Cousin Check
For Los and Kwongs and other cousin-types. Post to the blog. |
Monday, April 30
it was good having dan up for the weekend--even though he was only here for saturday and half of sunday... and i was obligated to an out-of-town engagement for several hours on saturday. the highlight of the visit was just hanging out and not the events that punctuated his visit (a piano recital, church, etc.). lawrence, i'm thrilled to hear that you're coming here next fall! (sorry for the delayed reaction; it's been a while since i've read the blog.) do you know where you're staying yet? let me know if i can be of any help to you. what are you all doing memorial day weekend? i'm thinking of going down to the chicago area 5/25 and staying until 5/28 or 5/29... hi roberta 8) i apologize for the concatenation of random remarks...
I never played Bubble Bobble, but I'll check it out. So how was Wisconsin, and what did you guys do? Tell Justin that if he doesn't post, I'll ban his IP from this website! (as if I know how, duh) My friend in med school was telling me all about gross anatomy. Justin's in for a lot of fun, like putting the legs into bags and keeping the brain from falling out every time. He's also been having trouble eating chicken. Fun for the family. I haven't watched TV in weeks, since I only get three channels here. I called the cable company to subscribe, but they said according to their records, my apartment doesn't exist. So they'll be out here in 4-6 weeks to see if I really live in an apartment or if I just float around in the space. But by then I'll be out of the place. Duh!
i ordered a #2 at McD's today in the drive-thru. the total was $3.41, so as i pulled around the corner, i dug up three $1 bills, two quarters, and a penny in anticipation of getting a dime back. i hand the money to the guy, and for some reason, he takes a really long time fumbling through the cash register. i sat there thinking "how long can it possibly take to get one stinkin' dime out??" my question was eventually answered, when the guy handed me a nickel and five pennies for change. i couldn't believe it. that would be an indication of several things: 1) the cash register had no dimes whatsoever, and the guy was too lazy to walk a few feet to a different register to get one, 2) there was also an apparent shortage of nickels too since he decided that one was all he could spare, and 3) he had more than enough pennies to go around. what a fool. ok time for class
"it's not something you sit down at the computer to do... i usually play when i'm in the middle of homework and need a break or something..." that was what jleu told me about this silly little game called snood, and boy was he wrong. today i turned on the computer specifically for the sake of playing it, and eventually had to force myself to stop playing and sign on to check for emails from a teacher, which is what i should've done to begin with. the game is sort of like bubble bobble but instead of being timed (i think bubble bobble is timed?), the pieces shift down after you've used up a certain number of "snoods", which are the little game pieces that taunt you and make funny faces at you throughout the game. more than 3 adjacent snoods of the same kind disappear, and the object of the game is to clear all the snoods off the screen. it's pretty fun if you have nothing better to do, or if you don't have a life (like me).
Yes, I work for that grfx card company. :) I can talk about where I work here b/c I know none of my co-workers know about this page. I don't even think I've mentioned this page on my reg. blog. Code is hard to understand only if the guy who wrote it didn't know what he was doing. :) I personally can't even understand my own code after about a week of not reading it. I'm pretty bad. That's why ASM is so hard for me right now, because you really have to have excellent structure for assembly to be read-able and efficient. I'm used to spaghetti code, jumping all over the place, and you just can't have that in ASM. Oh well. I hate anything to do with science. No, that's not true. I enjoy reading/hearing about that kinda thing, but I don't want to be forced to remember terms and words associated with science. :) I is ig-nore-ant. Saturday, April 28
well, i never thought i'd be saying this, but i'm at Justin's place right now. really weird to be blogging up here. i didn't want to post about it earlier because i didn't know whether or not my parents would let me, but i guess here i am :) anyway, uh... Lawrence, i don't know anything about computers, let alone programming! no language, nothing (unless you consider elementary html a language). being able to switch on a computer is about the extent of my knowledge. as for bio, it's been and always will be my worst subject. mass memorization isn't really my thing. must be all of those parts of my brain i don't use much ;) ok, Justin just got out of the shower, so i will be getting off now. bye bye.
Hey, I didn't notice it until Dan brought it up. Eric, you work for ATI? Is that the company that makes video cards? Because I have an ATI Rage 128, which has been pretty good to me so far. I think I'm the only one of the cousins who doesn't understand computer programming. My C++ I learned last summer has faded to almost nothing, and my basic BASIC is, of course, useless. How can you guys stand all the crazy complex abstract logic needed? I can't do that stuff because I need to associate the logic with something visual, which is why I do bio. My logic problems all involve cells and proteins, which you can see, not if...then statements, which I can't (besides in the code). Must be one of those parts of my brain I don't use much. Duh, I just got an email from my friend from Germany saying he read my blogs. Kind of weird, because I don't remember giving it to him. It must have been through ICQ. Friday, April 27
response to Lawrence: no, not kevin bacon... you're probably thinking of stir of echoes, perhaps? hmmm... you're lucky you never took stat. it's just a huge brain drain and in the end i'll probably forget it all anyway. it just takes a huge toll on me and i feel like i get nothing out of it. oh well, isn't that what school is all about? i guess i just need to tough it so i can graduate from college before i turn 50.... *groan* hey Eric, how come you can freely speak of the "Company" here by its actual name, and not on your personal blog? do your bosses read your blog or something? ok, too tired to continue writing. dinner time, and then hitting the books... *SMACK!*
wow, glad to see everyone posting. :) Robin/erta, um... I know exactly what performance reviews are like. Nerve-racking and all that. Hate it. I just gone through with mine now. Luckily, I have a knack for writing simple tasks to make it sound like I just saved the company by re-ordering our DVD database (yes, ATI has a pretty big DVD collection, don't ask me why.) I don't know what to post on my real page.... but here, I can say that I'm so busy and swamped with work, I feel like some guy who survived a plane wreck, but now finds himself in the middle of the ocean with nothing but a couple of assembly books as floatsam/jetsam. Very horrible. I know no one expects me to do "real" work just yet, but still, it's just a matter of time before my software team needs to kick into overtime mode, and I don't think I can produce any usable code right now.... or anytime soon. Our drivers are just WAY TOO HUGE. You'd think it'd only take a couple of lines to draw text out to Windows, but oh no, it's gigantic. back to work I guess.
I put a link at the top that goes straight to the blogger edit, so you don't have to go through bookmarks or blogger. But you need to have "remember me" checked on the blogger homepage so that it doesn't ask you to login every time. As if you didn't know that already. Duh. Thursday, April 26
welcome, Roberta :) ha ha ha, no offense taken, Eric. it's not like i made the movie or anything. heh. anyhow, maybe i didn't word it right the first time, but it wasn't so much the content of the movie that interested me, but rather what it was based on (gospel of st. thomas, the stigmata phenomenon). i realized the movie took a lot of liberty making stuff up, but there's still factual stuff behind it, and that's the part that intrigues me. kinda like watching indiana jones and the last crusade... i wouldn't be thinking "whoa, the holy grail is located somewhere in petra! let's grab our shovels, guys!", but it might prompt me to research the holy grail itself (not the best example, but hopefully that paints a picture). also, yeah, we watched the DVD so i got to see the alternate ending. yes, tragic, but it seemed more appropriate of an ending. brings more closure to the movie, i guess. so anyway, i eventually read the entire translation of the gospel of st thomas (not terribly long), and i must say it's pretty weird stuff. i was talking about it with a friend (concerning the weirdness), and he came up with a pretty good point. a lot of stuff Jesus said sounds pretty weird to begin with, if you're not familiar with the Bible. pretend you're an aetheist who's never read any part of the Bible before and hears about Jesus saying "eat my flesh and drink my blood". wouldn't that sound pretty whacky to you? i guess since we're all pretty familiar with it, we're used to the "weirdness". a valid point, but of course it doesn't prove whether or not the st thomas stuff is authentic or anything, but i guess that's what keeps it interesting :)
Good to hear some serious thoughts from Eric on here, for once (just kidding). Thanks for the support. Maybe I wouldn't say social is more important than educational for me, but I at least like to have a balance. Too much either way isn't a good thing. College did change me a lot, though I didn't discover myself (since that concept's just a bit too vague for me). But I think I know what you're trying to say about that, and it's certainly a positive thing. Well Roberta, I always have to refer to you as Robin to other people, and that's really weird duh. But you can call me Lawrence on here if you want. Isn't Stigmata the one with Kevin Bacon? I'm bad at Six Degrees though, so I won't even try here. I'm a skeptic, so I don't believe that stigmatas can be anything more than human-generated, or coincidences at the very best. Many cases of mysterious wounds (not necessarily stigmatas, though) have been shown to be the self-inflicted work of both attention-seekers and religious fanatics. I would definitely side with the whole psychosomatic view, as the power of suggestion is really a lot stronger than many people would like to believe. Kind of like alien abduction cases... Long post, so one last thing. It took me till today, almost two weeks, to work out again. Arg, where has my self-discipline gone? Oh yeah, I never had any. Booo. Oh, also, I've never taken a stat class thank god.
