Boo, it was a typo, an earlier mistake I made. We invented it in '96, not '91. I remember, because I taught it to my church friends at the '96 youth group camp-out. Though this means that Eric wasn't there, I guess.
posted by Larry at 6:14 PM

yodaslap: it dawned on me that we first played cantonese war a DECADE ago!!!!!
jy1o: yeah, i know.
yodaslap: my goodness, where has the time gone?!?!
jy1o: isn't that scary/
jy1o: ?
yodaslap: yeah

i guess time flies whether you're having fun or not...
posted by yodaslap at 1:30 AM

The Basic Steps of Cantonese War:

1. Divide the cards evenly between the players, keeping the piles face-down.
2. The goal of the game is to get all the cards by slapping the pile or by putting down face cards or aces.
3. Whoever loses all of his/her cards loses the game, but may re-enter by slapping.
4. Go around in order and each player puts their top card down face-up in the middle pile.
5. Continue around until the following conditions occur:

Face Cards and Aces

1. If a J, Q, K, or A is played, the next player must put down the following number of cards until either another J, Q, K, or A is played or the pile becomes slappable (see below):
    a) J = 1
    b) Q = 2
    c) K = 3
    d) A = 4
2. If neither a J, Q, K, or A or a slappable pile comes up, the previous person takes the pile.
3. Whoever takes the pile starts another round by putting down his top card.

Slappable Piles:

1. The only cards of importance are the top three cards.
2. The pile may be slapped if the top three cards:
    a) add up to 21.
    b) or are all the same number.
    c) or are all the same suit.
    d) or are consecutive numbers (eg.: 345, 354, 435, 453, 534, 543)
3. Additionally, the pile may be slapped if the top two cards are an A and a 10, K, Q, or J (since any of these combos are "blackjack")
4. Card values:
    a) An Ace can either count as a 1 or an 11.
    b) All face cards are worth 10.
    c) KA2 does not count as consecutive.
    d) However, QKA and A23 are consecutive.
5. Whoever slaps first takes the pile, putting it under his own.
6. Whoever takes the pile starts another round by putting down his top card.
7. Anyone who has lost can still slap in and reenter the game.

Game invented in the summer of 1991 in Hong Kong by Roberta, Justin, Dan, Eric, and Lawrence.
Also, whoever slaps a knee instead of the cards is automatically booed.
posted by Larry at 7:23 PM

yuck. i just looked at the cousin check page and noticed a few sparse lines and nothing else. it was a sad excuse for a blog :( well, i'm pretty tired and almost going to sleep, but just thought i'd try to add a bit of bulk to the page, even if it's worthless bulk.

anyway, i already posted a quick overview about it on my blog, but it was really fun hanging out with Lawrence and Justin over the weekend. it was a good chance to slap knees, boo each other, finding different ways of saying "duh", and just generally digressing together. one highlight was the resurrection of "cantonese war". hopefully Lawrence will get a chance to re-post the set of [revised] rules for the game, even tho by now we are somewhat familiar with it. we were rusty at first but eventually got the hang of it again, but still slow enough at times to keep the game funny. we must've played on a sturdier surface back in Hong Kong, because i dont remember knocking so many things off the table (or maybe there wasn't anything on the table to begin with back then, i dont quite remember). anyway, hopefully we can do this again soon. it's a lot more fun without parents around, bwahahahaha.

alright, there's my feeble effort to post an entry. it's almost 3am now and i am getting sleepy. good night all.
posted by yodaslap at 2:47 AM

boooooooooooooo

still at Lawrence's. bwahahahahahaha
posted by yodaslap at 2:24 PM

Duh Justin and Dan are here. We just ate Woodchuck jello and went to Chinatown. Boo.
posted by Larry at 4:38 PM

i'm going up to evanston to see Lawrence and Justin soon. duh.
posted by yodaslap at 6:49 PM

Baseball's about strategy. But it's more about being really lazy and relaxed. So that's why I like it. You can lay back, watch it with a coke and popcorn, and still think each play through. I'm in the middle of writing up a "basic baseball strategies" page for my homepage, since I get tired of explaining them to non-fans. They're just really basic strategies that most fans know really well already, but that newcomers won't figure out right away (especially because of the sometimes cryptic color commentary).

So I have some things like pitchouts, hit and runs, and pitching low and outside on 0-2. Some think it's boring, but then again I think chess is boring, which Dan likes a lot. Just a different name for different slow types of fun.
posted by Larry at 1:03 AM

well my RAM came in today, finally. i guess i've always known that 64MB was a pathetic amount, but i didn't realize just how bad it really was. I popped in my two sticks of 128's (in addition to my 64), and man, my computer's running like it's on steroids. it's like watching a video except the fastforward button is stuck and there's nothing you can do about it (in this case, it's a good thing). photoshop actually shuts down in less than a minute. of course with my luck i didnt discover the UPS package downstairs til like half an hour before i had to leave for work so i haven't had much of a chance to test it out as much as i wouldve liked to, but so far so good... 64 to 320 MB is quite a jump :)

ok time to stop dreaming and go back to work.
posted by yodaslap at 2:58 PM

i've only been to two baseball games ever, and i can't say it's overly exciting. first time i went with my friend and his dad (when i was in grade school), and the second time i went with my dad last year. i guess it's more about the company you're with. well, Sammy Sosa did hit a homer (not Homer Simpson) that day, so i guess that was pretty neat. i'm not really too into professional sports, so maybe i'm biased. i might be going to another baseball game sometime this summer with Jeff and Rich, the two guys i work with... they're pretty big sports fans. i'm not particularly looking forward to the game itself, but like i said, it's about the ppl you're with.

