept walking by and I would have to move every time (the hallway was only around 1m wide) and (3) it's extremely uncomfortable. So I spent 3 hrs in a cramped hallway, and to top it off, I missed my station.

I get off at the next one and have to wait another 20-odd minutes surrounded by loud, drunken 18-24 year olds, take the train for a few stops, and then I still had to get to a hostel.

I call them up, and they have no room. I call another hostel, and they only have single rooms, and they wanted 70€!!! So I went on a 30-minute long walk to a few hotels from my guide, only to find that they're all either (a) full, (b) over 50€ to get in, or (c) nonexistent (the one I really wanted to go to seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth).

So there I am, in the middle of Munich, with nowhere to stay, at around 4:30 AM. So I sit down at the train station, and kill time reading my travel guide and writing in my notebook. At around 6AM I get some coffee (no breakfast places were open yet cuz Germans are weird with business hours so I was hungry, too) and tour the old city on my own. By the end, my feet are killing me, I'm limping, and it's only 8:30 by the time I get back to the train station. The hostel I'm at now (where I wound up sleeping from noon to 6 pm) did not start check-in until 11:30. So then I still had a big chunk of time to kill, because even if I wanted to do something, my feet were hurting too much to do any walking.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it here, but today was just one of those days...

A Bittersweet Life

2006-07-14T17:23:00.000-04:00

A Bittersweet Life (달콤한인생) embodied just what I love about Korean movies, and had few of the downsides. From director Kim Ji-Woon (A Tale of Two Sisters) and starring Lee Byung-hun (Three… Extremes) it was just one of those insane revenge pics that only Koreans can pull off so precisely.

The film is about Sun Woo (Lee), who is assigned to tail his boss' lover, whom his boss suspects of infidelity (ironically enough, the boss has a wife as well). Sun Woo is told that if she is found to be unfaithful, he must kill her. Upon confirming her cuckoldry, his conscience does not allow him to kill her; when his boss finds out about this, loads and loads of violence result, and Sun Woo opens up a Kimchi jar full of whoop-ass. The movie is definitely not as brutal as Oldboy or Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, but it's still a very violent movie, with incredible timing, gradually escalating to the final showdown.

The movie was gorgeously shot, with some fantastic scenes as well as excellent sound. Everything was absolutely top-notch. Definitely one of the better movies I've seen over the last while. Not only was it well done, I also had a lot of fun watching it.

****½

Tokyo Zombie

2006-07-14T17:20:00.000-04:00

Tokyo Zombie (東京ゾンビ), directed by Satou Sakichi (screenwriter for Gozu and Ichi the Killer) takes place in a near-future Tokyo, where, on a mountain of garbage (including junk, dead bodies, etc.) known as Black Fuji, the souls of the abandoned objects present therein have resulted in the resurrection of all dead bodies in the mountain. What follows are your pretty standard, run-of-the-mill zombies: taste for human flesh, you get infected if they bite you, sluggish movement, etc.

The story centres on a pair of friends (played by Tadanobu Asano and Shou Aikawa) one of whom has aspirations to become a jujitsu champion. Tokyo gets destroyed, with non-zombie people living behind high walls, with the rich exploiting the poor, with the only chance for any significant cash earnings being in the fighting ring, where they pit the living against zombies.

Overall, there was a lot of random comedy, but nothing was really funny enough, with a lot of deadpan humour, but not coming anywhere near the better Japanese comedies. The movie felt like it was dragging on, and if I have to look at my watch repeatedly in a film, odds are it’s not gonna be too great. And it wasn’t.

**½

Fantasia 2006

2006-07-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm gonna try to write reviews for all of the movies I see at Fantasia, but it's a long list, so that's a pretty tall order. I'll be posting them one by one, so there'll be an overload of posts in the near future. Hopefully I'll manage to review all of them. I might leave a few out. We'll see. And I hope Unicode serves me well, because I'll try to post the original-language titles, and I have a feeling it might fail when I try entering Thai titles or something.

Deutsch Lernen, Teil 1 / Learning German, Part 1

2006-06-29T16:33:00.000-04:00

Für meinen ersten Artikel möchte ich über Deutsch lernen schreiben. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut, aber ich kann genug verstehen, um einfache Gespräche zu führen und ein Bisschen reisen. Ich weiß, dass Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) schon einen sehr interessanten (und lustigen) Vortrag über die deutsche Sprache hielt, aber ich muss auch meine Gedanken und Gefühle ausdrücken.

Als ich anfing Deutsch zu lernen, hatte ich schon Jiddisch gelernt, und es war nicht einfach, um Deutsch zu lernen, sondern war es ein Bisschen leichter für mich. Aber das ist der einzige Vorteil; es gibt mehr Unterschiede als Ähnlichkeiten.

Zum Beispiel: auf Jiddisch sagt man etwas wie "ich habe nicht keine Zeit" (איך האב נישט קיין צײט), aber auf Deutsch ist es natürlich "ich habe keine Zeit". Ob man "nicht keine" sagt, muss er wirklich ein Bisschen seltsam sein. Meine Deutsche Lehrer haben mir gesagt, dass ich nicht das sagen muss.

Leider habe ich jetzt keine andere Ideen darüber zu schreiben, also ich werde das später weitermachen. Ich bin zu müde auf Deutsch zu denken... Entschuldigen Sie mir bitte für das furchtbares halb-Artikel... Ich werde das nennen "Deutsch Lernen, Teil 1."

For my first Article, I'd like to write about learning German. My German is not very good, but I can understand enough to hold simple conversations and to do a bit of travelling. I know that Mark Twain already delivered a very interesting (and funny) speech on the German language, but I also have to express my thoughts and feelings.

When I started learning German, I had already learned Yiddish, and learning German wasn't simple, but it was a little easier for me. However, that was the only advantage; there are more differences than similarities.

For example: in Yiddish one says something like (loosely translated as) "I don't have no time", whereas in German it's of course (yet another loose translation) "I have no time". If one says "don't [have] no ...", he must really be a little strange. My German teachers told me that I must never say that.

Unfortunately, I have no more ideas to write about, so I will continue this later. I'm too tired to think in German... I'm sorry about this sad excuse for a half-post... I'll call this "Learning German, Part 1."

Germany (In Denglish)

2006-06-27T14:54:00.000-04:00

So, now that I've graduated I decided to do something to (a) use some of the money I've been saving forever, (b) finally stop saying I've never been beyond the borders of Canada and the US.

Since I've been taking German for the last zwei semesters, ich figured ich would brush up on the ol' Deutsch, and gehe nach Deutschland. Ich depart am 11. August, und ich komme back am 27. August. Ich even prepared ein Bisschen by reading "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen". Now I've gotta arbeit on the grammar. Und comprehension. Comprehension ist key. Ob ich can speak it, I'll still have to understand what the locals sagen to me. Mein Plan, by the way, ist zu get around sprechen as little Englisch as possible. I don't want all those German lessons to go to waste. Going alone will also contribute to the development of mein Deutsch-skills as ich will habe less incentive zu speak Englisch.

I haven't worked out a complete itinerary yet, aber I know that ich will land in Paris, take einen train to Köln, und dann ich have some plans for the city, though I go back to Paris via Köln so I'm sure ich could cut down the Zeit spent there the first time if ich kann make up for it in the end.

I'd love zu go to Bad Homburg, too—just outside of Frankfurt am Main—it's where Linotype ist located (the company ist eine major designer and distributor of fonts.) Ich e-mailed them asking if sie offer tours mit any historische merit or something similar, though ich have nicht heard back from them yet.

I'll post meine Pläne as they come up and if ich habe any spare Zeit while I'm there (doubtful) ich kann possibly blog ein Bisschen.

For those of you who really can't understand this post (even though you should–I decided to be fair in what words I substituted), consult LEO, or take a German class. My German is better than the Germlish in which I posted... I should do some German blogging, though. It'd be fun. With translations, of course.

Wakamono

2006-06-21T14:17:00.000-04:00

Well, the other night Skrud and I were eager to go to Osaka for dinner, though it was closed, much to our dismay. After a brief internet search, I came across Wakamono (1251 Mont-Royal E, Montréal, Québec, T: (514) 527-2747), which claimed to be "modelled on the ramen shops that have been popular in Japan for over two hundred years." I checked out the rather fairly-priced menu and made a reservation.

We get there at around 7:30 and it's not very busy, maybe around 60% full. After being greeted by the (gorgeous) hostess, we were seated at our window-side table, getting a great view of the passers-by.