Hi folks...Eric, Daniel, Justin...who's this Larry guy? Larry (do I really have to call you "Larry"?) was good enough to invite me in quite some time ago but I've had some trying times at work lately, going through things in crisis-mode and trying to come up with enough stuff to justify why Lucent still needs to pay me to do things for our midyear performance review last week. The review actually went off all right, but the prep work was very time-consuming. Anway, that was all a long-winded way of leading up to saying that although I haven't been participating all along, I'm glad to be here *now*, and glad to see you all here as well, happy and healthy and suchlike. Some good points made on the "what about education" topic. My brief addition to the subject--Sometimes, context is everything. My officemate has a BA in Comp Sci, and is a very nice and hardworking guy, but it's very clear that he doesn't know much about how to *do* things on computers. Me, I've got an MA, though not in Comp, I've been with the company longer, and--this is a proven fact--I do the majority of the actual gritty technical work. Guess who gets paid more? Him, because he's got the right degree in the right field. I'm not saying this to say that I got the short end, but to say that sometimes, a degree can be more powerful than it seems. As for "Stigmata"...is that the one with Gabriel Byrne? (I haven't seen it.) I've watched bits of documentaries on stigmata, and it's quite interesting, though I still don't know much about it.
I saw stigmata, kinda boring. No offence. Is it thought provoking? I dunno, I prefer the alternate ending. If you have it on DVD, watch the original ending, it's a lot more interesting, and tragic I guess. Do I believe in Stigmata? Yes, I believe in the phenomenon of it. Do I believe it's a sign of a miracle from God? I don't. There's no reason why God would inflict that on anyone, but then what do I know. You really have to be careful of watching atheistic interpretation of events tainted with Biblical like references. I spoke with a pastor friend of mine, wo's actually read the book of St. Thomas. None of the events referred to in the movie was actually written for it. The movie totally made it up. If you want to watch that kind of thing, watch the 7th Sign. That movie is pretty messed up too. :)
thanks for the sage advice, Eric. good to see a full-lenght post from you here ;) i guess i can somewhat "relate" a bit, from my whole year and a half of living on a campus. it was pretty weird... in hindsight, i acted somewhat differently while at U of I, than from before and after. not that i warped into a different person or took on a new personality or anything, but i guess my mindset was just different. dunno how to explain it, but i guess in a nutshell, living on a campus is almost like a fantasy world, and it all flies by before you realize it. my memories of U of I are very distant, as if i went there in a different lifetime. in terms of "discovering" myself... hmmm... guess i'm not too sure about that part, besides the fact that i *discovered* that my capacity for laziness can and did result in getting kicked out. ok, that made no sense whatsoever... i'm tired right now. anyhow, i sort of hesitate bringing this up, but i watched stigmata tonight. the hesitation was not because i didn't want anyone to know, but i guess by mentioning it would imply that i recommend it (no ivan, don't rent it). i guess aside from the fact that it was a really messed up movie, it was actually extremely interesting and thought-provoking. i don't know if any of you guys have seen it or not, but i guess there's really no way for me to explain it. you just have to watch it (again, that is NOT a recommendation). it's based on the gospel of st thomas and of course, the phenomenon of stigmata (duh). i guess if you want the thought-provoking part of it without having to sit through the movie, just visit those links. i must admit... i'm utterly intrigued by all this. i'm still in the process of reading through the translation of it, and it's pretty interesting stuff. wow. ok, i could blab on all night about it, but of course, i'll spare you guys :) tata BTW, pinky and the brain aren't siblings, are they? Wednesday, April 25
Microsoft(R) Windows 98 (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999. c:\advise>Adult.exe mode=ON Everyone has different values and dreams. For the guy who wants to do well in life starting with a good education, there's someone else who'd rather scrape by just so he can pursuit other interests. For everyone who loves to try different things, there's always some dude who's looking for a niche. Who are you, and what do you want? That's one of the growing process of university life. Everything you chooses, be it the classes to take, what to eat for lunch, and when to sleep, is a refining and defining process which then are associated and inter-connected to your mental attitude and ethics . Simply stated, you discover yourself more than you probably will by being in university. The reasons are simple. Probably for the very first time, you're in a constant population of thousands, all with the common struggle of graduating and getting out. You finally have real control of your life! You're also experience new ideas and senses almost daily. One of the few things people overlook, (but maybe you realize already) is that U is a great way to meet chicks. The world is not an equal oppotunity employer my friends, and as much as the feminists like us to believe, there is no equality. There are still subjects and fields of study where it's perdominately male oriented. Sure, Sharon Stone the actress has an IQ high enough to be a MENSA member, but then again, she's not exactly sitting in front of a P4 1.5G computer writing code and saving the world, is she? Education is extremely important, as I'll grudgingly concede. I don't like to admit it, but it's very difficult to get ahead in life w/o your alma matar being par excellence. For the few who respect you because you're a "self-made man", there are many others who snivel and snide when you're working with them, simply b/c you don't have a diploma saying "You Da Man." What's worse is the topic of school rivalry, since I can't side with anyone.... It's not shameful as much as uncomfortable. Anyhow, I'm rambling. All I'm saying is that you need to figure out what's more important, honing up your social skills or your mental prowess. For me, social skills are extremely important. There are countless schmoes who can do what you do, no matter how smart you are (There are thousands of brain surgeons afterall). But few people can be liked by many. Without bragging, I'm lucky enough that I can get along with almost anybody, because I have a natural knack to bring up conversation and making a crowd feel at ease. That is my gift. I might not be able to memorize hex arithmetic from 9+1=0AH to F+F=1EH, but I can sure charm the pants off most people.... okay, it's just a figure of speech! Sheesh. I see this in the workplace. Time and time again, people will rather work with you if you're likeable, rather than just smarts. So for me, it's important that I schmooze. That is not to say kiss-butt. That I won't stoop to. But social skills are so critical these days, as averagely brilliant doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Larry, it's a big step you're taking, but a right one. Yes, it's hard to make real friends, but you'll have the oppotunity to do so. You don't sound like you're a social leper, so it's all good. Dan, I can relate with you most. I know I have an IQ block that I can't seem to break through. I will find certain things totally obvious, while at other tasks I'm as dumb as a doorknob. It just seems to be this mental plateau that I can't rise above. It's fustrating right now. People tell me things about our video driver that goes from one ear out to the other, and they're like "Come on, this is so freaking basic. Get with it!" So I totally understand this "One sec I'm with the class, next sec I thought I was in the wrong lecture hall....". Yeah, welcome to the wonderful world of average intelligence. Actually, that's not fair. You're brighter than you realize, but dumber than you thought you could be. Once you accept that there will always be things you won't understand in the span of 15 seconds, you'll do fine. I'm a lot like you. So struggle through it and persevere. As for Justin, our silent lurker, what can I say.... If we were cartoon characters, we'd be spitting image of "The Pinky and the Brain" And we ALL know who's Pinky here. :) This turned out to be a very weird but fun post. Thanks guys, I just wasted 1/2 hr of my reading time. c:\>Adult.exe mode=OFF ASM Sux0rz. C 0wnz j00, B1@TCH.
well Lawrence, at least up at UW you'll have Justin to help you ease into things... better than going somewhere not knowing anyone at all. i'm in stat class right now (on break) and the stuff is getting impossible... it literally went from easy to impossible overnight... no transition, no warning, nothing. first few weeks i was following along fine, and one day i walk into class and found myself completely lost :( has anyone else taken stat out there and also found it difficult, or is it just me? last night i had a dream that i was skating on a frozen lake and i fell through the ice. how pathetic... my dreams are more interesting than my real life. ha ha ha ha Tuesday, April 24
After thinking about it some, I can see why you're wondering why I'm worried about what seems to be a good thing. Well, there's a lot of negative things that come with this. For one, I'm losing out on a *lot* of money, by giving up my last couple months of Northwestern pay and also having to forfeit a lot of rent. Also, I've struggled all year to have a normal social life, and just when I've got things down to normality, I've got to give it up and start all over again. I had a lot of trouble making friends here because they're mostly too mature for me (a good many of my classmates are married). They expect professionalism from me, not the immature jokes and goofing around that made up my social life in college. I worked so hard to squeeze out a couple promising friendships, and now I have to flush it down the drain. I know, everyone goes through it, but it's still the most important thing to me. Well I don't want to bore you with the other negatives.There's quite a lot. I have to do a lot of work to come out ahead, even though it probably doesn't seem like it to you guys.
Well, it's not that exciting Eric, because I'm already in a PhD program. I'm just transferring. It's not like I won the lotto or something haha. Anyways, at this point I'd seriously think about trading in the PhD for a girlfriend as good as yours seems (according to your blog and pictures). You can still go back to college when you're 40 and get your degree, but I can't go back and get "young love" when I'm 40 (Viagra doesn't count). I guess whatever it is that we don't have, we want. You have a girlfriend and a job, but want the college degree; I have the college degree and want a girlfriend and (soon) a steady job (bio research jobs aren't exactly an employee's market right now). Just another quirk of life, I expect.
well Eric, if it makes you feel any better, academically i'm only about a year ahead of you, WITHOUT the job, bike, car, girl, and my own place (not necessarily in that order, heh). i'm already struggling to stay in a community college, let alone having the dilemma of not knowing if transferring to a higher-ranked university is the right thing to do or not :) well, congrats Lawrence :) booooooooooo! wow, that'll be cool.. Lawrence and Justin on the same campus. sounds a bit scary... now there will be more than enough brain power up in madison to take over the world, bwahahahaha! alright, gotta mow the lawn now. fun.