anyway, almost time for class and i realized i haven't had lunch yet. munch munch.



posted by yodaslap at 3:36 PM

I used to like baseball as a kid. But then I realized just how asininely slow it really is. Ever since they've won back to back World Series, the Jays have been a bore to watch. I mean, Clemens was a great pitcher, and seeing him throw his stuff was awesome, but now it's just stale.

That is not to say that live baseball can't be a hoot. Nothing more fun than getting your friends together, beer in hand and overpriced hotdog in the other, screaming and jeering the opposition. However, I've only been to one game, and it was such a blowout for the Jays, it wasn't exciting.... "Oh look, the Jays scored another run, it's what? 11 to 3?" Joy.

I now prefer to watch basketball over all else. It's instant gratification when they make a bucket. I know it's shallow, but I like my games quick, so even hockey, which I used to adore, can't compete with basketball.

Too bad the Raptors lost by a bucket, but man, what a nail biter.
posted by asiliat at 7:31 PM

Cubs game today! Whee! It's been almost a year, and should be my 5th game ever (I think). Greasy hot dogs and dirty shouting fans, here I come. I love this game.
posted by Larry at 2:23 PM

just for the record, i successfully ordered a drink today at bennigan's, where i got rejected last week. of course it didn't come easy... i handed the waitress my ticket and school ID, and she asked to see a credit card as additional proof of my name (as if i were able to fake a ticket AND a UIUC student ID). she took a pretty long look at the three items too, apparently searching for signs of forgery. oh well, in the end i had my corona, so it's all good. i was also able to get into D&B's with no problems. again, the bouncer kinda took a long look at my ticket and school ID, but hey, at least i got in. i should be grateful, cuz otherwise there would've been three well-over-21 people really upset at me if we all had to go just because i couldn't prove my age. *sigh* the price to pay for looking 17....
posted by yodaslap at 3:28 AM

well, i'm at rwu's room right now, working on some DU stuff. anyway we just got back from dinner at artopolis, and on our way back we see this HUGE rat just sitting there on the ground right by the entrance we were planning on going into. rich, being the bold thug that he is, starts to kick at the ground to scare the rat away. no reaction. so rich takes out the matchbox that he just got at artopolis, and proceeds to light up a match to toss at the rat. since there was a slight breeze, the match went out in midair, and lands just inches away. still no reaction. after a few more failed attempts (from both of us) at soliciting a response from the oversized rodent, rich concludes that the rat was poisoned and is living out its last moments unable to move, and therefore not reacting to anything we're doing. not wanting to be delayed any further by a dying rat, i decide to start heading towards the door, carefully keeping my distance while rich follows behind. we almost make it to the door, and suddenly the rat, aparently very much alive and well, gets up and starts running towards us! needless to say, we both freak out, but then the rat abruptly changes course and runs off into the bushes. moral of the story: none, of course.

ok, i have to go back to work for now. maybe i'll think of a better way to end the story later, or maybe not.
posted by yodaslap at 10:20 PM

I'll have a look again at your site Ivan, next week when I can get a fast connection. Your site is a little much for my 56k. Opinion only, but I don't really like pulldown menus (when I last checked your site, maybe 2 weeks ago?).

Dixie Chicks? Faint. Haha, well it could be much worse. I don't know, Tori Amos or something...

Cubs have lost 7 in a row, and I get to watch them next Tuesday. Yay, lots of fun...

Nothing exciting happened on my birthday, just did more work. I entertained everyone in class today though by making people act out a skit for my presentation on cell movement. They didn't know about it beforehand, so it was worth a bunch of laughs, just the looks on their faces.
posted by Larry at 5:20 PM

you guys are all warped. Larry, congratz on hitting 23. That was such a long time ago for me... I am old.

ol navi: your site rocks, but a little too scatter brained. Try to redesign with a little more cohesive whole. I don't know what that means, maybe I"m saying that there are too many pages to navigate before hitting the stuff you want. For example, trying to get to some of the picture pages take like 3-4 clicks. Not good. Try to limit to a max of 2 jumps. THat's totally my opinion BTW.