We ordered a half-bottle of saké, we each got an order of Tori Kara Age (fried spicy chicken marinated in saké, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and chilli pepper) and Wakamono ramen (braised pork, grilled chicken, shrimp, seasonal vegetables, naruto and wakame in a dashi broth).

The saké was quite tasty, and I'm convinced it was not Hakutsuru. It had a nice toasted rice flavour and went down very smoothly. It would have been better had we been provided with a small towel so we could handle the saké, as the little bottle got quite hot and napkins are not too thick.

The Tori Kara Age was a real disappointment. While the chicken WAS tender, and it came with a nice creamy sauce, the combination of ingredients was rather weak in terms of how strong the taste was. Nothing had enough presence, but they were too strong to be written off as "subtle." Furthermore, for a breaded chicken item, there was definitely not enough breading, leaving us with a rather unsatisfactory lump of mostly-moist chicken.

Now, we came to Wakamono primarily for the ramen. Osaka's specialty is apparently ramen, so we needed an alternate source for our noodly needs. We felt rather cheerful, having these large, pretty bowls of ramen placed in front of us:

I figured I would first try the broth, as a good broth is the key to a good ramen. Well, the broth was not only slightly disappointing, it was also extremely revolting. A miso broth that doesn't taste like miso is one thing. A miso broth that tastes like salty sesame oil is a whole other ballgame. The shrimp and chicken just tasted bland, while the BBQ pork (char siu / chashu)retained its flavour. A huge letdown.

Finally, we decided to have dessert. Skrud went for the green tea ice cream, which had what looked like some sort of fruit coulis on it, though dorayaki and mandarin oranges (à la Sakura) seem to be the best accompaniments to green tea ice cream. I, on the other hand, decided to try the ginger crème brûlée; I love crème brûlée, but this was under-charred on top, so it didn't have the right crackle, instead crumbling at the touch. Furthermore, since it was inadequately torched, the cream inside was too cold. It gets points for being tasty, but it was still lacking in the quality department.

Overall, it was just alright, and I'd have to give it maybe a 2/5. Pros: Inexpensive, attractive hostess, everything but the ramen was okay. Cons: The ramen sucked, and nothing stood out.

BlogZOT, part MCMXCVII

2006-06-16T10:58:00.000-04:00

Wow, it seems I am only posting anything when MacZOT! has some sort of contest or promotion... I'm sure I'll get back into the blogging thing when I go to Germany. Oh yeah, might as well have an update... I'm going to Germany from Aug 11-27, so that'll be lots of fun. More info to come. :D
So, without any further ado...
My review of HoudahSpot as seen on MacZOT.com

-- I always had a bit of a problem with the graphical Spotlight interface, finding it kind of awkward and unintuitive in some cases. It didn't fit in with the search style found in iTunes, with AND and OR queries graphically accessible, rather than a single line of text to type in. The command line utility mdfind is a little better, but sometimes I just like a pretty interface for dealing with things like this. HoudahSpot responds to this problem beautifully, creating a nice graphical search utility that is exactly what Spotlight should be. I'm glad to try it and hope the BlogZOT works out well so I can have a copy for free, though it's not so expensive that I would not just buy it myself. --

NOTE: If you’re seeing this on June 16, 2006 head over to MacZOT, you might be able to get a Free copy of HoudahSpot

Search easily in Tiger, Mac OS X, with HoudahSpot

CollaboZOT! BlogZOT! MacZOT!

2006-05-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

Well, it's time for another fun event for MacZOT! They've got what they call a CollaboZOT going on, which involves team play and about $160 in software for steadily-increasing quantities of money (starting at $19.95 and increasing by $5 every day—except for today, though...) So they're trying to add Pzizz to the deal, and despite the fact that I have it and absolutely LOVE it, I am always supportive of contributing to a good cause. :D

MacZOT.com Fans want Pzizz because 'According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep deprivation and its effect on work performance may be costing U.S. employers some $18 billion each year in lost productivity. Another study pushes this cost to over $100 billion.' - link to full article

Always glad to contribute to the cause!

Hockey

2006-04-27T17:33:00.000-04:00

I know I've already had rants about sports but I figured it was time for an addendum of sorts. I must first re-state that I am a bad Canadian. I hate hockey. I hate all sports, but hockey holds a special place in my heart—a rather miserable place, if you ask me.

Seeing as the previous rant also contained my reasons for disliking hockey I'll get to some of the more specific rants.

The aspect of sports I hate more than the watching of the sports themselves is "sports fever." I don't care who wins. In fact, I hope the Canadiens lose as soon as possible. If they do, there will be much less playoff-watching around me. The other day at the dinner table, everyone had to be watching the game while eating, so I was the one who volunteered to take the seat with the back facing the television. The highlight of the evening was when the Canadiens score while I was in mid-bite, everyone jumps up and yells, while I don't even break the movement from my plate to my mouth. I just don't get why people care so much. All I ever get is "well, you get caught up in the fever!" But why is there fever in the first place? They're not really doing ANYTHING! Or sometimes I get the "local pride" sort of argument: does the ability of a small group of a city's residents to perform well in sports determine a city's worth? Most players aren't from here anyway! It's just saying "we bought better players than you!" It accomplishes absolutely nothing.

I don't really care too much what other people do, but it's when I'm seeing friends (and significant others) that it starts to bug me; I want to spend time with people where everyone can enjoy what we're doing. I'm always willing to accommodate others, but they use the excuse "oh, but this is only happening once! We can go out anytime, we can see that movie anytime..." Well, every moment of your life happens only once. So deal with it. Watch the highlights for the really "amazing" plays, see the scores, let a night of it go. For fuck's sake, it's just people hitting a projectile into a net! No story, no depth, no relevance...

I just want it to fucking end. Stupid goddamn hockey. I don't hate it so much normally, it's just when it starts to interfere with my life.

PersonalDNA

2006-04-25T15:39:00.000-04:00

I took this fun test, albeit a little long, and here are my results (mouse over the various colours to see what they mean):

My Personal Dna Report

I'm a Free-Wheeling Leader! :D

Yet another BlogZOT!

2006-04-25T12:36:00.000-04:00

Well, MacZOT has done it again. It's the brand spanking new BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com! Basically the way it usually works is they drop the price of software by $0.05 for every blog entry about the subject submitted. Now, I'm always glad to contribute to such things, especially if it's good software. However, this time it's not only good software, it's fantastic software.

The software of the day is SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys, which normally goes for $35 US. Last time, when they did this with AppZapper (blogged here) they gave away 5000 units of software. So, since this time they will give away 3000 units at $35 apiece, that means that MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $150,000 in Mac software to their loyal customers. However, to make things easier they've already discounted the software to $30 (MacZOT always discounts software when they sell it - that's their big selling point) and since they're dropping the price by $0.05 for every blog, 600 people must blog this in order for the software to be free. Furthermore, at a 5 cent drop per blog with 600 blogs, that means that 600 blogs will result in a total of $105,000 in free software, so every blog will result in $175 being given away.

I've only used SubEthaEdit a little, and it seems to be a really slick piece of software. I mean, it is a collaborative text editor, so you can edit a document simultaneously with a bunch of other people, it colour-codes your edits, and it works over the internet or over Apple's zero-configuration wireless protocol, Bonjour. I've only briefly tested it out, and while it sometimes gets funky with firewalls and stuff, it's pretty fuckin' cool. The only drawback is, most of the coders I know don't use Macs, but hopefully that'll change when I get deeper into the bioinformatics, since EVERYONE uses a Mac.

Anyways, I'm really impressed with what MacZOT! Is pulling off here, and I hope they continue the fantastic work they've been doing.

School

2006-04-25T02:48:00.000-04:00

Well, I've done it. I've finished all my classes for my undergrad. Provided I passed all of my exams, I'll soon be a swingin' bachelor of science. I'd love to see the McGill sweatshirt for my full program. BIG LETTERS: McGill, Subtitle: Faculty Program in Biology and Mathematics, Sub-subtitle: Minor in Computational Molecular Biology.

Oh well.

So I've also been accepted into graduate school, and get this: I come home, find a big envelope on my bed that's torn open on top. So I think to myself: "Hey, what the hell? Who's opening my mail? Did my mother get too excited about my acceptance and open the mail for me?" No. I get the letters out and it turns out that they had been slightly chewed by my mother's dog Buffy, an irritating, hyperactive little west-highland terrier that urinates everywhere and chews up everything in sight. I'm still pissed about that. I mean sure, I'll never really have a use for this letter in the long run, but when I look at it, it just makes me hate my mother's dog more and more. But that's also due to the resentment I feel toward that horrid hound.

But that's a whole other story.