Freakinhell. PhD? Damn. And I never finished my 1st year of U. Bugger it all. ....I don't fink I can hang w/ smart people, it just makes me feel so inferior.
By the way, it's now http://www.masemware.com/mst3k/mistings.shtml for the MSTs. It should load fine, if not reload and wait (sometimes it takes a while to connect). I'm about halfway through my MST. It has some good jokes, but most are pretty lame haha. Maybe you all can come up with some better ones. I'll post it up or something soon as I'm done.
Hey everyone, I have kinda big news here. Please don't tell anyone yet, especially the adults. I'm going to be attending the University of Wisonsin-Madison starting next year in the Cellular and Molecular Biology PhD program. The decision to transfer from Northwestern has been very hard, but I think I've made the right choice. The major reason is that the NWU program just isn't right for me: it's too diverse for someone like me who knows exactly what field he wants to go into (cancer). The other part is that UW is ranked at least 14 ranks higher (possibly more) than NWU, and has a top-three microbiology program (which I will have to deal with in part). NWU has a great program, but it's just not what I'm looking for. Well, I'm sure that's more detail than you'd like to know, but I needed to get it off my chest. My parents, of course, already know this, and I'm officially accepting tomorrow morning. I guess I'll be seeing Justin around next year. I'll start in August or September. I'm glad to be going to a better program, but I just wish I knew it's the right choice. (For the record, they recruited me.) Monday, April 23
i know not of the HTML magic you speak ok. hmm...i'm an administrator now. does that mean i can edit other's posts and insert lame jokes every few sentences? =) just kidding. that foolish MST3K site is never up! yargh.
Ivan's now an admin, go work some of your html magic on cousin check! It needs a newish look. At the very least, someone please find an interesting background. Well I'm starting to do an MST of a story I found on the internet. If you don't know what an MST is, basically you make fun of other people's fiction by sticking in jokes every few sentences. There are some characters who say the jokes, based on the MST3K TV show (I'm sure you've probably heard of it... well, actually, do they get it up in Canada?) The one I picked is called Goblin's Story, written by some college guy, and it's really really bad. So anyways, the point of this is, when I'm done, does anyone want to look it over and tell me how lame my jokes were? You're all pretty funny people so I trust y'all's sense of humor (y'all's is a cool word). The web site for MSTs is pinky.wtower.com/mst3k (sometimes it's down, so try again later if it is). That should give you an idea of what MSTs are all about. Sunday, April 22
uh yeah, we don't have that kinda money to throw around [to your surprise?] instead i merely tried to alter the appearance of the car, no worries Eric, i'm no riceboy. i'm pretty sure my dad would disown me if i REALLY had a car like that. i showed it to him and his first reaction is "why is it so ugly?" ANYWAYS...as for the attempted "stealproof" thing...those are remnants of my page's first incarnation, i've long since given up trying to stop those thieving mongrels from stealing my pictures. oh well. now i just try to encourage others to ask for permission first. oh well, guess it didn't work this time. =P BTW..."SleepyHead"???
first things first... a reply to Eric's 4/21 post: i'm gonna have to vouch for Ivan this time :) that "ferrari hatchback civic" you refer to does not, how should i put it... exist. in fact, it's a picture of our mom's lowly green '98 civic LX, digitally painted black, with a digital bodykit (meticulously cut out from a different photo and "attached" to the existing bumper), digitally altered headlights/sidemarkers, and a digital "tint" on the windshield... all done by Ivan on adobe photoshop. ugly or not, you gotta admit that kind of imaging work is pretty darn impressive. i personally like "riceboy" cars (to a more conservative extent), but hey, that's my opinion :P (btw, it's ivanlo.net, not com) anyhoo, i was going to write more but i completely lost my train of thought, so i guess this is it for now. Saturday, April 21
Well, you'll have to tell us the story sometime! I already invited Ivan, but he hasn't joined up yet. I hope I got his email right, [email protected]. Justin, post something damnit. Hm, I always type Justing by mistake haha. A couple days ago it was snowing, now I have the A/C running in my apartment. Chicago has crazy weather.
hmmm... ok, i was originally just gonna just edit it, but seeing how people have already visited and [possily] read it, i'll just keep it on... so anyway, to make a long story short, i never did go to the copperfield show. in fact, i should still be there now... yeah, went out to study instead, partially by my own choice, partially not. like i said, long story.
today's the big day! i'm going to watch david copperfield, live! i'm meeting at sylin's at 2, show's at 4. the show is called "portal", and at this point i'm not too sure exactly what it'll be about. either way, i can't wait to go! in case anyone's interested, you can take a look at his message board. *poof* Friday, April 20
woo hoo!! i got my dragon jam and tigershark, and learned two new tricks today! well, just one, but i can finally do a [ghetto version of the] mach 5 on my dragon jam (no brakepads to stop me this time baby!), and a singapore sling, which is just a "fancy" version of split the atom. not overly difficult, but at least it gives me something to work on. heh, i was at best buy the other day, and they had this emachines "eMonster" computer.... the thing was insane. it came with a 50gig hard drive, and had a P4 1066mHz processor, an internal CD re-writer included, AND a 17" viewsonic monitor... all for like $800, after a bunch of rebates. as i was looking at the specs, i was thinking about how much i spent on my own obsolete computer at home... $800 for a PII 400 with a measely 7.85 [usable] gig drive alone, $200 for a crappy emachines monitor (i can see why eMonster comes with a viewsonic monitor, instead of their own), and $200 for a dumb iomega CD re-writer (top 10 on the market at the time, but sucks now). well, as they say, if you see a computer on the shelves, its obsolete already. we can't win... backspace.
Wow there's some really bad "blogs of note" lately. Makes me wonder who chooses them and why. I've given up looking at them, I get funnier results by choosing random blogs. Speaking of hard drives, I've been looking to get a new processor, something around 800MHz. But even that's so expensive, I'll probably wait another year (by then 800 will be obsolete I bet). I've got a 300 right now, which is fine but kind of annoying. For some reason my Word and Netscape load a lot slower than it used to. Maybe a bug or virus or something... Anyways, not much exciting going on here, but I keep hitting my car. I think my parents are going to take it away from me or else my insurance will go through the roof. They're not big hits, but little scrapes and dents from parallel parking that add up. I hate it. I don't even want to tell my parents, since they'll get pretty mad: it just got fixed. But they'll find out either way.
it's ok Eric.. i suppose if the rest of us were around 30-ish, we'd feel the same way ;) anyhoo, i'm sure many (if not all) of you have heard of this little flash movie called extreme stick death. this one you can watch pretty much anywhere, since it's just a hair over 1MB. you'll never look at stick people the same again... woo hoo!! i actually got my dumb hard drive up and running! it's an old seagate hard drive, and it's so huge that it literally didn't fit inside my shell unless it sat on a ledge that it's not supposed to be on, so i had to build little makeshift "legs" to keep the darn thing level and there was only one possible place to bolt it down. really ghetto, but hey, it's running and i managed to close up the shell, so that's all that matters. well, i guess i shouldn't complain... turns out my friend's not charging me for it. what a nice guy... anyhoo, i'm picking up my yoyo's today! due to some memory lapse, i'm actually getting a 4th generation tigershark, not a white renegade. both are quality yoyos tho, so no complaints from me. in fact, i'm taking off soon to get them :) [links to be put up later... too lazy right now to search for it] Thursday, April 19
Yes, I'm ignorant. Yes I've never even seen AIM in action. Bite me. I'm a craggy old goat, so I can afford to be ignorant. :) I personally think the MSN messenger has the most pleasing interface and best feature. (They started global internet phone calls, I don't think AIM or ICQ had it then, and Yahoo only worked w/o the States at the time.) But too many people I know already were using Messenger (The Yahoo Pager at the time was the ONLY internet pager software that worked in/out of ATI, due to firewall restrictions) That's how I got stuck w/ Yahoo. It's okay, but not as good as MSN's. ICQ sux. It was only good b/c it was the first (well first widespread use). My ICQ # says it all. 447141. Less than 500 thousand users at the time :P That's it, I gotta think of something to write on my own page now. :) Wednesday, April 18
actually AIM isnt all that bad. besides the fact that they carry the same name, it has virtually nothing to do with AOL. being a [reluctant] AOL user, i can freely say that i can't stand it, but not so with AIM. afterall, it's basically a yahoo messenger with the tainted "AOL" label. out of all the chat programs i've used, AIM is the most efficient and easy one to use. ICQ is alright, but i can't stand the lag that's involved in sending even a simple message. those spinning heads just get to me after a while [yes i know it's owned by aol, but it was like that before too]. plus you can send images directly as an IM, so it's a good function for me since i mess with images pretty frequently. well, everone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs of course, and i'm not out to change anyone's mind. my theory is that people avoid AIM simply because of it's association with AOL, not necessarily because they know for a fact whether or not it's a bad/faulty program (which it isn't). well, my stat test is in less than an hour, and i realized i've been studying the wrong chapters. well, "too many chapters" is the more accurate phrase, i guess. now i'm trying to forget what i've been reading, so i can make more room for the stuff i do need to know. well, i guess at this point i'm not too worried about it. blah. ok, either way i should go get ready soon. still sitting in my pj's...