I don't know why they took away your DL. Maybe you look like a punk? Or acted like one? Or it's just not your day. The Lo's don't have a history of being "lucky" people IMO. :)

Tool? Why have I heard of them? Shrug. Not my usual genre of music, but then again, neither is Dixie Chicks, and I listen to them. ;)




posted by asiliat at 9:17 AM

dang, i'm like 10 minutes too late, but just wanted to say happy 23rd birthday to Lawrence. booooooooooo!!!
posted by yodaslap at 12:08 AM

so i was at bennigan's with jdeen earlier today, and here is the dialogue we exchanged as we walked in, word for word:

daniello: (jokingly) hey let's live on the edge and sit in the smoking section today
jdeen: heck no! (very brief pause) wanna go sit in the bar?

i proceeded to burst out laughing, but for some reason, he didn't find his comment unusual in any way. oh well.
posted by yodaslap at 2:56 AM

mmm...all this talk of tire squealing and beer has made me hungry. sorry i don't post much...you guys don't always talk about things i can relate to so i've been keeping quiet. all i have to say is...hi. oh yeah, does anyone have any suggestions on how i can improve my ho hum site? its getting boring and is attracting dust
posted by ivan at 10:52 PM

the more appropriate question is "why would they take my DL away when the guy next to me squeals his tires, but i guess that's just another mystery of life. oh well...

time to go fail my stats test soon...
posted by yodaslap at 2:56 PM

I know you guys don't care about Tool, but I've got to say the new album Lateralus rules. Try to give 'em a listen if you hear them come up on the radio (assuming you'd listen to that kind of station anyways). I've got to give the CD a couple more spins before I can be definitive about the songs, but so far I'm only disappointed by the last (joke) track. It's a borrowed recording of some alien/UFO radio thing that they try to pass off as real, but which I'm sure is a hoax. Anyways.

Duh Dan, why would they take your DL away for squealing your tires? It's not exactly a felony... Krispy Kremes doesn't list sites in Illinois, so I'll have to use the old-fashion phone book. Gasp.
posted by Larry at 11:27 AM

oh yeah, forgot to include this. i redeemed myself this past sunday, heh heh. i successfully ordered a corona at chili's with my ticket and old uiuc ID (first attempt was at bennigan's). yeah baby!! the funny thing was, i didn't even particularly want a beer at the time, just wanted to see if it could be done. i guess the key is to be confident about it. dont ask if they would take it, just pull it out and show the waiter (or waitress) as if it were your license. actually, i did that the first time too, and they didnt take it, so i guess it all comes down to the waiter and/or restaurant. well, i'll be getting my DL back somewhat soon, and it's not like i go drinking that much to begin with anyway.

ok, that was somewhat pointless, but then again nothing much has been going on lately. just thought i'd try to keep the blog updated on a somewhat consistent basis.
posted by yodaslap at 2:14 AM

heh heh, you'll have to pardon us newbie blog users. we know not what we do, most of the time.

anyway, since blogger has been down, i wasn't able to document this, but i finally caught the asian prince on AIM this past saturday night, ha ha ha. he was "warned" up to 100%, so he was unable to respond to any of my messages (had he chose to), but i still got a huge kick out of the fact that he was actually online. he also had an interesting away message/profile too. anyway, just thought i'd like you guys know, heh heh.
posted by yodaslap at 6:20 PM

Yay, Blogger hath returned...

I'm heading to a Cubs game this weekend. Looks like we're back in the losing ways again after a great start. Oh well, it couldn't last, could it? Maybe we'll turn things around again. I can't wait for tomorrow, the new Tool album is coming out. Been four long years...
posted by Larry at 3:31 PM

Err... yeah. Nice. That IS what safe mode is for. Thanks for figuring it out amongst yourselves. I can not always be the shepparding force.... you must find your own wisdom and guidance. :)

That's it... too busy.
posted by asiliat at 3:08 PM

ha ha ha ha, man, we are fools! Justin and Lawrence, remember that one time when i messed up on the html and accidentally wiped out the "edit" link and we [initially] couldn't fix it? well, just now i was having a small problem with my personal blog... said "error 210" or something so i clicked the forbidden "help" button to see if i can look up what error 210 was, and in the process i discovered what "safe mode" was for, heh heh. it's specifically designed for cases like that, when some idiot accidentally messes up the html so much that it becomes "uneditable". safe mode displays the posts as just plain text so you can correct it. anyway, yeah, just to let you all know.

incidentally, this entry isn't publishing either, due to the same error. argh!!
posted by yodaslap at 3:00 PM

Eric: actually, i've been entertaining the idea of going up to Canada to visit you, but i wasn't sure if it would be an inconvenience for your little cousin to be tagging along for a couple days or so. i even consulted Justin about whether or not you would mind, ha ha. anyway, chances are i probably can't, since i doubt my parents will be too thrilled about me driving such a long distance, gas prices, blah blah blah blah. maybe after i get a job and my own place...

anyway, i overheard an interesting/funny-ish conversation today while at work. BTW, in case not everyone knows, i work in a sportscard store that my friend freakball's parents own. i just sit in the back in front of a computer and update their online store. i don't actually work behind the counter or anything (i know zilch about pro sports). so anyway, today at work i was sitting at the computer as usual, and a customer who's apparently pretty chummy with Mr. Chou (my friend's dad... duh) walked in and started chatting with him. incidentally, freakball is leaving for China in about, hmmm.... 3 hours from now, and Mr. Chou happened to mention that to the guy. the conversation went something like this:

Mr. Chou: yeah, Jeff is leaving for China tomorrow
the guy: China huh? pauses... revelation comes to him... Oooh... MAINLAND China!

ok, i'm confused.... am i that behind in current events and world affairs? "MAINLAND China" as opposed to... ??? please fill me in. i guess it somewhat reminded me of one of Eric's old blogs ( 3/29/2001, if anyone hasn't read it yet but wants to) about the "'Japanese' comment". different circumstances, of course, but both have some degree of ignorance in common.

hmmm... i better give freekball a call and make sure he's going to the "right" China...

posted by yodaslap at 2:13 AM

Roberta: you're the unluckiest blogger I know... well next to me, but I know better, I save msgs b4 posting.