So yeah, I really hope I passed Stochastic Processes. If I don't I'll have to go speak with the professor, as I am sure I can argue my way through the exam—if I don't pass, I don't get my BSc; if I don't get my BSc, I don't get into grad school; if I don't get into grad school I won't have any clue what the hell I'm going to do next year.

I can't wait until the stress of not knowing is gone.

AppZapper Update

2006-04-03T20:46:00.000-04:00

Holy crap! I'd just barely posted (and the copy of AppZapper was down to 65 cents) when I reload the site and it's not only free, but it's sold out too! Man, this sucks. :(

Edit: Turns out you just have to go to this page enter your info, and they give you a serial. w00t!

Free AppZapper

2006-04-03T20:28:00.000-04:00

Well, this looks pretty interesting. I'll do what I can to contribute to the community! :D I've always liked the idea behind MacZOT.com, and support their efforts!

AppZapper 1.3 will be released today. The uninstaller Apple forgot has teamed up with MacZOT.com to run a special promotion for the release of their latest version featuring the new QuickZap™

AppZapper 1.3 is FREE! (or will be if we get at least 259 bloggers to mention it)

For each blog that posts a link to MacZOT.com, they'll drop the price for everybody by $0.05 (Blog links should be posted to the Comment section at http://maczot.com/discuss/?p=35#comments)

Our goal is to give away 1,000 copies of AppZapper to Mac users around the world. So, every Blog entry will be worth about $50.00 to the community.

Once they reach at least 259, AppZapper will be priced at $0.00 (FREE) to everybody who registers at MacZOT.com or sends a simple email to BlogZOT@maczot.com after the time it becomes FREE.

GET STARTED! Email your favorite bloggers and tell them to blog up MacZOT so everyone can benefit! And then: Grab your copy of AppZapper 1.3 with the new QuickZap feature from http://maczot.com

The Cure For Information Overload

2006-04-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you'll find The Cure For Information Overload really interesting. It has changed the way I see things. Everyone should check it out.

Harley Update v. 2006.03.25

2006-03-25T15:31:00.000-05:00

It seems that I have been feeling the need to blog again. Sooooo, here we go... Let's cover the basics...

Last weekend I was at CSCBC 2006, and it was quite an experience. I'd never been to Kingston before, and my knowledge of Queen's was indeed quite limited. There were a lot of interesting presentations and keynotes, most notably Dr. Randy Ellis' presentation on computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery. In fact, I recommend checking out his work, or at the very least a video of some of the incredibly cool stuff he has been working on. I was blown away by the kind of work they're doing, and while it's not necessarily the kind of thing I would be working on, it was incredibly fascinating to hear about it from such a leading player in the field.

More so than the presentations, I found it was a great opportunity to meet some great new people, both those from Queen's (especially the organisers, all of whom did a fantastic job) and those from other universities across Canada. It's a nice feeling to get to go drinking with a ton of Canadians from across the country. I never thought I'd wind up dancing, though, but there's photographic evidence to prove it. ;)

While there, I had a sick roommate, which is a shame because he never got to present his poster while there, but the worst part about it is that I think I got sick from him, because from my first Monday right up until yesterday (Friday) I have been sick as a dog. Never before have I had such terrible, pounding headaches, nausea and general feelings of bleah. Not a very happy camper at all. But I'm finally feeling better, just in time for Skrud's birthday party at Ye Olde Orchard. Pub food for all! Then tomorrow night it's off to Hurley's to hear my monthly Irish storytelling... I should post about that sometime... That'll be next. :D

Now Playing: Rammstein - Benzin (I really need to get a better feel of this new album...)
Now Reading: My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist - Mark Leyner (This is one bizarre book, that's all I can say!)

Deep Space Nine

2006-03-07T16:20:00.000-05:00

I've gotta be honest. I was not a Star Trek fan until Voyager was off the air. Luckily, my stepfather purchased (over the course of two or three years) all of TNG and Voyager. I watched it all, enjoying everything quite a lot. I've become a big Star Trek fanboy.

The one series I had never watched at all, though, was Deep Space Nine. I'd always heard most Star Trek fans bashing it, and my stepfather wouldn't even buy it. So, a while back I opted to buy the Chinese release off of eBay, but I got screwed over by a Shanghainese scam artist who took my money and never sent me my DS9. It took a good deal of time getting pissed off at eBay to learn that they wouldn't get me my money back. Visa, however, was much more accommodating and got me all the money back, with no $20 fee like eBay has.

In the end, I acquired the whole series elsewhere *cough*torr*cough*ents*cough* and have been watching like a demon. Quite a lot of fun. I am enjoying it much more than I expected to.

I like the characters, I like the way it's grittier than the polished, clean-cut TNG. While Voyager toed the line, DS9 has a much rawer sort of feel. I'm quite happy with it. Though it will never hold as special a place in my heart as good ol' TNG.

German Class

2006-02-27T14:48:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the semester, I decided to switch sections for my introductory German course. While it resulted in a more tolerable schedule, I also had to deal with a different professor.

My first Prof was from Columbia; German is not her first language, but at least she can explain things in a way that we know is effective, since she is the one standing in front of the class... Her class was fun, lively, and she always had fun ways of teaching things. There was a lot of group work, so you were constantly practising. She had a lot of slides, and it was always easy to take good notes. We had lots of small assignments that never took much time, but you learned a lot. It was a fun, no-pressure environment and I was thriving.

This semester, I have a Swiss professor. He has a more pressured environment, and it has caused me to lose all my enthusiasm for the subject. He goes around the class and grills you. I feel as though I'm learning nothing. My notes are more or less useless, being filled with the random vocabulary words he mentions, and a few (very few) useful grammatical notes. We are given assignment sheets every week, which basically look like (in translated form):

Monday, February 27

pp. 307–311 (read)
p.308 (do exercises, don't hand in)
p.311 (memorise vocabulary for class)

Now, this is fine, but since we don't hand in the exercises, I have no drive to hand them in—lack of motivation. For the vocabulary, the teacher stands in front of the class, and rattles off English words and points to students (who have to put their books away) and they have to immediately answer with the German translation. Very drill-like. Not pleasant at all. Doesn't make me want to learn. It just makes me less eager to answer questions. Even at the beginning of class when he asks what people did the day before, or what they plan on doing during the weekend it still seems like an interrogation. About as pleasant as nailing my hands to the floor.

Scheiße... :(

Why I hate the Olympics

2006-02-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, I think I must be the only person who genuinely hates the two weeks every two years when I have to deal with the Olympics. Now, I hate watching sports in general. As far as competitive sports, in the case of Hockey, my brain never got beyond the stage of "why am I watching this puck go back and forth along the ice while people try to get it into a net?" To me I just never saw the point of watching it. I can see how it can be fun to play it (though not really for me) but I don't get watching it.

Now, I very rarely hear any good reasons behind it...

Oh, it's exciting!
It's all about watching their skill!
It's the fights!
It's just something to do with the guys!

I just explained why I don't understand the excitement.

As for skill, if I don't care about putting a rock into a hole (or a puck into a net, a ball into a basket, etc.) I don't see why I would care any more about someone who does it well.

With Hockey, people seem to love watching it just for the fights that break out. This makes less sense to me. Why not watch wrestling, ultimate fighting, or a kung fu movie? These fights are probably just as staged as the others...

As far as something to do with the guys, I guess if you have a bunch of guys who feel the same, they can feed off of each others' excitement, but personally, when I'm around a bunch of these sporty types I just feel out of place, even when it's friends. I feel like I don't know these deranged, yelling people around me.

Alright, that covers the Hockey, and any other competitive sports, but that's just a part of the Olympic events. As for the rest, I guess I can see that it's a more filtered version of competitive sports that deals with just the elements of skill and the excitement of having your country (or country of preference) win. However, in this case my brain sees it as nyah, nyah, I skate faster than you can! So, while I give credit where credit is due—recall, I've never said I don't appreciate the talent these people have at what they do, nor do I disrespect the amount of effort they put into their activities—this doesn't mean I can spend two weeks caring about it.

Now, I must clarify one thing: I don't watch television. So none of this should be blamed on complaints of oh, my favourite show is cancelled... stupid Olympics! It's purely my dislike of Olympic events.

On top of everything, I have to deal with people constantly thinking I care. There's always someone who says something like so, anything good happen today? and in some cases I have to keep up with these things just to prevent having to deal with the television being turned on to check on the events. That will just mean an hour that I genuinely consider wasted for me. Maybe not for the other viewers, but I certainly don't appreciate having to watch it.

I'm just glad it's over today. At least I get 2 years PLUS a few months this time since I have until the summer.

Edit: I just discovered a more in-depth rant about the Olympics that entertained me very much.