Yes, Chin Guido is someone I know. It's an actual event. I think I coulda written it better, but it's been like 2 days, I'm just gonna leave it. Most people already read it anyway, and I think I'm the only guy that rereads my post. Some parts of the story still didn't flow the way I liked. Too bad. Why would you use AIM? Anything AOL related is horrible. Yech. Get thee away from me. AOL isn't even an ISP. They're a BBS with a connection to the internet. Sort of like a lame ass firewall that allows you to post to each other too. Ewww... I won't use AIM, even if most of my friends go on it. I refuse. :) Hmm... you know the term "lift cars"? It's from a movie. Basically it goes something like: I'm so horny, I have to go lift cars at night, just so I'll be too exhausted to think about anything else. I picture you Larry, straining to lift the weights.... not saying you're extra horny or some such, but it's just my warped mind playing with me.... "yyyiiiiiissssssshhhhh. Must lift the 10 pounds. Must. Mus, Mu, M. Aw, bugger it." haha
Duality's pretty nice, looks like those guys have probably got some job secured for them over at some ILM-type place. The reflections on the halt droid were pretty cool. Unfortunately, I had to watch with no sound, since the only connection fast enough was in the library. Hey Eric, I like the Chin Guido story. Amusing yet tragic, well-written. So... is it someone you know or not? Doesn't really matter I suppose, but I'm just curious. I was wrong about working out again Monday, my "muscles" were still really sore. And I've got to study for my midterm Thursday, so I guess I can't lift till Thursday or Friday. Ahhhh, I already feel the icy grip of laziness... Tuesday, April 17
for those of you who have high bandwidth (or lots of patience), here's a short little homemade video titled duality... it's pretty good. ok, i can already imagine you guys snickering, and going "home video? ha!" but take my word for it, it's amazing. how's this... if you liked the lightsabre battle in episode I, i'm sure you'll find this well worth the watch. enjoy.
i only took out one line that had 'nosehair' in it, since it's a cousin thing and people won't understand. otherwise i didn't alter anything. maniasdfestation = manifestation??? BOOOOOOOO!!!!!! well, i think i'll just leave the post as it is... people already saw it anyway, so oh well. ok, back to cleaning my room. yippee!!
Duh Dan I noticed you had to edit out some of dumber (nosehairs) comments out of the AIM chat to try and make me sound smarter haha. And maniasdfestation is supposed to be manifestation but I was too lazy to delete the extra letters. Stone Temple Pilot was a label at a music store that me and Roberta saw. We thought maybe the other Stone Temple Pilots had died or something... Monday, April 16
ha ha ha ha, the tribal chicken head!! man... i must admit tho... i don't remember about 10% of the stuff on the list... stone temple pilot??? when did we talk about THAT?? anyway, wow Lawrence, you actually typed all that out back then eh? i don't think i learned how to use a computer until i got to college... man... what a major annoyance. for some reason, statistics is so hard for me. being the idiot i am, i chose it as one of my math credits, not realizing how tough it would turn out to be. i could've chosen something dumb like finite math or something, but nooooo... ugh! i have a test coming this wednesday, and i don't feel anywhere near ready despite the fact that i've showed up to all the classes, took all the notes, did all the homework, and read/studied all the chapters. not that i don't know what's going on, but there's just so much junk to memorize. i mean, isn't that what palm organizers, graphing calculators, and computers are made for? isn't there a reason that these hi-tech gadgets come available with more memory than ever before? i mean, i still believe in keeping one's mind active and functional, of course, but being forced to accumulate mass amounts of knowledge that you won't use once the quarter ends is kinda stepping over the line for me. yeesh there are 5 red marbles and 7 green marbles in a bag. if three marbles are picked at random, without replacement, what is the probability that dan cares? zero. that was easy...
Hey I still have all the cousin things we did in HK '96. (I must have typed it up back then, because I don't remember doing it). Here's the stuff: Fool! My bad! Duh! Boo! Dork! Geek! Slap! Gizzard! Cousin Check! Your bad! Humiliator! Fighting Man! Elephant man! Stumpy Joe! Elephant poacher! Loser! Cheater! Fester? Punk! Gin! eh? Sailor Moon! Yo!Yo!Ma! Chow Guek Nga! Sut Tow Gaw! Jig! Duh dun duh da duh dun duh da da da duh da da! I'll break you! Dunna Dunna nuna nuna... Baht Mahn! Sai lei! I'll beat you! Oh yeah, Ohhhh yeaah! Sam tung lok yuen! Fools! Dijustin! An A in Calculus! Musical Genius! Toss me that frog! Justin's only 17?! Isn't driving fun? Chin Strokes Fist in Old Rust. Lice lose tanks in Parks. Tragic Floss. Order me some rage! Who da man? Wasp! White trash! Rage against the machine! Mm Ho Mm Ho! Bump your head on the bus! Dance a twelve! Conspiracy! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Stone Temple Pilot! Strategic places! We're not the Champions! Cantonese War! Stud! Scary walk! Want some? No, I want some answers! Curly Fries! Pass me the teapot-like contraption! Der Bus ist mein Freund! Fat-on-a-stick! High tide! R. Carlos! Fat or Phat? Go, Justinian! Jello! Towel Bunnies! Slapping Durians! Justin's hole! Wet Market Tours! Does it hurt? Does it hurt? Darn you all; go to heck! Ugly-clothes shopping! Failed toothpick star! Long lectures! All Hail CHINA! Never-Ending photo sessions! Soybean milk yak-head soup! Tribal chicken head! Drunk! Akai!
My psorisis is doing okay. There are symptoms once you see me in person, but I'm not hideously deformed yet. Maybe when I get older, or I keep reading your blogs. :) I use dovonex cream, non steroid based. Seems to control it, but doesn't make it any better. I don't really let the disease bother me. Working out makes it worse though, so it's an argument to stay skinny. I have to hit the gym tonite, hell or high water.
ha ha... i think we all digress when we're in the same room (same chat room, even). this hit me a little while back when Justin was laughing my blog entries, commenting on how "serious" i sounded... but the truth is, serious or not serious, that's the way i always write. to be honest, i've never seen the "serious" side of Lawrence either... we always talk about knee slaps, gibbons, fighting man, and cheow guek gnah, so it initially took some getting used to reading his blogs. well, it's about that time again... off to class i go!
Hey, you know how we (Dan, Justin, and I) were talking about capitalizing the posts? (Eric, why don't you have AIM?). And you know how when you read things, you sort of "hear" it in your head? Well, when I read my own posts looking for errors, I subconsciously read it in a stupid voice even if it has proper grammar. I can't figure out why, but I think it has something to do with still seeing myself as a little kid instead of as an adult. I only do it here, so maybe it's also because when I'm with you guys I feel like we're kids again.
goodness, i almost forgot... i beat bchang at backgammon today, woo hoo! we agreed to play up to 3 points. first game i pulled ahead during the middle of the game so i offered a double, which he wisely rejected (rejecting a double means you forfeit, basically). that's one point for me. next game, same thing... i offer him the double, but this time, he accepts. the game goes on! however, near the end i was clearly ahead, so he forfeits with double stakes. there's the three points i needed! of course, this doesn't alter the fact that bchang is clearly the superior player between us, but then i guess that's all the more reason for me to gloat, since it may very well be my last opportunity :P BTW, rejecting doubles/forfeiting is a normal thing in backgammon. it is in the interest of saving time, not an indication that you're a wuss. backgammon is based on a point system, rather than on individual games. i guess a loose parallel is the concept of innings in baseball. you don't 'win an inning' just because you score a run and the other team doesn't, you wait until the end to see who has more points, thus winning the 'overall game'. of course, you can play just one game of backgammon and call it quits, but it definitely won't be an accurate measure of who's the better player. ok dan, haven't you realized that you're the only idiot in here who's even remotely interested in backgammon?!
thanks for the info, even tho i know zilch about anything remotely related to medical stuff. as long as we're telling stories of how much we can bench, etc... here's my stats: as of now, i can do about 3 pushups without passing out, 7 sit-ups on a good day, and i can curl about 50 each arm... 50 ounces that is. basically, i'm a weakling. end of story. well, all i did was study today, and gave haircuts to 4 people today, so nothing really to write about for now. i gotta do some work on dealuniversity before i go to bed tonight... all i did was the graphics stuff, while jumpmonger did all the hard work, so i need to at least post stuff there to deserve my share of the earnings. if i think of something to blog about, i'll do it in a bit. otherwise, i'll just wait until i'm a bit more inspired. Sunday, April 15
I'm writing my midterm right now (they give us take-homes, but make them 2x as hard) on the genetics of psoriasis. Just thought you might like to know some pretty interesting stuff about it. They take mice and graft human skin onto them, then inject them with white blood cells from human psoriasis patients (mice can't get psoriasis normally). Then they wait for the mice to develop symptoms, if at all. So far, they've been able to pin it down to a mutated form of something called superantigens: basically, things that bind white blood cells too hard. I'm sure Justin knows more about them than me. Anyways, they've been pretty successful at getting the mice to become diseased. Which is good for another reason other than figuring out what causes psoriasis, because it also provides researchers with something to experiment on in terms of drugs, etc. I hope your psoriasis is well under control, Eric. Judging from your pictures, I can't even see any symptoms. Also, Dan, how's your dad? Is he walking around alright now? OK, just wanted to let you all know that us basic researchers actually do something useful haha...
