The very first car I ever owned was a 1993 Toyota Tercel, and I didn’t buy it until sometime around 2003. I’m not really sure how I survived so long without a car, but I guess as a student you get pretty used to public transit. In November 2006 I got into my first car accident ever, and if I had to blame it on something, it would be because my windows were all fogged up (thanks to the never-working defrost system in the Tercel). After that, I realized maybe it was time to get rid of the used car and get something a l ittle newer. So in January 2006 I made the plunge and bought a new car: a ...
Hey guys.. I’ve been thinking about completely revamping this website for quite a long time. Unfortunately, every time I start it, I always get sidetracked and end up throwing away a lot of the changes that I’ve made before.
However, I’m going to make some pretty major changes to it soon. Which means, I’m probably gonna take the site down for a while, probably starting this weekend. I have some pretty big ideas about what I want to do, and I’m not even sure I have the skill set to do them all. Some of the things I want to do:
1) new theme for the look and feel that I want – it will ...
Where to begin. I actually had thought that the last post I did would be my final one before taking the website down and completely revamping it. But a couple things happened tonight while sitting on my couch that inspired me to write one final one before retooling the website.
Lately I really feel like I’m entering into the next phase of my life. Maybe it’s turning 30 soon, or maybe it’s all the events that happened over the last few months, but I’ve spent the last few months trying to figure a lot of things out. And to be honest, I haven’t had much luck with it all. But some things ...
I took this on my way home tonight, using the nearest garbage can as a makeshift tripod.
Also, tonight Jason, Sheila, Cisco, Michele, Ralph and myself went out to Cru restaurant on Broadway. We ordered a pile of appetizers, and a couple bottles of wine. My favourite I think was the cheese platter, but the smoked tuna was really tasty as well. ...
I’m gonna take the Mac plunge. Anyone want to buy my old laptop off of me? It’s pretty similar to this one:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10083210&catid=
Let me know soon, otherwise it’s probably going up on eBay. ...
So normally I’d make a really witty blog entry for all you early morning risers that need a chuckle before you get into the shower. But, truth is, I’m pretty bagged. I will however briefly mention my quest for a wine collection. I’ve been hauling this shitty Ikea wine rack around with me for years, knowing full well I’d never have more than one or two bottles in it at any one time. Finally, I decided I’m going to change that, and what better way to do that than to enlist the help of a friend.
I actually took a winetasting course a few years ago at UBC. Truthfully, I think I took it ...
So yesterday after work I strolled by the offices of Bryght to say hi to Boris and Kris. We demolished a bunch of beers in pretty short order, and Boris and I got to catch up since the last time we hung out (which was well over a year ago). Afterwards, Andre and I headed over to Six Acres in gastown to keep the beer flowing. When Andre left, I invited myself over to hang out with some flickr people that I hadn’t really hung out with before. So, I got to finally put some faces to some names and make some new friends.
I’m not sure what’s up for the rest of the weekend. I’m gonna take it ...
Well, I’ve been on the fence for a while about what technology would win: Blue-Ray or the HD-DVD. I’ve swung multiple ways during all the debates, sometimes favouring Blue-Ray and sometimes favouring the HD-DVD. Technically, Blue-Ray is superior technology, but HD-DVD is easier to manufacture, and is cheaper to produce. I’ve been waiting anxiously for a clear winner to emerge to I could finally go buy one of these things. I mean, most of my research at UBC was in the area of high definition, so it seems fitting that I should have a full HD setup at home.
I had thought that the PS/3 would ...
I had the need to make a few state machines today, and grew tired of doing them on paper. Derek pointed me towards GraphViz, which is a graphics package capable of doing finite state machine diagrams. All you need to do is generate a simple text file that outlines the state transitions, and their “dot” program will output the state machine diagram for you. Pretty nifty.
Here’s a simple example I did:
...
This is an interesting article. I’ve sort of followed the social write-ups about the effects of the Internet for years. I remember one article years ago saying that despite all of our great technology, people have never felt so isolated or alone as they do in this generation.
Here’s a quote from the article:
A decade ago, when many North Americans were still just starting to go online, Apple, AT&T, Hewlett Packard and Intel funded a research project by Washington University to study the psychological and social effects of using the Internet. While most first-time users went online for ...
A new study says people who have full-fat milk gain *less* weight over time. I hate to say I told you so, but I’m not a big believer in the whole “fat makes you fat” belief. I agree saturated fat isn’t very good for you, but the other types of fat are. As long as you don’t eat the grissle in a steak, over 2/3 of the fat in it is good fat, which is better than most other things. Which gives me an idea for another blog entry later tonight.
Read about it here. ...
Funny. I was organizing some old photos tonight and came across some videos from the last year. They’re all dated now, but I’ll put some of them up anyways.
I have to say that youtube completely bastardizes the video quality when you give it to them, but oh well.
So, I also seem to be slowly regaining a bit of sensation in my face. The entire left side of my cheek (including the lip, nose and gums on the left side of my face) has basically been numb since my surgery back in November. I think it’s slowly coming back. What’s weird that is that it’s a bit wonky — if I trace my finger ...
All my troubles seemed so far away… (kidding)
So had an interesting day yesterday. Got lots of stuff done at work, which was good. I love being on a “coding roll” where everything makes sense and falls into place.. Having those hard problems to solve is nice as well, but sometimes it’s nice to fall into “brick-laying-mode” where you can just crank out code and feel good about it.
At the end of the day I had my six week follow up with the plastic surgeon who did my surgery. When I saw him after week two, I was a bit concerned because it still didn’t look right. He suggested we give ...
Well, on New Year’s eve, my Samsung A920 stopped working. Right around the stroke of midnight. Should I be worried?
Here’s the deal though. This is the *second* A920 I have owned in about 6 months. Granted, the first one breaking was completely my fault, but I’m pretty bummed that it’s dead now. I’ve had cell phones die before, and no matter the circumstances of how they die, the repair guys always come back and say “water damage — not fixing.” And here’s my take on it. We practically live in a rain forest in BC. Inside these phones is a little paper dot that changes colour when ...