Been a while, again...

2006-02-25T04:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I figure it's high time I got back in the blogging game. I know it has taken me months to get back to it but it seems like every time I get started, either something distracts me or somehow I lose everything I've written. I never figured out how I managed such things.

So, after all the years of using the internet, I am only now learning html. Sad, eh? Now's better than never, I guess. I'm picking up css and xhtml too, because it really couldn't hurt. Besides, you can't make a very pretty page with html alone.

I've been using a fantastic book, called Head First html with css and xhtml. This series of books is fantastic. I just can't get over how much I'm enjoying the writing style. I'd definitely consider writing a Head First book for something science-related. If only I could gather together all of my smarts and do it. But for now, I'll just plan. Or dawdle. Or something.

Stupid d key. It's broken. It doubles up randomly, and I've had a lot of backspacing to do. If there are random dds that shouldn't be there, just ignore them, but I think I've got it all under control. First it was the comma, now it's the d. I wish my mac would just be without little issues for a while. I'll have to post about the problems I've been having when I have some more time. It's kinda 4:36am right now, so I think I should be sleeping. But you know, anything to procrastinate. I know when I wake up I'll just have to ~~study~~ learn everything from scratch for my Stochastic Processes exam on Monday. That won't be fun.

Oh well. I'll try to pick this up tomorrow.

Sexy sexy sexy

2005-05-10T13:07:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I got the lappy, as anyone in my nearby (and even distant) circles should already know. But now, as the weather gets better, I'm discovering just how great it is to have a lightweight, sexy laptop with built-in wireless can be when it's gorgeous outside and there's wireless reception out there. *drools* Had a fun calculus class today -- my teacher goes through so much coloured chalk it's scary... We get like integral (limits) integral (limits) integral (limits) sin x cos y z^2 dz dy dx or something like that and the teacher will be like... "By inspection of the integral, it's zero" And I'll be confused cuz I'm just looking at my notes. Then he'll say "it's because the blue part will be zero no matter what" and I'll get more confused until I look at the board and find out. Not that I'd know what to look for when I study. So that's been a little amusing. And frustrating. Or both, simultaneously. And now I've gotta wait like 40 minutes until I meet up with my Prof for the independent studies, so that I can work out the logistics of it all. Now I've got the sexy computing power to handle anything. ;) Now Reading : Schaum's Outline of Advanced Calculus Now Playing : Animetal - Saint Seiya

Studying

2005-04-25T18:50:00.000-04:00

I've discovered that I am amongst the worst students in the world when it comes to studying (well, of those who actually DO study... those who just don't really can't count). Here's my typical study day:

Wake up late
Check the forums
Check my e-mail
Play around on the 'Net -- Can involve eBay, /., etc.
Play around with portage
Possibly repeat steps 2-5, until I get hungry
Take my time eating breakfast/lunch, possibly read the paper
Go back to my room, and repeat steps 2-5 until either I realise how much I should be studying, I get interrupted by dinner, I get a phone call, or I get really bored
Either study or play SNES, depending on the urgency
Start studying seriously
Get a call from Leilani, and talk on the phone for a good while
Try to get back to studying, but the lure of steps 2-5 can take over -- again, depending on how much I should be studying
Either realise that I can't absorb any more material for the evening or get really distracted
Either call up Phrook for some Kung Fu movieage or repeat steps 2-5
Go to bed (usually at quite a late hour)
Repeat steps 1-16 until the exam

And that's how it works most of the time. Sometimes I get more serious and actually study, but it frequently winds up as above.... It's a good thing I didn't get my computer delivered during exam period -- It'd be a terrible influence on my studies... Now Reading : Human Molecular Genetics - {Peter Sudbery, Strachan and Read} (Two textbooks, same title, different authors) Now Playing : Best of Nintendo - Unknown Stage (Double Dragon 2)

I have a blog?

2005-04-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

Well, so it's been a while since I last blogged. 'Bout time I did. So my new obsession has been the purchase of a sexy new Powerbook. They're fun little guys that really have more or less what I would like in a computer for a lower price... Namely:

Motion Sensors detect sudden changes in movement, locking the hard drive heads to prevent damage if it is dropped.
It's a powerful computer with a 15" screen, but it still weighs only 5.6 lbs.
OS X Tiger turns me on -- Spotlight lets you find anything on your computer in seconds, even searching within files (PDFs included!), it has awesome international support, and Bonjour is just brilliant, allowing two computers to connect just by being next to each other.
It's quite nice to look at.
Nice integration of hardware and software -- the OS is created by the same people that make the computer, so there are no worries about optimisation and stuff, since it's all built for the PowerPC processor.

Besides, they're quite common in the Biology world, so it's a smart idea to learn to use them properly. And now the wait begins... I bought it this morning. :D Now Reading : Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual - David Pogue Now Playing : The Big Band of Rogues - Theme of the Dolphic Town (Super Mario Sunshine)

Create a South Park Character

2004-12-18T01:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've visited www.planearium.de but they've improved their site. If you go to "Exklusiv" and then to SP-STUDIO, you can create South Park characters -- But they've made it better now cuz you can customize more. I did these pics a long time ago, but they were fun nevertheless.
First there's me:

Then Leilani:

Gill:

And, finally, Skrud. This was from back when he used to smoke. A little outdated, but a classic nevertheless... :P

Hee hee hee...

Now Reading : Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell -- Almost Done!!!
Now Playing : Rammstein - Amerika

Edit: Here's a revised Skrud:

Random Insertional Mutagenesis

2004-12-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

Which File Extension are You? It's odd that I get linked to .HTML, but I honestly never even learned it. I'm a failure!!!! :P Then this came up and it just ruined everything: Which OS are You? Then again, that does link me with 98-Tan: Hehehehe... I always thought of myself as a Win2k when it came to Windoze... But I'll always be a Linuxite. ;) Edit: I discovered that I didn't republish my blog last time so there was a post that never went up. Ah well. I'm an idiot. :P Now Reading : Understanding Nonlinear Dynamics Now Playing : Dvorak - Symphony 9, e Minor, Op. 95, "From the New World"

2004-11-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

Well, midterms are over, and all the marks have been tallied. Boy am I unhappy about those results. I really should start working harder. Apparently the way the rules work is for every hour of class time (t) for an n-credit course, you have to put (t x n) hours of work (homework and studying) into the course. Now that's just crazy. I would have to put in 48 hours of work and study per week (four 3-credit courses and one 4-credit course). This is quite scary. I doubt I'll ever reach that degree of study-fanaticism. Though I doubt I'd be getting these marks if I did study that much. Well, I was gonna blog more, but I've gotta go see Up The Irons now. So I'll have to post more anothing time. :D Now Reading : Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke Now Playing : Iron Maiden - Powerslave

Lorem Ipsum

2004-10-18T13:38:00.000-04:00

OK, first I just want to get this off my chest:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed egestas blandit urna. Curabitur ut wisi vitae mauris fringilla vestibulum. Pellentesque adipiscing ultrices eros. Aliquam eros sem, varius in, pretium in, commodo in, dui. Proin at erat ut tortor sollicitudin venenatis. Maecenas quam. Aliquam nulla. Suspendisse convallis leo ac diam. Suspendisse faucibus, sapien id gravida nonummy, lorem sem adipiscing libero, eu accumsan augue nulla vitae dolor. Fusce commodo. Nunc posuere enim hendrerit ipsum. Etiam volutpat hendrerit sapien. Pellentesque sodales iaculis neque. Maecenas venenatis sagittis tortor.

Nullam eget dui et tortor tempor laoreet. Pellentesque sem purus, sagittis in, scelerisque sit amet, adipiscing ut, odio. Duis mauris dui, ullamcorper sed, egestas sed, volutpat ut, metus. Phasellus nonummy augue ut sapien. Nulla sed magna sit amet justo eleifend condimentum. Fusce lobortis dapibus pede. Duis vel orci congue orci convallis laoreet. Aliquam ut nisl. Mauris at purus in felis pretium facilisis. Praesent eget sapien aliquam odio accumsan molestie. Sed tempus aliquet diam. Duis a felis a risus accumsan ultrices. Mauris id wisi. Proin consectetuer. Maecenas vestibulum faucibus massa. In sit amet velit.