I haven't lifted in about 3 weeks. I feel like crap. At the height of my madness, I could bench about 185 with a spot, 4 sets of 10 reps. Not a whole lot, but it was decent, consider my size. I can curl about 40 pounds each arm, also 4 sets of 10. But that's when I was hardcore, hitting the gym ~2hrs a day. Last I worked out, I was flat benching 120, 60 pounds dumb bell each arm. Actually, it's a LOT more difficult using dumb bells for bench presses than straight bar. I did 35 pounds of isolated curls, 4 sets of 10. For shoulders, I can do 55 pounds (each arm) military press. That's by far my weakest exercise, so working up to 55 pounds was impressive for me. I can do seated row (on a machine) @ 140. All my exercises are 4 sets of 10reps. My tricep dips are nice, as I hold 25 pound weights between my leg. Actually, the company's gym's max weights are 60 pound dumb bells. At my strongest, I could do 4 sets of 10, with 50 push ups before I started, and after the 4 sets. That was about as strong as I got.... I never got really big though, just strong. Everyone who sees me can't believe I can lift so much. Their eyes all bug out. The best is seeing 2 stocky Chinese guys, doing triceps (sit down with back support, hold 1 dumb bell with both hands, arms extended straight up over your head. Bring it slowly down behind your head, about neck level, and bring it back up, making sure that your elbows don't point outward, and you don't move your shoulder.) They were sweating a 60 pound dumb bell, and had to psyche themselves up each set, with spot. After they were done, I'm like, "Can I go?" So I pick up the 60 pounds, and I go boom boom boom, 4 sets ten, 20 second rest in between. They were surprised, to say the least. Weightlifting is very mental. You have to go in there thinking you're a superhero, and can't let yourself be wrong. That's the ONLY way to really get big, IMO. I need to get back into shape, I really do.
Speaking of which, my arms are so sore from lifting. I couldn't even play violin today because it hurt to bend them. I think I lifted too long for having waited 11 months to lift again. But I think I'll be ok to do it again Monday. No point getting started and losing routine right away. I thought I would be embarassed because the amount of weight I lift is so small. But no one looked, so it didn't matter anyways. But, I saw a girl and also a 70+ year old man lifting almost as much as me. At least maybe that's some incentive... I only use machines, so weight varies a lot for different machines, as you probably know. Most of the arm ones I do about 60 lbs, and the girl and old man were doing 40-50 (I used it after them). Well I do curls with the free weights too, but that's even more embarassing, with other guys doing 40-50 and me doing 20 (one per arm). If I can do 10 reps with 25 after 2 months, I will count that a rousing success. As it is I can do maybe 2.
ahhh... good to play again :) we even got to play at our "usual" location too... such a relief from that weird plastic rink from last week. ugh. i realized i'm badly out of shape tho... i got tired really easily, and overall i felt like a slug (in terms of reflex/speed, not necessarily consistency). i played defense mostly, so i only scored once. i realized when it comes to games and strategy and stuff, i like being on the defensive. take chess, for example. if given a choice, i always prefer to be black, and depending on how they start the game, i almost always do the king's indian opening, which puts me in a strong defensive formation. i like it because it's a pretty strong opening, and if used against an inexperienced player, will quickly wear down their offense. hmmm... ok, not too much of a tangent there. i also got to shoot some pool today, against BP (who, incidentally, is my yo-master... Eric: you can take a look at his motorcycle page if you're interested/bored), swang, and jdeen (Justin should know who they are, i think). it was pretty fun, but really smokey :( it used to be a pretty high-class billiards academy... really well-kept tables, nice owner, no smoking allowed, etc... then sometime last year it got bought out by a new owner who allows smoking, and apparently decided to hire a bunch of punk teenages to run the place... so now it's basically a hangout for a bunch of underage smokers who seem to do more loitering than shooting pool. i guess the reason we went there was due to a lack of options... it was basically the only [now ex] non-smoking pool hall that any of us knew of, and the next closest one is a good 20 minutes away (this one's 2 minutes from my house). oh well, it was still fun tho, and i actually played at a satisfactory level (besides the one time i lost when i scratched on the 8 ball on my second turn). we ended up staying there for over 2 hours, and got charged $24. ouch. ok, weird place to cut off, but i'm getting tired so i should sleep. Saturday, April 14
our old wise cousin speaks. blogging will never be the same... :) well, i can't really think of anything to say at the moment. i guess i'm all blogged out... speaking of lifting weights, i guess i really should start... or at least excercise instead of sitting around everyday. actually, tomorrow will be the first official day of roller hockey for the year :) boy i can't wait... i mean, i've gone skating around some, but it's not quite the same. i just heard tonight that the usual parking garage we play at is a different company's now, so hopefully there won't be anyone around on saturdays (like before), otherwise we might get kicked off :( it's happened before, and it sucks since it's the most ideal place to play around here (too expensive to play in indoor rinks). actually, tennis courts are nicer, but then once the weather starts to get nice, the nets go up so it's a pretty rare treat. oh well, we'll see what happens. either way, i can't wait. i guess this is how Eric feels about getting to ride, but i'm sure he would argue that rollerhockey can't compare :) Friday, April 13
guys, the correct manner in posting in blogger is thus: 1. Type msg 2. CTRL-A to select All 3. CTRL-C to copy into Windows clipboard 4. May want to paste it onto notepad (I do) Only then should you try Post & Publish
Duh, I'm lifting some weights today at the gym. It's been almost a year since the last time I did that. I hope I don't pull a muscle...
I'm actually typing this up in the hospital (I'm working here this quarter). Part of our lab does work on pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer has a mortality rate of 99%+ and a median survival of 6 months post-surgery. Surgery involves complete removal of the pancreas, for which the average rate of surviving the surgery itself is 60% (98% at John Hopkins Hospital). It's good to realize there's a human side to all this; perspective is always important, especially in human matters. Just don't let it get to you. If you try to vizualize all the patients in the hospital, of course it can seem overwhelming. Yes, someday, we'll all be that "somebody else," but there are other ways to prepare for it. Be aware of it, but I don't think you should try to empathize with everyones' suffering.
The page was getting a bit long, so I changed it to show only the last 4 days. Feel free to change it back if you don't like it.
well, i guess Lawrence convinced me to attempt to salvage my lost post today, so here goes... [disclaimer: original was longer and had better wording] it was basically in response to Justin's post about working at the hospital... the other day, i was thinking about my friend Ed, who got killed in an accident last summer. there was an article about it on the front page of the daily illini, U of I's school newspaper. it made the headline, but the article itself was pretty short and not very in-depth. i guess what bothered me the most was the "generic" feel of it, written about "somebody else" or "somebody else's friend". i can totally picture someone who didn't know Ed pick up the paper, give the article a glance, maybe read it, think "oh well, didn't know the guy" and then turn to the sports section without missing a beat. not the most direct parallel, but somewhat similar to a hospital visit... you walk in and have only that one particular patient in mind that you're visiting. not that you're oblivious to the fact that there are other patients in the hospital, of course, but we just tend not to think about it. i guess for those of us who don't work in a hospital, the fact that there are numerous patients living out their last days in the very building you're visiting doesn't always register, and even when we do realize it, it's probably a passing thought at best. unfortunately, it's not so simple for that 'somebody else' out there, and i guess in Ed's case, i got a taste of what it's like to be on "the other side" of things. it kinda pulls things into perspective that much more. i guess as a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip once said, "we're all 'somebody else' to somebody else."