My new position doesn't allow me to visit much, but I do have 3 wks of holidays. Maybe I'll take 2 days off near a long weekend, and fly down to visit you all. Won't be anytime soon, but at least now it's a posibility. Lord knows I'm not important enuf for you to come here. Besides, there'd be no room anyhow. :)

I'm eating my first chocolate bar in like 6 mnths. Very nasty tasting these. I'm not a man for sweets anymore....


posted by asiliat at 4:21 PM

ha ha ha, right after i posted that, i checked out the site, and they do have location listings, so happy hunting everybody! :)
posted by yodaslap at 5:49 PM

after one bite of a krispy kreme, i doubt anyone will ever settle for dunkin donuts (or any other kind of doughnut) ever again. the ones fresh off the conveyor belt literally melt in your mouth. the one around here just happens to be on the way to and from school, and i eventually had to force myself to stop eating them everyday since it starts to add up and plus i dont want a heart attack before i turn 30. anyway, ill wrap it up in some foil or something to try to preserve the warmth :) well, as for location, you can probably just look on their website. i'm not too familiar with it (the site), so i'm not sure if they have a list of locations or anything.

there are igloos in canada?
posted by yodaslap at 5:45 PM

I'll do some searching to find if there are any Krispy Kremes up here in Evanston. Who's Tim Horton? And there's no luck with nuking anything, I don't have a microwave haha. And I just want to see if online rebates work at all.

Well, if anyone who happens to have read the MST, could you give some comments? I only need (constructive) criticism, because I'm about to send it off to the newsgroup in final form, and I just want some changes.
posted by Larry at 4:43 PM

No luck for me posting yesterday to Blogger...tried twice, zero response both times. So by now Lawrence has already beat me to the explanation of MST3K.
posted by Roberta at 1:55 PM

I've never had a Krispy Kreme either. Legend has it that there's one in Buffalo. However, I am totally unsure if it's true or not. My impression was that it exists, but I could be wrong.

How can a donut store not exist in Canada? Why, Donuts are as natural as igloos and Tim Horton's coffee here! What the heck is going on?? Is there no balance or justice on God's green earth? Blimy!

Fast and Furious looks good. Nice rice-mobiles for sure.... All you riceboys will now wet yourself and have erotic dreams about big, noisy mufflers that actually reduce power output. That and body kits that weight more than the car itself. Oh yeah.
posted by asiliat at 12:49 PM

duh, that makes no sense... just because outpost sends me my rebate check doesn't mean the other sites will too, and the opposite is also true. plus, with the online rebates you would just print out the forms, fill it out, and mail it in just as you would with a rebate form you pick up in a store. neither way would be any more (or less) reliable. well, maybe i'm not as skeptical about these things as i should be, who knows :)

Lawrence, i can't believe you've never had krispy kremes before! we should go there next time you're in town. the only other location i know of is in elk grove village. i'm not sure if you have one up there in the north suburbs. maybe i can bring up a box during mem day weekend or something. well, you should still try them on location since they taste better fresh off the conveyor belt, but i guess nothing a little nuking can't remedy. hee hee.
posted by yodaslap at 12:11 PM

I'm waiting for Dan to get back his first rebate before I try anything on DU. Still, a scanner for 97 cents sounds too good to be true, but I'll try it out if it's legit.

Hey a gwailo who can speak Cantonese? I've got to see this... Le Mans is a pretty big name race isn't it? I have no idea, but I'm sure I've heard the name before. Yeah I'd like to see you race if I ever make it up there, though my schedule doesn't look like it will let me. No more things as spring break, summer vacation, etc. Oh well.

I'm guessing all the times I didn't get carded, I didn't shave. I don't remember. Maybe, though, it's because I was with older-looking people? I forget, it's been quite a while for some reason.

MST stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was a TV show that ran for about 10 years on cable in the US. It was about a guy and two robots who watched bad movies and made jokes about it as they watched. The guy's name was Joel and the robots are Crow and Tom. The show stopped a couple years ago, but people on the internet still take bad stories and do the same thing to them by inserting jokes every couple lines, usually about how bad the story is. The story I MSTed, called Goblin's Folly, I found randomly on the internet. Yeah, you'll want to skip the first 3 pages or so...
posted by Larry at 9:06 PM

well of course we cant be held liable for rebates that dont work. all we do is direct the surfer to deals we think are worth a look (hence, nothing but links on our page). i wouldnt worry about it since most of the links we find take you to pretty big sites such as amazon, outpost, staples, etc.... im sure places like that wont rip you off on a rebate.

as for the minidisc player in particular, thats off a site called cyberrebate. ive bought stuff from there before, and they actually do give you a full rebate. the catch, of course, is it takes a long time, and they can charge many many times the price (for example, i think that minidisc player costs over a $1,000). basically, if you can afford to part with a ridiculous amount of money for about half a year, its yours.