I think I just have a strange passion for Lorem Ipsum. For those of you who do not know, Lorem Ipsum is a typesetting convention used by many graphic designers to demonstrate a page's layout without having distracting text. It's basically Latin-like gibberish with a normal letter distribution. I think it's fascinating. Further study (Google) has informed me that it is in fact based on a quote from Cicero, but that's besides the point. On another note, I managed to accidentally delete all of /home/harley, thinking I was in /var/tmp/portage. Some things I can recover (eBooks and stuff), and other things I cannot (code I've written -- Not enough of that to be missed, though -- and some games that took me months to find). What really gets to me, though, is the fact that I lost all of my school stuff. Again, most of it will not be missed. What will, however, be missed are my 40 pages of math notes from this semester, and my 60-odd pages of math notes which I was going to need for review over the winter as I am taking part 2 of the course in the winter semester. Oh well... No use crying over spilled milk. Really sucks, though... Now Reading : Molecular Biology of Oncogenes Coursepack - Barid Mukherjee Now Playing : Dio - Master of the Moon

Enlightenment

2004-10-12T01:53:00.000-04:00

I was checking out an article called "Four Alternative Linux Window Managers", and I figured I'd give something new a try. Now, I am a hardcore-devoted KDE user and not a big fan of GNOME, so I figured "Why the hell would I want something other than KDE?" But then I got to thinking: sometimes I get in class a little late and I can't wait through the whole KDE startup time (remember, sometimes KDE doesn't like me) so why the hell not? I may even like it more. Well, I gave Enlightenment a try, and I'm really impressed. In fact, it's quite easily customizable and surprisingly aesthetically pleasing. I must try out other WM's... So far, though, Enlightenment is the sexiest. ;) On another note, I watched Battle Royale at Skrud's house last night... That movie was insane. For those of you who have not seen it, I will watch it again any time. I don't even wanna say anything more about it, because if you don't know, then you haven't seen it. If you haven't seen it, you'll have to come join me to watch it sometime soon. :D On Saturday night, Skrud, Leilani and Ed came over (with Climan and Laura showing up later) and we watched Ju-On 2. Now, this is the sequel to Ju-On, which is showing up in theatres in a week and a half as "The Grudge" (with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman). The original was the only horror movie that ever really creeped me out... But the sequel was surprisingly bland. Don't get me wrong... It had its moments, but nothing compared to the original. I guess the first one desensitised me to its really creepy imagery. Ah well, I still had lots of fun. OK, gotta get to bed. Class starts again tomorrow after this suspiciously short-feeling long weekend.

Owwwww...

2004-10-07T14:50:00.000-04:00

So I wake up an hour early this morning only to discover that EVERY TIME I BREATHE I FEEL SEARING PAIN!!! Turns out that I had over-exerted myself in my reaching up and down at my Tai Chi class and pulled some muscles in my chest area. Now I have the distinct honour of feeling pain no matter what position I may find. I can lay on my back, but if I lift my arms to be able to read I feel more pain. This sucks. I mean, I'm managing to use my computer with small amounts of pain shooting across my chest, but it's just because of the good dose of Aleve I took... On the bright side I managed to finish my book this morning while trying to ignore the aching of my body. It was all about the development of our Alphabet and stuff... What I found to be quite interesting was the fact that while I did know that English used to have two letters for "th" (Thorn - Þ, and Eth - ð) - Thorn being pronounced like the "th" in "Thursday", and Eth like in "bathe" - Thorn managed to stay in our alphabet for quite a while, being written as a "y". So "the" would look like "ye": So in fact, Ye Olde Orchard is really "Þe Olde Orchard", or properly pronounced, "The Old[e] Orchard". I understand that the meaning is there, but when we are using "Ye" in that sense it is actually incorrect... It's sad that I think about this stuff... But I find it interesting, goddamnit! =Þ (Note the Thorn... hee hee hee) Owww... Now Reading : Hmm.. I dunno what to read now... Maybe James Clavell's Shōgun... Or Clive Barker's Books of Blood... Or Simon Singh's Fermat's Enigma... I've got a couple of books by Greg Egan... But then again I have like 6 Christopher Moore books to read. Bah. I'll probably read the Books of Blood. Now Playing : Hound Dog - Rocks (Awesomely Cool Naruto Theme)

Stupid Hotmail...

2004-10-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

I know I avoid Hotmail at all costs, but I DO use it if I need to for stuff that could potentially involve spam. So I decided that I should make use of my extra Gmail invites and invite myself to create a 1 GB bobo account. I can use it for all things that might involve getting junk mail, and I guess I can keep those really big emails that I don't feel like getting rid of and would take up too much space in my archive (like the 100 MB of pictures that was sent to me recently). So if anyone wants to send me e-mails about retrieving lost millions in Nigeria, send 'em to larley@gmail.com This was all prompted by two particularly annoying incidents. The first incident involved my posting an ad to sell stuff on McGill classifieds. I checked my e-mail and there were like 20 new e-mails and 5 or so in the spam folder. The 20 e-mails were from this same spam group that has been e-mailing me for a long time (and they always change their e-mail (Dai.ly.sav.ers@www.gdsesisjdkjf.com becoming D.ail.ysav.ers@www.dshfjkdgnjk.com, etc.) even though I've been telling hotmail every time that they are junk. In my junk mail folder, however, I found e-mails regarding the ad. And one piece of spam. I KNOW I deserve it for using hotmail, but still!!! The second incident was on my birthday. I had been told by Zach that he had send me a gift certificate from Amazon.ca. Not knowing of my allegiance to Gmail, he had sent it to my usual hotmail address, where I RARELY get spam (I never understood how it managed to stay so clean for such a long time). I don't get the e-mail. I can't access the gift certificate. He has to contact amazon.ca to void the old one and send me a new one. I don't get it. In desperation I start going through my nearly empty spam folder. Not there. Guess where it was? THE FUCKING TRASH! Argh! I shall repeat my mantra: "Stupid Hotmail... Stupid Microsoft..." Rant #2: My "Molecular Biology of the Gene" midterm exam was postponed from Oct. 14 to Oct. 21... This was apparently due to the Biology department intelligently making the exam conflict with two or three OTHER exams in the Biology department. Now, normally I'd be jumping for joy if an exam was postponed, being a major practitioner of procrastination. However, the exam now happens to be in direct conflict with my "Mathematical Models in Biology" midterm - ANOTHER EXAM IN THE BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT!!! Kind of ridiculous, no? So I sent an angry letter to the Chair of the Biology department, and discussed the matter with my teacher, and they will TRY to come up with a more convenient date for the makeup exam. Though I know they will somehow screw it up. Can't they come up with a system that has all the course information for all students and works out midterm schedules based on what has the least conflict for everything? I mean, I'm sure they have one for organizing the times and locations for classes (though I often find myself doubting that too...) I wish I were a CompSci major - I'd be working on a viable, open source solution to be implemented by all universities. :P On another, more calming note, I started taking Tai Chi classes last week, and it's turned out to be quite enjoyable. I mean, I will always need more practice, and you can't expect to fully learn something as soon as you walk out of the class. I have to work at it and spend much time trying to get it almost right, only to go to class and be shown a more fine-tuned version which I must try to emulate. Along with the forms, I have learned a lot of different exercises and stretches that are good for those days (i.e: every day) where a lot of time is spent sitting down, and there are some great ones to relieve stress. I'm very happy I finally worked up the initiative to sign up and apply myself to Tai Chi. Soon enough I'll be out there on the mountain doing Tai Chi amongst the trees... ;) Now Reading : Letter Perfect, The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z Now Playing : Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II

I really don't feel like doing homework

2004-09-26T15:33:00.000-04:00

Yeah... After waking up at like 2PM I have no desire to sit and do Discrete Math homework. It's not that it's difficult or anything... It's just that I can't bring myself to get up and do it. I've been sitting here staring at the screen, reading emails, Slashdot, skrud.net, browsing eBay, playing around with my online banking, ANYTHING to avoid doing that assignment... WHY can I not work up the simple ability to go solve some problems that would take no time if I applied myself to them a little? I did Questions 4 and 5 in class, so that leaves me with 3 to go. It really shouldn't take me long... But ARGH! On another note, Shaun of the Dead was an awesome movie. It was basically a parody of 28 Days Later..., with hints of Evil Dead ("Ash called in sick today...") and other random zombie movies. The British never cease to amuse me with their randomly funny movies and television shows. :D Now Reading : The Eight - Katherine Neville (Yep... Still...) Now Playing : Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane As a P.S: I was very much amused by this, so I want to share it with you all... It's GPL'd source code for the human genome.