"ugh! that's a ford focus!!" those were the words that popped into my head the first time i saw the 2001 civic. when the focus first came out, i instantly hated the way it looked, so naturally i wasn't too enthusiastic about the new civics either. however, they've grown on me a bit over time, and it's a good thing too, since my parents actually bought one (champaign-colored, 4-door LX). so anyway, i was driving aimlessly around the parking lot during my dinner break today (my car's still in the shop, so i had my mom's car again) and i see this parked 4-door focus with an empty space next to it, and i just couldn't resist. after a comparison, i decided that civic's do look better. i'm biased, of course, but hey, aren't we all. anyway, the first thing i compared was the nose... that's basically the ugliest part of either vehicle, in my opinion. after careful examination, i concluded that the focus's nose is slightly more dipped in front, giving it a "beak effect". although the civic's nose is also pretty short, it looks marginally more like a normal car. plus the focus's sharply contoured headlights kinda make it look too origami-ish. i guess that's not necessarily a bad thing of course, but just doesn't do it for me. another thing about the focus i don't like is the side body molding, specifically above the wheel wells. they make the wheels look disproportionally puny, even tho after close inspection, they're the same size as the civic's. the back of either car looks alright, so i have no complaints. finally, i walk around and peek into the focus's cockpit. BORING! i'll have to give honda some credit for that... although the outside looks kinda funny, the interior of the new civic is unbelievable. even at the lowly LX trim, it looks ridiculously nice for a subcompact econobox. final verdict: the interior of the civic scores big points. winner: civic! oh yeah, i mistakened a civic for an audii once, on a dark street. bonus points, baby!
hee hee hee, well, Justin's gonna kill me for posting this, but i just got a webcam yesterday and it's been providing me hours of entertainment ever since. i know it's old technology, but for some reason i get such a huge kick out of it. i've made several pointless movies and dumb shots of myself, and i'm normally camera shy! well, i've never had one to play with before, so i guess it's still a novelty to me. i'm sure it'll wear off... BTW, www.dealuniversity.com is officially public now. it's this deal site that my friend jumpmonger and i have been working on these past few months. he's the brains behind it... i'm just the grapchics lackey. it's where i got the webcam thru, actually. it's a pretty good deal... $50, with $50 rebate... i would never be able to justify getting a webcam otherwise. obi-won myagi say if you go dark side, *squish!* justa like grape
Hey Dan, you should control-C your post before you post it, just in case something like that or IE crashes or something. I still want to read what you wrote, duh. Justin, you should be glad you're feeling that now instead of later as a med student. Most med students feel it during school, and some aren't able to deal with it well. Pretty much all doctors/residents have to go through such a process of desensitization to death and suffering. Not that they don't care anymore, but rather they have to ignore it to keep concentrating on their work. A couple feel-good movies out there pretend that caring is all that matters, but though you have to retain some, emotion is rarely a good auxiliary to scientific protocol. All about balance and experience, I guess. Eric, I don't know, but I think you look a lot healthier now (judging from your pics) than from when I last saw you (1994?). I think the secret is not too much junk/fast food, but what do I know? I've gone through a king-size bag of popcorn in the last two days. On the other hand, I cook for myself a lot from scratch and I haven't been sick in months... Still, carpe diem sounds pretty good to me.
bloor viaduct... i thought they put up that suicide barrier? or at least were going to? you'd better hurry up if you're going to go--at least you won't end up in some hospital! no, but please don't. that wouldn't be right, and i'd miss you terribly. others... try typing the post in notepad first. that way you don't have to worry about blogger erasing posts or not being able to publish until later. that's what i do, at least... not that i need to teach you to use blogger... seeing how your posts outnumber mine... Thursday, April 12
ok, i just posted something that i put a lot of thought into, but then as soon as i hit "post & publish" it gave me the blogger apology screen, and i guess it apparently cleared my entire post in the process. i suppose i should be used to these things happening by now, but now i also have a lot less incentive to care about what i write from now on if a dumb 'sorry' graphic is all it takes to wipe out what i spent half an hour thinking/writing. the tail end of my original post... i'm not going to bother even beginning to piece together what i had before. --- "screw the future." -Eric Lo so does this mean it's ok for me to yoyo instead of doing homework? :) --- ok, dinner time. woo hoo!!
Oh guys/gals, please know that blogger does experience problems.... like now, I don't know if I can update this. If I can, that means it's working, but it might not publish. whatever. Justin, man, you're depressing the heck out of me. Where's the Bloor viaduct? I'm jumping off. Yeah, life is so short. Lisa's sister is a like a home care professional. She has this one patient, who's like our age. Smart as a cookie, she is. Straight As and all that. One day, several days b4 her finals, she gets this nasty cold. Thinking that she'll hit the doctors once exams are out of the way, she plods on, studying for her exams. One day, as she wakes up, she just can't move. Yada yada, paralized neck down. I don't know the specifics, or whether it was detectable/treatable. I believe it was manangitus (spelling!!), or some such, probably cure-able if caught early. It just goes to show how fragile humans really are. That's why I've always believed in doing what you want to do now, and screw the future. OK, too harsh, but don't put stuff off worth doing for tomorrow. Before you know it, you might never get a chance. That includes everything, from dating your dream girl to mailing out that letter you haven't written to a friend. Maybe that's why I have such expensive toys. I've always thought I won't live to old age. My younger years have been too much wasted and my body prolly won't last that long. ....Have a good Easter long weekend peeps.
ok, so i?m just sitting around in the computer lab waiting for time to go to work. i thought i?d just drop a line or two, seeing just how much you all want to know about what?s going through my head. dan, why aren?t you online to distract me? anyways. i didn?t notice it the first few months i worked at the hospital, but it?s become more shockingly apparent just how many people die there. i suppose many people take it for granted that a hospital is often one of the last places people go before they expire. but the part that doesn?t come so naturally to see is that most people see final hospital visits from the perspective of one patient's ordeal. what i?m trying to say is that if you visit someone in the hospital, you don?t normally think about all the other patients in the unit, how they?re doing and whether they?re going to make it; you focus on the person you?re there to visit. because of these blinders i never realized just how many people are in the hospital at once... and how many of them die. i realize that?s somewhat a morose and depressing thought, but it?s been on my mind a lot. especially when i hear of cases of people my age, afflicted with illnesses for which i?m in the typical age range of which it most commonly affects. i suppose i?m not supposed to know, but someone who used to live on my floor a few years ago had a total colectomy in december. i worked up the pre-op blood sample. it?s just strange to think that being completely fine one day, i could fall ill the next, and die. and then there?s the number of heart surgeries... even the amount is dizzying to contemplate. although adilene, sean, jeramie and jason are dead, stan?s not. and that gives me some hope... have a nice day! Wednesday, April 11
my quick blog break during class... ha ha ha. i just gammoned on level 4, while taking a quiz. woo hoo! i did bad on the quiz tho... oh well. ok, class is resuming... Tuesday, April 10
well Eric, if you need any string, give me your address and i can send you some. i have a surplus of strings sitting around doing nothing, and i have another order coming in so i can spare a few if you're [remotely] interested. around the world is actually tougher than you think. i doubt someone who's picking up a yoyo for the first time can pull one off, so you must be pretty decent :) well, i played my first game of backgammon on an actual board today against bchang. needless to say, i got whooped. it was a little confusing too, since it was actually the first time either of us played on a physical board, so we had some difficulties setting up the board the first couple of games. it was an interesting experience tho, and i'm sure there will be many more games to come. backgammon is actually a pretty fascinating game. i guess being a chess fan, i still can't quite accept the fact that your moves are limited to dice rolls, but i guess it's about your ability to improvise and make the best out of your given options. if anyone's interested, you can check out the rules. i didn't really shop around for good sites, but this one has all the rules and basics, so i figured it's good enough if you just want to know how the game works or what not. you can also play backgammon with other ppl online at Yahoo! Games, which is how i got started. ok, who am i fooling... no one's gonna actually click on these links, but i guess just in case :)
Aluminum yoyos? Hardcore. I have a wooden that I can do like 2 tricks with. Around the world. That's about it. Not even very well I might add. :) It is still in good shape (whatever that means), but I need a new string for it. This one's all frayed and not very smooth. (I don't think sleeping is even possible now, it's so grippy.) Cheers,
yoyos these days are usually made of plastic or aluminum. wooden ones are usually for looping, which i can't do. the bumblebee is plastic, and i have two aluminum ones. i'm usually hesitant of using the aluminum ones because they hurt more when i hit myself in the head with it (it happens more frequently than i'd like it to). of course the plastic ones hurt too, but at least it won't dent my skull.
What are those yoyos made out of? I've been sitting at work for the last 2 weeks not doing anything because I need people to train me in this new lab (I'm only working in this one for 2 months). But the person who is supposed to train me was on vacation the first week, and too busy getting things straight the second week to even do any of her own experiments, let alone train me. The other people in the lab can't help me much because they're not very experienced themselves. Well, I start today supposedly, but who knows. I bet she'll find a way to postpone it again. Also, these people take no pride in their lab at all. Everything's a mess or out of order. Things needed for a machine in one room are found in another room. They have no Kimwipes! (aka expensive lab Kleenex) So I can't even clean the stupid balance, which obviously hasn't been cleaned for months. There's almost no space to work in, and there's trash or dirty instruments everywhere. I'm going back to my last lab as soon as this is over.
i ordered two new yoyos [earlier] today: a DragonJam by Yoyo Jam, and a White Renegade by Super Yo. my "main yoyo" right now is a Turbo Bumblebee GT by Playmaxx, which is actually a very decent yoyo, except it makes use of brakepad technology so it kills the spin on certain tricks. right now i am trying to learn from videos by pork. so far, the only tricks of his i can do is a jedi backflip and a scrappy version of in the bucket. everything else is way beyond me. i'm trying to learn the mach 5 right now, but it's one of those tricks that don't really work with brakepadded yoyo's, so i'm waiting on the two new ones that are coming in. Monday, April 9
well... the main concern is that my brother and sister spend a lot of time on the computer as it is, ha ha. Ivan already spends a lot of time tweaking with his webpage. well, i am in class now, so i'll tell them about it when i get home.