well, i didnt mean that movies can educate you, in the strictest sense of the word... i guess i didn't do a very good job explaining myself. anyway, anyone interested in the new drag racing movie, the fast and the furious? it looks pretty good. who knows what adventures will await us on our drive home :)

well Lawrence, apparently you look much older than us. i've even gotten carded buying cigarettes as recently as a year and a half ago (for my manager at the bank, not for me), and i bet if i were to do so again now, i would get carded again. as for facial hair, ummm... let's just say that idea won't work. at least for now.

babyface... so what, that means i can get along with jr. high girls? GREAT.

posted by yodaslap at 6:28 PM

Wow, this dealuniversity sounds really too good to be true. I don't understand how they can give 100% rebate on mini-disc players? Hmm... sounds a little fishy, IMO. Dan, how long does it take to actually obtain a rebate? And how is it posted "online"? How do I check?

I guess movies can stimulate, but then a lot of the movies are totally bogus too. It's really for entertainment, not education. Although watching a great movie will stimulate thought, as Roberta can attest.

I can't speak for car racing, but as for motorcycles, I can definitely vouch for it being a physical sport. You'd think that the bike does all the work, but in actual fact, the rider is the one who has to wrestle the bike into turns, and fight the G-forces. It really tires you out. After 2-3 15 minute sessions on a track, I was totally pooped. By the end of the day, I was so exhausted, I would see a turn, and then I would just run off the track simply b/c my mental exhaustion couldn't comprehend another turn, and my physical body was too spent to react. I promised myself I'll never go on the track if I'm that tired, every again.

I have a friend from my church (when I used to go weekly), who is several years my senior (maybe close to 10). He is a gwailo who lived in HK and can speak pretty good Cantonese. Anyway, he used to race for Porsche in the Le Mans 24 hrs. He says towards the end of the race (2 - 3 drivers take turn driving) your mind can play tricks on you. You will hallucinate, etc. So it's very dangerous too.

If any of you ever come up and visit me during the summer months, I'll take you to a motorcycle race. It's a blast, seeing professional riders roaring around the track. It's an absolute scream. Highly recommended. So you know... hehe.

Like I said, babyface lets you get away with a lot of stuff, especially with the opposite sex. Har Har. 'Nuff said.

what is this MST3K thing anyway? I read about 5-6 lines of it, I didn't get it.
posted by asiliat at 10:34 AM

MST. You probably want to skip the first page or so, if you haven't seen the show before. They're all show-only jokes. Or just start in on the actual story, where it says G... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6 about 3 pages in.

How about you guys just don't shave, you'll add on 10 years. I don't get carded much anymore, I must look like an old man. Duh, you know, I've still never had any Krispy Kremes, are they good? I've only had Dunkin Donuts. Well, don't stay up too late with DU, Dan, it's not worth your health.
posted by Larry at 7:06 AM

just finished a long night of browsing and posting for dealuniversity... this little project is more time-consuming than i thought. i was hoping to go to bed by 12:30, but the work has kept me up til now :(

well, in addition to "movie-inspired research", another thing i appreciate about movies is that they can also have the ability of taking you deep[er] into subcultures you would otherwise never know about or experience. ok, i guess i'll use driven as an example again. i never really thought much about the sport of racing beyond a bunch of guys driving ridiculously fast cars around the same track 50 times with pit stops inbetween. because of my indifference, i never really bothered to find out more about it, and so i continued to dwell in my ignorance. however, watching driven has opened my eyes to the world of racing a bit more... it showed the less apparent aspects of the sport, such as the drivers' lifestyles both on and off the track as well as a vivid display of the sheer concentration and nerves of steal it must take to successfully AND efficiently manuever a 1000hp monster of a car around a twisty track (ok ok, motorcycles included). that's not to say the movie has turned me into a racing fan overnight, but i must say i have a greater respect for the sport now, and am that much less ignorant about the world.

Eric:
i have still yet to figure out an advantage of having a baby face.
posted by yodaslap at 3:10 AM

hey Larry, can you post a link to your MST3K thing? i can't seem to find it. =P
posted by ivan at 6:55 PM

Disappeared again. Well, I saved it this time, after *not* having saved it the first time. Here it is, cut-and-pasted back in...

Arrgh arrrgh arrgh. Eric said to copy my post after I'd written it, just to be on the safe side, and did I listen? Noooo. Another darn huge post wiped, just like that. I mean, like THAT! Gone! I've had about 30% success rate on this thing. It's going to give me a complex, it is.

Let's see if I can recreate the inspiration...Gonna be a little shorter this time around...

About cops...Huh, maybe that's a point. Keep a stash of Krispy Kremes in your glove compartment at all times. Safer than traceable cash and biodegradable, too. "What bribe?" (munch, munch) "I wasn't trying to bribe the officer!"

Eric, what do you code in? I used to hate programming, up until recently, when I finally got sick of manually running a lot of the routine procedures. The only way to automate them was to write my own tools. They're in shell script, mostly because I based them off of some existing tools, but it was a real rush when they actually worked! So now that I've got a stake in it, I'm thinking maybe coding isn't the Stephen King horror collection that I used to think it was, after all. I'd like to learn some Perl next.