===
/* HUMAN_DNA.H
*
* Human Genome
* Version 2.1
*
* (C) God
*/

/* Revision history:
*
* 0000-00-01 00:00  1.0  Adam.
* 0000-00-02 10:00  1.1  Eve.
* 0000-00-03 02:11  1.2  Added penis code to male version. A bit messy --
*                        will require a rewrite later on to make it neater.
* 0017-03-12 03:14  1.3  Added extra sex drive to male.h; took code from
*                        elephant-dna.c
* 0145-10-03 16:33  1.4  Removed tail.
* 1115-00-31 17:20  1.5  Shortened forearms, expanded brain case.
* 2091-08-20 13:56  1.6  Opposable thumbs added to hand() routine.
* 2501-04-09 14:04  1.7  Minor cosmetic improvements -- skin colour made
*                        darker to match my own image.
* 2909-07-12 02:21  1.8  Dentition inadequate; added extra 'wisdom' teeth.
*                        Must remember to make mouth bigger to compensate.
* 4501-12-31 14:18  1.9  Increase average height.
* 5533-02-12 17:09  2.0  Added gay option, triggered by high population
*                        density, to try and slow the overpopulation problem.
* 6004-11-04 16:11  2.1  Made forefinger narrower to fit hole in centre of
*                        CD.
*/

/* Standard definitions
*/

#define SEX male
#define HEIGHT 1.84
#define MASS 68
#define RACE caucasian

/* Include inherited traits from parent DNA files.
*
* Files must be pre-processed with MENDEL program to provide proper
* inheritance features.
*/

#include "mother.h"
#include "father.h"

#infndef FATHER
#warn("Father unknown -- guessing\n")
#include "bastard.h"
#endif

/* Set up sex-specific functions and variables
*/
#include 

/* Kludged code -- I'll re-design this lot and re-write it as a proper
* library sometime soon.
*/
struct genitals
  {
#ifdef MALE
  Penis *jt;
#endif
  /* G_spot *g;   Removed for debugging purposes */
#ifdef FEMALE
  Vagina *p;
#endif
  }

/* Initialization bootstrap routine -- called before DNA duplication.
* Allocates buffers and sets up protein file pointers
*/
DNA *zygote_initialize(Sperm *, Ovum *);

/* MAIN INITIALIZATION CODE
*
* Returns structures containing pre-processed phenotypes for the organism
* to display at birth.
*
* Will be improved later to make output less ugly.
*/
Characteristic *lookup_phenotype(Identifier *i);
===

...and so on.


[ Note that God uses three-space tabs ]


--

School is on

2004-09-10T21:45:00.000-04:00

So, the semester has begun, and it's off to a pretty good start. I mean, the 6-hour labs from 1-7 are pretty excruciating but it's all good. I'll be posting photos from the par-tay as soon as I scan them... But in the meantime.... MUSHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now Reading : The Eight - Katherine Neville Now Playing : Animetal - Best of Animetal

Birth on My Drunkday

2004-09-06T10:30:00.000-04:00

Hee hee hee... You people pulled a fast one on me there! In case you don't know, yesterday was my birthday and it was awesomely cool cuz Leilani planned a surprise party for me. Originally the plan was to go to Sakura and eat, then come home so she could give me my cake and presents, then I would go meet my friends at Ye Olde Orchard for booze and fun. I get home with Leilani, she stops me when we get out of the car, sounding remarkably like a hallmark card, hugging me and telling me "I just hope you've enjoyed yourself, and I want to wish you all the best in the future and good luck in everything you do..." Then I walk in the door, see a body on top of a cake lighting candles, the lights come on and "SURPRISE!!!" I was so damned confused, man... But after I was given a beer, a large sombrero and a pink boa, it started to dawn on me that I was having a surprise party. I'm amazed how well Leilani pulled it off. She even applied laws of statistics to the concept of my invitations by telling some people to decline, telling me they couldn't come to the pub, so that it would seem more realistic. I'm really impressed. :D As soon as I walked in the door I was given a VodkIce sorta thing, which managed to be drunk within a very short amount of time and was subsequently followed by another downed within a similar timespan. I had just barely finished with that when I hear "Harley! Have a shot of Vodka with us!" So I do that. As soon as my shotglass has hit the table Mike comes along and says "Harley! Have a shooter!" So I drink it. 3 more followed within a short period. One of my presents (THANKS TO MAH HOMIES!!! ;P) was a case of Tsingtao, a couple of which were made to disappear too quickly. I think it was less the volume drunk and rather the speed with which I took it all in. But I was plastered. I have one picture now, and will post more later. :D Now Reading: Mastering Regular Expressions - Jeffrey E. F. Friedl Now Playing: No.... Music bad...... My head...................

New Look, AVP and DearS

2004-08-15T03:30:00.000-04:00

Well, just got home from watching "DearS" at Skrud's... That show is like Chobits gone nuts. Kind of a mix between Chobits, Onegai Teacher and some Love Hina... Before that I saw Alien Versus Predator, which was quite cool... It wasn't great, but I didn't expect much - there's kind of a rule I've been noticing: A movie that has lots of potential usually won't live up to it - granted, there are many exceptions, but for the most part it holds. I say, if they simply never had any humans in the movie, it would be more interesting (or at least if they minimized the HUMAN component and maximized the Alien/Predator portion). But oh well... I've learned never to get my hopes up if it's not Asian cinema. They usually don't disappoint. Except for those Korean movies - I'm never sure with those. Anyways, I MUST get to bed. Hope the new look isn't too unpleasant... And I don't think I'll EVER get to finishing those Fantasia reviews. Might as well check out Skrud's site for that... Now Reading : Something Rotten (Advance Preview Copy - with all the typos) - Jasper Fforde Now Playing : Falconer - Enter the Glade

ARGH!

2004-08-02T23:31:00.000-04:00

I had a whole post written out, but I accidentally got rid of it. So I'm back to square one. In a nutshell, I figured since I had never posted my PGP Public Key I should, and because there is a theoretical (though highly unlikely) possibility of the creation of supercomputers that can break 1024-bit keys, I have opted for the 4096-bit key instead. Being sick sux. :( On another note, I have gotten rid of that picture of my desktop because it takes up too much space and it leaves the page looking uglified. Now Reading : C++ Primer Plus - Stephen Prata Now Playing : Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek Voyager Opening Theme (Watching Season 1 on DVD) Here's the key - try to send me some encrypted messages once in a while... -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (MingW32) - WinPT 0.7.96rc1 mQGiBEDuMT4RBADuOML3LyEj/ME8v5s3zo1h+pjBnEBjm6qtVv0eLhfm7OqyKQaM SOtAnLCOWHWFXT+ZcGdIC1ZgOLE6kqZ9WpIEFmW9ZofvqaDA+nfQfBC+SsnOux8u YUfz7GK1zZKbfXHZdMhmcQGoHllqntuloGWblM7DgKqcGW7kaMpTo5s8/wCgym7I 41Qake+Y1dLiuO0VmMULyZ0EANW6My54qJ5gDbVaXE74KJymgiAAR934PPEgR6tO /qGKSF7Aaut1C82fi4V/DrGeiAqIlY9C7RMq8eACEhELMOdZA73E8ttpPmdCxTz3 LHRExWpeZF9Djxz9VJqXJPR0BI31o7aGICY+41BUIqjzEo4y1hiaLzc2EZsU6RqI Dd+uBADYKEvmGaC3e1LmRZq86yVFQsG2P5sJxuH52d3pV2WQg3xqaG+yuuiAsu4P t/qOFqyFhD7XGcDpBgq/2QPXRCz/EgNH8GHkyAYOT0eTjCHIygY5X+rQwYcyUMV6 6e1R9me29R6XDPbcCQt52DsC22ECjKyo0M5ZtnBHs8GnZjtyNLQnSGFybGV5IENv b3BlciA8aGFybGV5amNvb3BlckBnbWFpbC5jb20+iF4EExECAB4FAkDuMT4CGwMG CwkIBwMCAxUCAwMWAgECHgECF4AACgkQ0bsPYzUwr8MlbwCgswIrEKVXFQA3GjkJ DnREtiXJgaEAninxSBrNNZIlAG89pWDhys9r7xtFuQQNBEDuNAEQEACCWOf6mv7U oJzMMIooK4tB6DJI2To5tP0hNizNVNCeQkJuCa9C6vbPIE6jWwzucIwDAH71D9nK c3qg4qKtL0PFVDeSJOvvtKsc4dTLv2WPY/HWrhhAhd2RapMccUIj9SR2OIiZ3CdJ yGFKnmUL/PXxt6wX/sbEKWmiIlfxSN4FiF3L1MfACYSRCk6bvJeQRoNDUlvHsPMP aYzvzsTgrVZgW50oSvudWIr5SMrgVvIKwAkYj0gN7/Dj1htX6k278r5Ms9PCKZpj 7e8AAZX5OtqiZBXCcYXYTQMc3tdbj+5WOShKsyMDhCWogV9uaAcB75/YquDpl/7d lbz68UqoHUH72E7bP8GQ6hla4iuElnMg8jkcmIQjlqwCMKX/kF2+63JyoA88F/jt 64Zh488/4k4jG3E2lkxCHDy8FiF9f/y44hRfRiUzaUrFWMp3Wv5SEBQ9OyKg8TLI OzN8LCMXT2yQJavbgmwRC0bS6M8Io4bAbKpAT3+Xc1kfCotELwhyY2BE9fMdoYgU ROnAEMVbKmKUlGri0FWT7RNvJDWFgXDlDkmKF/qg1S3nNdLjOUzMw8qdz/JiF39V 4PRA0qwYr29NBTWDh75WIcDz2dm5Fmfnc2kTYIYkRcNdwBIvTdGnHJxY3bjvKECq MQnqZxPluxn4K6wQWJgZwz9GSLyQwPR6mwADBQ//dPz3RUVBWuDhH09/gO5Z9e2o rXy0dUXIOT+GGJcGmkv9I7XZNb/eimjZYFE+7BjUs7h/i4O7U7lWROHI4v3+kWZQ hNbi0NG1dFdNwH4n/gTLmtb81PTEy/a7LqEdUA9hbogOoHrMIZTj37YNiJChlEpB O7F7Ro2zy8CJbVsvJj/krYrCxsjuwbeOlWILbTVENDTlnEf++a0zeTfUSXO8dMgy JZtgijlUUtA7UL1d7iL6uevlSlVaY4oq+S/wHYJnPBtxlvj6/cbzOi/+cTsMX6kO ZICBWY8vw9R5xN440r3Vv/Ycm4kpy85pdT/Kd6CgIJb6wOssdb51rWkNwY9+Jp/N ERa9t/HFjEUC6z4cNMdRChrHt+9oTtc/HPUGqxQpIduViSWHit2ISenPrZZtU99G johIKOGJ5y9a19rTh31LqwaTLKT6+uv+pJqFiuPP898gyMHijmtxhquE5rfwoUhu Vyu9/ZMv/tm2XgPBVERMn4/pv09OI3i9AGWKPvRzrhNdEqzdpj45F38rxrtJK+YR LihteQRFGG8IA2iL/V6IBj2vekvb3oHmRFDVHwZW9U28g093XKXzr96of3caVQJI sRx8pj/kUHCVsz/bF2wjU6pp+VyWg5Ef8D5C4t0bLaYtUvNzuUux6jp5zsZgZoY3 BYgH0Rd+liTFCKPpaBOISQQYEQIACQUCQO40AQIbDAAKCRDRuw9jNTCvwz2CAKCJ SeQTLyhsMHlMULvR6Jq0ViekkwCeJZZbrLzVwVvTG7Zg+nbAzbZ0fag= =0Zf9 -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Continuing Reviews