Since you're all admins, you can add any cousin you want with the Team button. So if Dan wants to add Ivan and Iris, he can do it directly. Whee.
[email protected] That's the only other cousin's email I have. :) Dan, how about your brother/sister(s), will they join? Or are you like the possessive type, and not willing to share. :)
STUPID Web Ferret... arg, just deleted my msg. 1st, thanks for all your replies, you've actually helped quite a bit. I prefer the cheap piano most, b/c well, what if she quits after a year?? Not worth the $. I think the 3rd piano is the most viable choice. The piano was moved from HK to here, and not played once. So she'll probably not only need to tune, but need a "pitch raise". That's supposedly cost a little more than just a straight tuning. Older pianos might not be able to be tuned to concert pitch, correct? I read that in a piano FAQ, if that's the case, then the 2nd piano is out of the question, since it's the oldest. I would rather spend the extra $ to get concert pitch. I mean, I don't have perfect pitch, but it would piss me off if middle C is off a semitone. (Or whatever. I'm just saying I want the note to be perfect. ARG) Mentally, I feel the cheapest piano is the way to go. But I feel that if you're gonna enjoy the experience, you might as well spring for a more $ one, to get that satisfaction. Else, I woulda bought a crappy car, instead of my Golf GTI. Still, it's a $1000 cheaper, geez, so I dunno. Thanks again everyone. Justin, you write pretty good BS, as I actually learned something. :) All the pianos are uprights, not spinets. I think it just really, really need to be tuned. The muffled low key notes is still a concern to me, since I'm pretty sensitive to lower bass frequencies. I think she'll get a professional tuner to take a look before buying it. It's worth the $40 consultation fees I think. Fanx.
i normally concentrate pretty well when i study at barnes & noble, but for some reason i had a hard time staying in my seat during the afternoon. i just had to get up and walk around for some reason, and it just so happens that my wanderings led me to the 'games' section. i once had a brief interest in backgammon which has been rekindled recently, so naturally i picked a backgammon book and went back to my seat. i pull out my palm, on which i've recently downloaded a backgammon program, and i started reading. even at level 0 (the lowest), the AI is annoyingly tough to beat... well, for me at least. so anyway, i read up on a list of openings based on every possible dice combination, along with a brief list of tips, and i was suddenly whooping the computer like there's no tomorrow (keep in mind it's still at level 0). it was the closest thing to this: me: pulls out phone "Tank, load the gammon program!" blink blink blink blink blink blink..... "i know backgammon!" well... almost. of course, later on when my friend bchang stopped by B&N, he turns the level up to 4 (highest) and proceeds to beat the AI one game after another. after he finished, i tried playing level 4 as well and promptly got my butt kicked. even tho i eventually managed to win a few games, i still have much to learn. incidentally, that book i was reading only cost $4. maybe i'll go back and buy it. hmmm...
wow... i don't believe i'm actually posting something. hi everyone. yeah, i'm just bs'ing for the next few paragraphs, but this is what i think: ok... first of all the "self-sustain" thing. does the key rebound all the way up? it could be a matter of humidity, but i doubt it given the weather down here. perhaps it's more humid up there? i don't know. how well does she play in the first place? if she's any better than a mere beginner, i would advise not getting the $900 piano. it sounds like the problem is the most serious and probably the most expensive to fix. as for the second piano, that seems ok. as long as the crack isn't anywhere near the soundboard, you're fine. is it an upright piano (tall) or a spinet piano (short)? that would affect the position of the soundboard and how much difference the crack would make. because there are no adjustments to be made with the interior, this "problem" might be not really affect the sound as much. i dunno. if it sounds bad just stick it up against a wall or something. the third piano... might be ok too. tuning can make a BIG difference. strings can become loosened if the piano has been jostled around in transport; the change in weather would also affect the wood and the tuning as well. will tuning help? maybe, maybe not. it really depends also on the age of the piano. sometimes piano strings get so old that they will be out of tune in a matter of days after tuning. if this is the case, lacking that mellifluous character to the sound may mean replacement of the strings. but you really can't tell unless it's tuned. again, if the strings are looser than normal and all the pitches are consequently flat, the sounds won't be as solid (less defined vibrations). muffling sound could happen when the piano is small. judging by the description, it doesn't sound like a very tall piano. the effect of muffled sound is normally worse with lower notes just because of the way the strings vibrate so it might not be much better than the other pianos that you're considering. i don't know how much any of these repairs would cost. but if price isn't an issue in the first place, i don't know whether that's actually relevant to the decision. i would probably ask to hear the second piano and go for that one if it sounds all right. sure, tuning would definitely help the 3rd piano, but as you've ascertained, it could be masking more serious problems that a simple tuning wouldn't remedy. ok... i think i've written enough for a while. Sunday, April 8
Does anyone know the emails of any other English-speaking cousins? I would think Tien-Yut has email and knows enough English to post. But he may not know enough to understand all of our posts... I don't know, I haven't seen him in so long.
I also don't know much about pianos. But I guess it depends on what you want out of the piano. If she's thinking about making it her living, then you pretty much have to go for the pricey stuff. If it's just for fun or learning a little about music, then I see no point spending too much money on it. $900 is more than I've spent on any one thing (with entirely my own money, i.e. car doesn't count, though it will when I've paid my parents/Roberta back), so I'd say that's already expensive. But I don't know how much pianos run for generally. The self-sustain thing isn't good, but it isn't horribly bad either, I guess. Our piano is Kawai so I'm biased already. I bet #2 would cost more to fix up than to buy, too. Justin will have to post here and tell you. If he doesn't post, I'm going to knee slap him on here every day until he posts. Duh Dan, of course Chocolat is bad. If you're the kind of guy that likes to watch The Rock, and I think you are, it's pretty much a given. Good thing I just stay away from all movie theaters, haha. I'd rather watch TV.
well, i'm not a "piano freak", but based on what was presented, i'd go with the $900 one. ok, so my decision is based heavily on the sheer price difference, but hey, if all the keys and pedals work [to a reasonable degree], why pay 3x the price for one that might only be marginally better? the piano in our house is a crummy second-hand piano that cost us no more than $200, and frankly, it sucks (justin can testify to that)... but hey, the keys work, its in tune for the most part, and it's fun for me to play (to varying degrees) despite the mediocre quality. i guess another factor that wasn't specifically mentioned is the "feel" of the keys.. the more "firm" they are, the better (i'm not sure if that was the best way to describe it). but anyway, i essentially know nothing about pianos, so i'll leave it at this and let the experts do the talking. anyhoo... the weather was nice, and i did end up playing hockey. it was broke, tho. the rink's surface was made of this cross-hatch-textured plastic material, which is great for rollerhockey skates (which have nice soft, "sticky" wheels). only problem is, the one pair of skates that i own are agressive skates. in terms of wheel hardness, hockey wheels and trick wheels are on opposite ends of the durometer scale, so basically, it was hard & slick wheels on a hard & slick surface. this proved to be a slight handicap for me when i realized i was unable to do the following: 1) accelerate quickly 2) make sharp turns 3) stop/brake 4) play hockey basically, i was an invalid. i fell flat on back from a routine turn within the first 2 minutes i started playing, taking out a guy in the process. he seemed extremely annoyed, and understandably so. probably the most frustrating thing was the fact that those guys weren't even that good. if the game was on normal pavement, i'm pretty sure i could've taken them. they were that bad. i also watched chocolat tonight. BORING!! ugh!!! i'm nowhere near the macho type, but movies like that just don't do it for me. it got so boring that i started discussing yoyo theory with my friend jeff, whom i've recently got into yoyoing. maybe i'm too narrow-minded and immature to appreciate it, who knows, but a movie where the plot centers on a chocolate shop just doesn't grab my interest. ok, i'm about to go delirious, so off to bed i go.