Lawrence suggested re-posting some of my "lost" stuff here, so here goes, although this one has been "lost" so many times that I'm beginning to think my screen has turned into the Bermuda Triangle. Anyway, Daniel commented on movie-inspired research. I love that sort of thing (maybe because it's the only way I can justify my nerdy tendency to become utterly obsessed by certain media things...just kidding...sort of). For instance, last year I was a fan of "Stargate SG-1" for a while (the TV series, not the movie). It's got a great premise and a great cast, but it's also got plot execution so sloppy that I'm embarrassed to call it Science Fiction. But what my short-lived fascination with SG1 left me with was a lingering fascination with ancient Egypt. See, I'd always considered it a huge bore and profoundly not worth my time. But now...well, I'm no expert in it, but I know some basic facts, I can read some simple hieroglyphs, and at the very least I no longer treat one of the world's greatest civilizations as though it were a major yawn. It's quite rewarding. Similarly, my interest in the Monkees (don't laugh) prompted me to go learn the basics of guitar-making and shotguns (don't ask).

Volleyball is the bane of my existence...I can serve *and* hit teammates in the head while doing it. That accomplishment was my crowning glory, no pun intended, back in junior high.

Everybody go read Lawrence's MST3K, if you haven't already.

posted by Roberta at 3:41 PM

Larry:
You read wrong. :) I just went up to coding for a living. They say I'll be like a wicked programmer in about 3 yrs. I don't think that'll happen. I don't know if I'm management material. I'm very perceptive and sensitive, but I'm not good at letting other people do work that I feel I could probably do better myself.
I mean, it would be great if they thought I was going to be a good manager. That's where the stable money is, because you can't code when you're 50. It's just not possible. Your brain isn't quick enough. I'm already having a hard time understanding stuff myself. Oh well.

Dan:
Don't fret it, I wasn't allowed into a casino in Jan/Feb. They swore I didn't look 19. I mean, I know I look young, but 10 yrs younger?? Hehe.

Think of it as luck. It's nice to have a baby face, you can get away with a lot more stuff.

posted by asiliat at 8:57 AM

hello hello

i haven't had the chance to post anything mainly because i havent logged on since friday afternoon. it's been a pretty busy weekend (not entirely in a serious way), and my time at home has been at a bare minimum (basically, if i'm awake, i'm probably out of the house).

anyhoo, my opinion is a really "good" cop (in the strictest sense of the word) would have used some common sense and realize that an old altima and little civic could not possibly move fast enough to qualify as "drag racing". he should've been a good little policeman and head straight to the nearest krispy kreme and pick himself up some nice warm donuts instead of bullying around a couple of little asian boys. i guess it sank in today when i tried to order a bicardi and coke at bennigan's, and they wouldn't accept a ticket and school ID. i guess tickets ARE a little easier to fake than a DL, but that's just ridiculous i think. i say that if someone is desperate enough to go through the trouble of making a fake ticket just to get ahold of some booze, just give it to him... he probably needs it. i suppose it wasn't so much the fact that i couldn't have a drink, but the fact that a ticket and picture ID combination isn't good enough proof of age. plus it's not like i just turned 21 yesterday, but then again looking 17 doesn't really help the situation... oh well.


posted by yodaslap at 1:20 AM

Hey Eric I read your personal blog about work. If they're really looking to promote you, it's not coding they'll be wanting to see you do. They can't afford to lose someone who's really good at coding by promoting him out of the cubicles. Maybe I misread the intentions of your boss(es), but maybe they're thinking about how well you handle your work rather than how you actually do it. Just a guess.

Volleyball is good. I'm decent (meaning I won't get hit in the head and I can serve), but I know nothing about strategy. I'll get a good hit over and my teammates will get mad at me for not setting them up. Who knew?

Well, Roberta, you should type in those things anyways because it's always good to jump-start topics on here. Posts have been dwindling lately...

Nothing new here, I'm in the middle of writing a paper and needed a break.
posted by Larry at 11:47 PM

those cops were nothing tho. If it was a REAL cop, he would have slid to a stop to block you off, opened his door, rolled on the ground, withdraw his service pistol, and take perfect aim, all in one grand move. Of course, if he was a real good cop, it woulda all been done in slow motion too.

volleyball is my thing, I really enjoy it. Unfortunately, the maleness in me forces me to "show off", and as such, during an attempt to add a couple of mph on my serve, I hyperextended my elbow, and now my forearm and biceps hurt like stink. Compounded by the fact that today was my bi/tricep days. And I'll be going rock climbing tomorrow. This on top of the fact I have RSI due to improper use of the mouse for so many years, I think my arm is going to fall off soon. Did I mention I think I'm typing like 120 wpm on the keybrd? Ugh. Actually I don't know how fast I type. Prolly no more than 100 words, still, it's fast enuf that my arms hurt. Even with a MS Natural keyboard. Dang it to heck.