2004-07-20T22:59:00.000-04:00

Just got back from The Bottled Fool (Gusher No Binds Me) ... That was fucked up, man... But I'll have to get to that at a later date. ;) I was browsing the McGill Classifieds and I noticed that people were actually trying to SELL invitations to join Gmail! Aside from the fact that this is illegal, I respect the guys from Google too much to let this happen. So I decided to go on a crusade. I put an ad on the website to ignore the people who are charging for invites, and that I would try to accumulate all that I could and give them away free. Only time will tell. Back to the movies... July 10th, 5:00 PM: Godzilla This is a classic. The original Godzilla (Gojira) from 1954. The movie had not been seen in its present form in North America until now - It had come along but it was cut apart, scenes involving white people were thrown in, and it really disrupted the flow of the original. But now, in its pure, untarnished form Gojira has resurfaced - and it blew me away. The interestingly expressed anti-war sentiments as well as the powerful score are among the most obvious positive attributes of the film, and far outweigh the surprisingly scarce cheesiness that one would expect from this genuinely groundbreaking (and to date, excessively clichéd) film. It deserves much more respect than it has gotten over the last half-decade in North America. July 10th, 7:00 PM: Azumi Movies based on Manga rule! The action, the fighting, the characters, the gore, while all exaggerated, very much add to, and do not detract in the least from director Kitamura Ryuhei's film. The characters really looked like they were straight out of the manga, which they really were. The swordplay, while no match for Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi, was rather impressive coming from people who most likely had little or no previous sword-fighting experience. Overall, it was extremly enjoyable, and most entertaining - especially Bijomaru Mogami, the white-clad, rose-toting swordsman... July 14th, 7:10 PM: Sword In The Moon Now this was an interesting one. The movie was basically a Korean Samurai film (with soldiers that wear really cool hats). The movie was a real blend of stories, and I found that it really did not do some aspects of these stories enough justice. It was really stylised and filled with really incredible camera-work and landscapes, which were just incredible to observe, but like its Korean counterpart (Wonderful Days) it was much more a thing to view than to hear... Though to a much lesser extent - the story made sense (most of the time) and it had some great threads to follow, but it simply didn't follow them enough for my tastes... Alright. I'll pick this up tomorrow. I'm really tired... :) Now Reading : Cryptonomicon - Neil Stephenson (This is gonna be a long one...) Now Playing : Animetal - Sailor Moon Theme (Hee hee hee... This rocks!)

Been a while...

2004-07-19T00:41:00.000-04:00

Well, I was encouraged to get back to the blogging, so here I go... Not too much has happened since my April 25th post. I just noticed that the second comment from my last post was actually some guy spamming my blog. I've never seen that, and it REALLY PISSES ME OFF! ARGH! So yeah, I've been seeing a lot of movies at Fantasia and it's been pretty cool so far. I submit to you a brief commentary on the movies I've seen (this is going to be done over the course of several days due to the volume of movies to consider): July 8th, 7:15 PM: Wonderful Days Most anime, while it comes from Japan, is animated by Korean animators. Wonderful Days was basically the Koreans trying to show that they can create their own animation without the Japanese. Now this is at the same time both a blessing and a bane. The film was aesthetically incredible - the animation was superb in every respect, mixing cel animation, live action components and CG animation mostly seamlessly. The only problem was that the storyline suffered somewhat as a result. It was confusing and somewhat disjointed. Some things were just inexplicable, and others seemed to have been there for no reason. But don't get me wrong, it was a great movie, visually... It just needed a bit of work in the story department. July 8th, 9:30 PM: Ju-on: The Grudge This is, without a doubt, the scariest movie I have ever seen. I have spent my entire life watching horror movies, trying to find something that would at least disturb me in the slightest. I have seen so many, yet none had ever affected me in the slightest way. Hell, I laughed my way through The Ring (though now I do have to see Ringu). However, this movie really freaked me out. This is because, for the first time, a movie tried to scare you through imagery, rather than "it's quiet... I know something's gonna spring out... It's going to appear out of nowhere... BAM!!!!" Some of the visuals were just so disturbing that one could barely help at least cringing a little. Naked big-eyed white-painted Japanese boys are scary, man! July 9th, 7:30 PM: 8th Diagram Pole Fighter Quentin Tarantino's big inspiration for Kill Bill: Vol. I, was very much based on the films of the Shaw Brothers, who created some of the most classic kung fu movies of all time. This one starred Gordon Liu, who played Johnny Mo (one of the masked men) in Vol. I, and, more memorably, Pai Mei in Vol. II. It had of the most incredible pole fighting ever. It was right up there with Jet Li's Fong Sai Yuk and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master. I was totally impressed by all aspects of the movie, right down to that cheesiness that makes all old kung fu movies so much fun to watch. July 9th, 11:55 PM: Battlefield Baseball This movie just totally wowed me. Allow me to give you a short description of the opening scene:

It's a peaceful day in Japan. The young high-schoolers are playing a nice game of Baseball. The weather is great, the players are all happy and ready to have a great game. The pitcher readies himself, and throws the ball. The batter swings, and the ball flies waaaaay out. The left-fielder runs after the ball........................ He runs more............. He jumps....... He's trying to catch the ball.... It lands in his mitt............................................ AND HE EXPLODES!!!