Yes, your tests work. Sorry to be so crude, but what name are you going by now? Robin or Roberta? :) Please advise. Thanks. Since you're pretty much piano freaks, I just want to know: How do you tell a piano is worth buying? Right now, I have a friend who has a choice of 3 models, all 2nd hand. 1st one, cheapest at $900 dollars, is a Kawai (no model info). She says the when she plays it, after pressing a key, you can here it self-sustain. I don't know the musical term (I can only play a little bit of "chopsticks" on the piano), but basically, the note resonate after a press. Is that bad? She assumes it is, I would guess so too. 2nd choice is $~3000 ($2800?), The finish looks terrible, and there's a known crack in the back. It hasn't broken through, but it might happen. If that's the worst case senario, how will the integrity of the piano hold up? I'm assuming based on common sense that it won't ever sound as good right? 3rd is also near $3G, but more realistically, it'll be $24-2600. The finish is immaculate (oh, both 2 and 3 are Yamaha, again no model info.... something 1 something. Yamaha's website didn't have it, but here's what it looked like. The unfortunate thing is that the piano hasn't been played once since the owner brought it over from HK. So when we went to look at it, it was grossly out of tune, even for my nearly tone-deaf ears. Although this was the only piano I heard out of the 3, the sound didn't impress me, (out of tune??) the sound wasn't distinct and not very "sweet" to the ear. I've heard nice pianos (not that I wanted to), and it just didn't have that nice tune to it. Will tuning the piano change the sound of the notes? I mean, sure when it's in tune, you expect it to be better, but will it make the notes sound more clear? Right now, to my untrained ears, it sounds muffled, especially the lower keys..... More help/description would be nice. One more thing. One of the keys don't work 100%. Pressing without deliberate force will produce no sound. We looked at the hammer action, when pressed gently, the hammer didn't hit the string. I'm guessing this can be fixed, price range? Visually looking at the keys, the offending key sits slightly lower than the rest. Is this a costly repair? Does anyone know? Based purely on looks, the 3rd piano looks best. However, I was NOT impressed with the way it sounds. Tuning it of course will help, but can it be a night & day difference? The only instrument I have any experience with is the lowly accoustic guitar, and altho tuning one will make a difference, there's no substitute for quality. You just can't get good sound out of a bad guitar. The piano where I linked to appears (at least in order) to be the lowest model of the Yamaha line. In my humble opinion, I'd get the crappy $900 piano. But then again, I'm not the one playing it. Still, $900 is way cheaper than $~3G..... btw, my friend swears that piano 2 is best. Price isn't an issue, but longevity issues may be. If the back goes, can it be repaired for a reasonable price? Should she gamble? Thanks for all your input in advance. Help if you can. But don't need to answer every single question. I know I can get wordy. LoSir Out. Saturday, April 7
Sandy Patty?! bwahahahaha!! anyway, the third day concert was great. i guess i really don't have anything to compare it with since i've never been to a real concert before, but just the sheer in-your-face-ness of live music was incredible. sent chills down my spine several times. the only down side was standing still for 3+ hours... my legs were shot (still pretty sore). also, i was near the front, and not too far away from some of the speakers so it left a ringing in my ears. it's been a good 3 hours, and my hearing is still not quite at 100% but it's well worth it. heh heh. the opening bands were ok... never heard of them, but then i guess that's why they're not the main act. man... more complications with the car place :( they FORGOT to fix some of the dents, so i have to take it back on monday again! it's a lose-lose situation... i can yell at them all i want, but it comes down to either waking up early and not having a car for a few days again, or live with the blemishes. ugh! plus if it's dry tomorrow morning (as in in a few hours, since it's technically saturday already i guess), im gonna head over to the roller hockey rink and play a some pick-up games, so there goes my sleep for tonight. then of course there's church on sunday, so it looks like i won't be getting any sleep for a while... *sigh* okay, i'm too tired to think of anything else right now. oh, i learned some more yoyo tricks today, but i guess no one really cares about that :P
Nice to see people posting. :) I've never been to a "real" concert either. Okay, I went to a Sandy Patty concert when I was like 15, but that doesn't count does it?? :> Just tired now. So I won't post too much. With my blog the way it is, I usually don't have much creative juice left to write anymore...hehe otay. Slap your knees and dance a jig. See, I"m not senile quite just yet, lads. Friday, April 6
What's Third Day? Never heard of them. Christian band, I'm guessing. Well, I've never been to a "real" concert before either. We had some big names at UofC, but of course it was just UofC people, so a very small crowd (maybe 500). My freshman year Beck was here, but I missed it. Sophmore year was George Clinton and the P-funk band, but I missed that too. Junior year was Sonic Youth/Moby/Busta Rhymes, which I did go to. Busta was awesome, and I skipped Moby (not my style). I expected a lot from SY, never having heard them before but only ever hearing good things about them. But they were kind of lackluster and screamed more than sang. Most people hated them, and only about 40 people were actually dancing. Senior year was The Roots/Goldfinger/Eminem. The Roots had the most amazing set. One guy sounded exactly like record scratchings on a turntable, DJ Scratch. The songs were great and they had so much energy. I sound like a dorky teenager now don't I? Well, anyways, almost none of my friends liked them, thinking they went on too long. But they were the only "real" act. All my friends just wanted to see prepackaged media flash and radio-friendly songs, which is not what The Roots are about. Goldfinger was ok, they were lewd and swore a lot, and couldn't really sing or play, but they were a lot of fun. Eminem was exactly the prepackaged stuff I was talking about earlier. He sang all his big hits and did all the stupid white guy-rapper posturing he always does. But it was still fun to sing along to some of his stuff with the crowd. Bad music, good times. Thursday, April 5
my car's at Hoster's Auto Body, which is located in the town of Lemont. it's an old small town, drastically different from the suburbs. since it's sort of built on a small hill, it almost seems like you're in a different state, instead of in the boring flat plains of Illinois. there's a neat little cafe of sorts there, that i used to go to with a friend back in high school. anyhow, my car got dented as a result of leaving it in public parking lots (heaven forbid). as far as i know, it's from several different occasions, and the last one was bad enough to merit a repair for all of them. as for tomorrow night, i'll be at a Third Day concert (my first concert ever!), so i probably won't be around (which is also why i needed the car). i like music and everything, but unless it's classical music, i wouldn't find it worthwhile to show up to a concert. if i wanted to hear something, that's what CD's and mp3's are for... but yeah, Third Day has finally won me over, so off i go! you guys should check it out, they're pretty good. i would aspire to go to a Dave Matthews concert too, but i would imagine i wouldn't have the funds to do so anytime soon. oh well...
Hm, my green civic's in the shop too... Which shop did you take it into? Other one could be mine... I'm using the Acura in Evanston while the Civic is in Naperville. Actually though, I don't think it's physically in the shop yet. My dad took it in, so I don't know for sure. What did you do to the car? I was parallel parking and I just went a little too fast and hit a railing. Didn't do much damage besides a dent in the fender. Still, got to look nice, huh? Got to be more careful in the future... well I won't have to street park anymore after May 1. I'm getting my own space by the apartment. I'm coming home Friday at around 7pm. Maybe see you then Dan. And Eric! Those were all our cousin jokes that you should at least know some of from HK '91. Oh well. I guess some were from later Scrabble games, I don't remember now...
hmmm... speaking of car problems (refer to LoSir's 4/1/01 post), my vehicle has been in the shop this past week because of the same ding dongs out there. granted, my 98 4-dr civic LX is no GTI, but a dent in your car is still a dent in your car. so anyway, because of insurance reasons, the car had to be fixed/billed by the middle of this month, so this past monday i crawled out of bed at 8 in the morning (my class doesn't start until 4:30pm) to drop off the car with my dad at a body shop a good 20-minute drive away. we're returning customers because they do a good job, although speed has never been their strong point. so the guy tells us it'll be ready by wednesday, no later than thursday (which is today). alright, no big deal, right? well... yesterday i give them a call to see if the car was ready to pick up, and they said yes, but since i was home by myself with no transportation, i told them i'd be in tomorrow (today) to get it. so this morning i drive there with my mom, and we're in the office about ready to pay, when i glance over into the garage (there's a window... duh) and notice this guy still working on a green civic. me: "hey, i thought you said it was done." points to green car the guy: "yeah, you wouldn't believe it, but someone else also brought in the exact same car! yours is finished, and it's out back." me: "oh." looks again, notices a glimpse of a familiar license plate number, dented hubcap, unusually large Taiwanese rearview mirror attachment "uh... no, i'm pretty sure that car's mine..." the guy: thoughts racing "oh.... uh, right! he's just buffing up the front fender for you, but the repair job itself is all done!" me: relieved "oh ok..." the guy: "yeah, it'll be ready in about an hour." smiles what?!?! an hour!!! i had to be at work in less than 40 minutes!! the fool assured me that my car was all set and ready to go yesterday, so he obviously mistook my car for the other green 4-dr civic owner's... and since i work from 12 noon til 10pm today, i can't pick it up until tomorrow, which means i'll have to drag myself out of bed AGAIN at 8 in the morning (no class tomorrow) to get it with my dad, since i'll be needing the car before anyone else gets home later in the day. waste of time, waste of gas, but worst of all, waste of my bed time :( boooooo so does that mean some poor chump out there is sitting at home without his green civic when it was actually all set to go as of yesterday afternoon?
you're all a little too weird for me. I'm really scared now. How can I be related to such freaks... woooo.... Wednesday, April 4
The Humiliator is worshipped! I didn't know gibbons were alcoholics. Knee-slapping is a deadly art! The Hardee's rage song. Proof that Stumpy Joe is an idiot. Caps of Shame were once fashionable French wear.
Everyone will be given admin, so feel free to change the template whenever you like and stuff. Especially if you don't like the colors, because I don't like them either. I can't think of anything better though. You guys are the artistic cousins here, not me!
This blog is for constant cousin checking, just to make sure everything is going down in cousin land. Or something. Duh. Booo. |