Blogger isn't perfect, sometimes it can get pretty wonky. Truth be told, I don't even know the URL of this page. All I do is read whatever is posted on the bottom, and that's it. For a little bit of safety, right before you click Post&Publish, hit CTRL-A, then CTRL-C. This will highlight all, and copy to clipboard. For extra anal points, open up a text file and save the contents of the clipboard. To pull a "Justin", write in notepad, then cut and paste into blogger. How's that for excrementally challenged??

You know what's sad? It's that I promised this is the summer I'll really learn C and ASM. Unfortunately, this is the summer (so far) that I will have the most stuff to do. Monday/Thursday is softball, Tuesday is beach vball, Wed is indoor vball. And weekends will be riding my bike. It's a wonder I can barely write "Hello World" in ASM. Sigh.

Wish me luck, all the managers think I will excel and become one of the top 10 guys at ATI in 3 yrs. Everyone's saying that about me now..... and I honestly have to say it's not warranted. I'm telling the truth when I say I can't write "Hello world" using proper procedures.... I see being canned in my future.

Where's that McDogs application I've been saving up? Rats.



posted by asiliat at 1:16 AM

...Or maybe I'm *still* not getting this. No sooner do I post another message successfully, than my next one vanishes. And I waited, I did. I'm still waiting.

Had a chance to read some of the older messages...

"Velvet Goldmine"? Huh, yeah, even Ewan "Looks Better With A Goofy Braid Hanging Off The Side Of His Head Than Anyone Has A Right To" McGregor's presence couldn't make me sit through that pretentious bit of celluloid. A few minutes was enough.

Daniel, speed demon! And all along I thought that only Starsky and Hutch could do that swerve-and-cut-off-the-miscreants move with their cars. That'll show me to underestimate the cops...
posted by Roberta at 4:57 PM

Hi all...

Maybe someday I'll get the hang of this thing. Turns out none of my entries have been showing up only because (according to Lawrence, who enlightened me) that I just darn haven't been waiting long enough after I click "publish." Well, you know what they say...our generation has turned into the instant-gratification masses. If I didn't wait long enough, it's only because I'm a product of my generation, yeah?

Anyway, I *meant* to say hi to Ivan, whom I shamefully left out when I posted earlier. Hi! Hi! Didn't mean to forget you...your username threw me, easily-confused new Blogger user that I am.

So I'm now behind on all topics, my dazzlingly illuminating posts on concerts and movie-inspired research having been lost in the ether. Sniffle. Well, don't worry, someday I may inflict them on y'all again.
posted by Roberta at 4:14 PM

thats utterly disgusting...i think its going to give me bad dreams. =(
posted by ivan at 4:05 PM

well, i'm fairly sure the "real" asian prince is actually a guy. i mean, the non-asian [artist formerly known as] prince sort of looks like a girl with excessive facial hair anyway, so i guess anything's possible.
posted by yodaslap at 6:54 PM

haha.,. Asian Prince, too funny. It looks like a girl, and someone just painted a mustache on her-him, errr it.

That made my day, it did. I just couldn't stop laffing.

hehe....

Go Leafs Go!
posted by asiliat at 5:15 PM

here's a response from a friend on AIM :)
[yodaslap is me]

yodaslap: just take a look
mliang74: what da
mliang74: heck are you sending me
mliang74: now that is disgusting
yodaslap: BP sent it to all of us
yodaslap: read the little thing
yodaslap: its hilarious
mliang74: no way
mliang74: i just shut it down

to further prove that i have no life (as if necessary), i even downloaded one of his sound clips. it's the freestyle rap he supposedly recorded when he had a bad hair day (under music section). Ivan: it's on our desktop, called freestyle.wav :)

anyway... had a long day... studied all [early] afternoon, took the dreaded stat test, worked on some audio/video projects with some church friends til 1 in the morning. nothing overly exciting i guess. don't ask why i'm still up.

anyway, Lawrence, i'll call you sometime to discuss about memorial day weekend. duh, are you done with school yet, BTW?

alright, can't take it anymore... going to sleep soon.
posted by yodaslap at 2:56 AM

Wow, I can't decide if it's a real site or not. I'm leaning towards fake, since it's too much like the other "lonely asian date" one, especially with all the cars. But then again... he does have lots of pics of himself. Hmm. Scary either way I think, for all the effort that went into the site. Boo.

OK so I looked again... Wohen Nankan, very funny. Now I have to decide where/how he got the pics, or if it's really a woman with a mustache...
posted by Larry at 7:07 PM

something for you guys to aspire to: asian prince

posted by yodaslap at 12:41 PM

Haha Eric, yeah I usually blame the alcohol too. But I've gotten the same feeling stone cold sober as well. You just have to (subconsciously) look out for those times and realize they're happening, altered state of mind or no. I was biased towards the film because I thought it was a real account (I found out later on the internet it wasn't). If I had known it was mostly fiction before I watched it, the impact may have been less. It was just tantalizing to think that the story happened to someone in real life.

Well Dan, that stuff sounds straight out of a movie. So far my only brush with the law has been parking too long at a meter. Oooo. I'm not doing anything on the 25th, but there's a conference (here at NU) I'll be at on the 24th. Let us know if you're coming down, Justin. And I don't think you have to apologize for swearing, Eric. We're all adults now (aren't we? hmm).
posted by Larry at 3:10 PM

Cudos Dan, you're a law breaker. Fight the power, biatch! (Sorry, a bunch of my friends have taken to calling everything and everybody "biatch" or "snatch". Barbaric behavior I know, but such are my friends.)