Now that's an awesome movie... It was just so unexpectedly funny that I just couldn't stop laughing the whole time. It just entertained me to no end with its non-stop gags and ridiculousness. I loved it! OK, I think that's enough for now. I'll try and get some done tomorrow if I have time... Now Reading : Cryptonomicon - Neil Stephenson Now Playing : Koda Kumi - Cutie Honey

Gmail

2004-04-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

Well, according to Slashdot, Blogger users are supposed to be getting a beta test of Gmail. However, they say only recently active members are given the opportunity. I KNEW I should have been blogging lately.... Now Reading : Molecular Cell Biology - Lodish Now Playing : Fozzy - To Kill a Stranger

Insomnia Sucks

2004-04-19T05:38:00.001-04:00

Hmmmm... It's presently 5:30 AM, I can hear my mother on her Treadmill outside my room, and for some weird reason, I'm awake. I can't seem to fall asleep. Normally, when I go to bed the front part of my head feels relaxed. But tonight/today it seems as though something is pressing on it. Not too pleasant. I am just hoping my eyes will get tired out. On another note, I have prettified my desktop. It is fun and exciting. I have some very cute wallpapers, too. Observe: VWEE!!! I AM A NONEXISTENT PICTURE! I HAVE BEEN DELETED TO MAKE THE PAGE LOOK PRETTY! :D Now Reading : Data Structures and Algorithms in Java - Goodrich and Tamassia Now Playing : Havayoth - His Creation Reversed

The Geek Test

2004-04-12T01:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I am officially a Super Geek. In fact, according to The Geek Test I am 54.24063% Geek. This problem is greater than I had ever imagined. Now, before you start thinking "hey, 54-odd percent isn't so much!", you should first take into account the fact that their all time top scorer was around 65% geek. Time to start worrying. On another note, I hate studying for genetics. But I'll do fine, I'm sure... I hope................. Now Reading : Principles of Genetics - Snustad and Simmons Now Playing : Johann Sebastian Bach - The Goldberg Variations (1955)

Chaotic Computing... Awesome!

2004-04-05T12:34:00.000-04:00

I finished class and decided to check out Slashdot before I went home, and was I ever lucky I did. They had a really cool article about Chaotic Computing, something totally unrelated to Quantum Computing, another incredibly fascinating domain of Computer Science which I understand as much of as I do Abnormal Psychology. And I think I may even have a better comprehension of the mechanisms of the latter... Then again, I do have to do a bit of reading... I'm just so lazy. Maybe I'll read it during one of my overly abundant and lengthy study breaks... Oh well... Now Reading : The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie Now Playing : Lost Horizon - Awakening the World

Damn those farmers and their Daylight Savings

2004-04-04T14:23:00.000-04:00

Oh my... Drinking random stuff is fun. But I feel like hell. So tired... I hate Springing forward. How like me to prefer falling backward. I'm insane... But anyways............ My brain just cannot produce coherent thought at the moment. I think too much Final Fantasy VII has gotten to my brain. But the game is so great!!! I can't help it. OK, I am going to go to my mother's and get cracking on my studying. I will even leave my computer here so I won't be tempted to surf the net or something. Now Reading : Principles of Genetics - Snustad and Simmons Now Playing : In Flames - Murders in the Rue Morgue

0p3|\| 800|< 3x4|\/| 4 h4|2731!!!

2004-04-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

As some of you may have determined from the title, I have discovered that my Computer Science final is going to be totally open book! I will not be stupid though... I didn't even study for the midterm and suffered for it... I mean, the exam WAS easy, but I still made mistakes. Bah. I will r0x0r my teacher's s0x0rz... I'll show him! Now Reading : Inu-Yasha - Volume 9 Now Playing : Popotan - Video Game Theme Song (I can't help it! They're so cute!!!)

All I can say is "wow"

2004-03-31T17:35:00.000-05:00

OK, the funniest thing ever happened to me before. I recently installed Mozilla Firefox on my father's computer and disguised it as Internet Explorer. I warned my dad and told him about the applications to power browsing (pronounced: porn). I was just tired of running ad-aware and stuff so regularly. Anyways, I get home today and find my stepmother in front of the computer. She says that she was not happy that I did not inform her about having changed the browser. I told her that all the functions she needed were exactly the same. She said it was different, so I asked her to enlighten me. She said she usually goes to pages through her "Favourites", and she didn't know what to do (all the IE bookmarks are already automatically transferred, so I was confused). I repeated my question: "It's the same in mozilla, where's the problem? See, it's right there, where it says 'Bookmarks'" She replies: "I didn't know that's what it's called there. I was looking and I couldn't find 'Favourites'. I had to call your father!" She said "But that's not all. I still don't know. How do I 'search something up'?" (I look confused.) She then proceeds to type in an address in the address bar. She says, "where's the 'Go' button? How do I go to the page?" I am cracking up inside and I respond "You press 'ENTER'........" And she replied that she did not know that. I am just shocked. This woman has worked with a computer at work since the days of punchcards. She is a McGill alumnus. She is one of the more intelligent people I know. But wow... YOU SEE WHAT MICRO$OFT DOES TO PEOPLE??????????????????? FUCK!!!!!!!!!! *End rant here* On another note, I saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" today. It was interesting. I shall discuss another time as I must go... Now Reading : Inu-Yasha, Volume 9 - Rumiko Takahashi Now Playing : Siebenbürgen - Grimjaur

Should I get rid of the stars?

2004-03-30T18:43:00.000-05:00

I've been wondering whether or not I should get rid of the little stars that pop up when you click on my page. They are kind of fairy-like... We'll see... Now Reading : Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Boyce and DiPrima Now Playing : In Extremo - Küss Mich -- I know, it's not Rammsten! :P Edit: I got rid of them because they only work in IE, and not at all in Firegiraffe/Superbug/Spacetiger/Firebird/Firefox

Registration

2004-03-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I've registered... And though my schedule is kinda grueling, my winter schedule makes up for everything. Here's what I've got for Fall 2004: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 10:30 - 11:30 - Molecular Biology of the Gene 1:30 - 2:30 - Numerical Methods 3:30 - 4:30 - Discrete Math Tuesday-Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 - Mathematical Methods in Biology 4:00 - 5:30 - System Software Such big breaks. Then again, it is all worth it because of the Winter 2005 semester: Tuesday-Thursday 8:30 - 10:00 - Human Genetics Applied 10:00 - 11:30 - Developmental Biology 11:30 - 1:00 - Statistics 2:30 - 4:00 - Data Structures and Algorithms Monday-Wednesday-Friday Zilch Hee hee hee.... Those two days will be HELL... But the 4 day weekends will be great... And the one-day break between those days is cool too. Muhahahahahahaha.... On another note, The Black Mages album is awesome! Nobuo Uematsu, the star composer of the music for all of Squaresoft's Final Fantasy games (and I think Skrud said Chrono-Trigger too) has re-vamped his FF creations, added some electric guitars and made a totally kickass album. I'm enjoying this so much. Hee hee hee hee hee... Now Reading : Inu-Yasha Volume 8 Now Playing : The Black Mages - Dancing Mad (Final Fantasy VI)

Prettified

2004-03-29T22:29:00.000-05:00

Woohoo! I finally got my blog nice looking! Yay!!!! Life is good! My anus is bleeding! YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

So damn tired...

2004-03-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Oh man... I am so exhausted. I woke up at 7 to get to my genetics class, where my teacher talked to us about cancer genetics. It's actually really cool, because we learn all sorts of interesting facts and stuff... Like, the fact that cancer cells are immortal. I mean, if you take regular cells and put them on a petri dish, they will divide, and old ones will just die. Cancer cells, however, will divide until they fill up the dish. Then if you remove most of them, the remaining ones will do the same. And again, and again......... None of them will die. They just spread. Scary.... After this uplifting class I had my Cell Biology class, which is also quite interesting, but the class culminated in my teacher's biochemical explanation of how viagra works. I was very much amused.... Hee hee hee... Erection.... Now Reading: Le K - Dino Buzzati Now Playing: In Extremo - Sieben (2003)

Testing from mozilla

2004-03-29T00:05:00.000-05:00

Alright. I think I have my Mozilla BlogThis! working too... As soon as the comments are working all will be good.

I have comments... Sort of...

2004-03-28T23:53:00.000-05:00

Well, I now kind of have comments. At the moment, every time I try to post a comment, a new window pops up and freezes. Hopefully it will begin to work soon...

Had a forking great time!

2004-03-28T21:16:00.000-05:00

Oh man... Now for my first real post... Last night we all went out to celebrate our good buddy Eduardo's birthday at Ye Olde Orchard. I can't believe how much of a drain on my bank account that was. I think that was the most expensive transaction I've made at a restaurant up to this point. I think the general consensus is that we will never again go to Ye Olde to eat AND get drunk... It's either one or the other. I am presently sftp-ing Ebony Tears from Skrud... I like this ability to just connect right into his system. I can send him messages and stuff... ;) Anyways, I'm gonna set up some blogging software for Firefox.

First post! Yeah!

2004-03-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

I will keep this short and sweet. Check out h4x0r economist at this site Yay!