Justine, you twit. Umm... yeah. Thanks for posting, we all appreciate and hold on to your every precious word. I really do at least.

Larry, man, you're such a sap. When you felt the love that night, it was the buzz from the alcohol. Take that away, and you'd be bored stiff. There'd probably be a scrap or two. hehe.

I also saw "Almost Famous", and I didn't like it or dislike it. I felt nothing for the movie. I mean, I watched it, and then it was like "Okay, time for bed."

Kate Hudson did NOT deserve a nomination. She over-acted throughout the whole flic. There was not one nuance of subtlety that reflected her "complicated" character. Even when she sang with the band while on the bus, she had to make it look like she was Euphoric. Nope. Didn't do anything for me. Actually, she made me dislike the movie just a bit more.

The kid in the movie (central char) was okay, but it's not hard acting bewildered and shy. Just smile a lot with that glazed look in your eyes. What's his motivation? "Buddy, think about it... you're on camera!! You'll be seen by millions. Can you imagine that you're actually making a real Hollywood movie? Yeah? Okay, go with that...."

I'm not saying it wasn't watchable. The story is interesting and the movie just pulls you along. But 4 stars? Maybe 4 out of 10. Not a very big time-waster, but not very enjoyable either.





posted by asiliat at 10:48 AM

movies.. hmmmm....

earlier this evening, three boys named jdeen, sylin, and daniello had just finished watching a movie called driven, their hearts still pounding from the 250mph racing footage. however, a cruel reality quickly sank in when they walked out into the dark, dismal parking lot only to see their lowly civic and altimas waiting for them. *sigh*.. they thought, as they stepped into their street-legal clunkers, still dreaming about 1000hp engines they had just witnessed less than 10 minutes earlier. daniello pulled out of the parking lot first, followed by sylin, and jdeen. as a resident of a different part of town, jdeen took a separate route home while sylin and daniello continued the rest of the journey together, at a depressing top speed of 40mph. before they knew it, they were stopped side by side at a red light, and the rest is history. sylin rolled down his window and taunted daniello with a sly look on his face while revving his engine. daniello tried to reason that vehicles with automatic transmission such as his own are not suitable for such activities as suggested by sylin's actions, but was quickly overcome by the images of formula 1 cars racing through the streets of chicago that were still fresh in his mind. dropping into neutral, daniello answered with a few mock rev's of his own. *green* went the light, and the race was on! a seasoned veteran of the manual transmission, sylin's altima shot off the line with a monstrous squeal, while daniello's civic silently kept up. being a couple of good law-abiding little boys (for the most part), they both plateaued at a cruising speed of 40mph to refrain from speeding, only to see a police car appear in their rearview mirrors, its lights flashing in all its law-enforcing glory. a moment of panic seized the two boys, but the flashing vehicle proceeded to zoom right past them... and swerved suddenly to a perpendicular stop, cutting them off as well as both lanes of traffic! sylin and daniello quickly slammed on their brakes, and the next thing they knew they were surrounded by 2 squad cars, an undercover police car, and a state trooper. the first police officer stepped out, and after seeing that it was just two little asian boys [deceptively] in their 20's and their unmodified import econoboxes, signaled to the undercover cruiser and state trooper that it was "ok" for them to leave. both sylin and daniello were given citations for "squealing their tires", despite the tell-tale glow of the "P R N D D3 D2" in daniello's vehicle, which should have served as a clear indication that such a feat was not possible. although each were left with a little piece of yellow paper that replaced their DL's and short $75 a piece now, the two boys felt a strange sense of triumph... their cars were indeed "fast", and worthy of the formula 1 spirit! with mixed feelings of pride and guilt, they drove home while discussing via phone how they would go about paying for the non-moving violation tickets they had just received. oh the stories that could be told!


posted by yodaslap at 2:59 AM

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. A couple of us here watched some movies last Saturday, and I wanted to tell you about them. The first was called Velvet Goldmine, and it's about a David-Bowie-like character's life. DO NOT EVER WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!! Okay, I got that out of my system. Everyone is a cross-dressing 70s stereotype and there's nothing that isn't about sex or drugs. For some movies, this is a good thing, but in this case everyone's ugly and the whole thing is so painfully self-important. Everyone t a l k s l i k e t h i s. If they spoke at a normal pace, they could have chopped 30 mins off the movie. Plus, I hate David Bowie.

Okay, well the second movie was Almost Famous, and I give it four stars. The acting was great, especially the kid (the main character). As he sat with the band he was interviewing, in their tour bus, having a good time, he really seems genuinely happy. As if he knows that when he looks back (it's based on Cameron Crowe's life, but I don't know how accurate it is), he'll know that was a great time in his life. I've had a couple times like that, where you just don't want things to end. Like this one time this year when I went back to U of Chicago to see my friends, and we just hung out all night in one guy's dorm room drinking and joking. I really wanted that night to last forever because at that moment our friendship seemed eternal. You've really got to appreciate times like that.
posted by Larry at 12:40 AM