hornyHamster's Blog

Discovery of Laser

2006-03-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

The following takes place between 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM.

10:01 AM
The weather ees so fine ... not really. It's started raining early morning, and if this is an indication of how the day is going to be, then I can say with confidence that this lecture series that I am attending is nothing short of another wasted hour. I walk towards MP, head down, and counting the number of puddles on the sidewalk.. I lost count after 3.

10:10 AM
I see a friend waiting for the elevator to arrive. I call him and ask the proverbial greeting of fourth year undergraduate, "Heard any good news?" or "Have you decided? Standford or MIT?" or "Have you started writing your thesis?". The answer, most of the times, is not. We go up to 4th floor, wait for a couple of minutes while continuing our idle chats, only to find that we missed a notice about room change. The bastard (I think by now my loyal readers should know whom I'm referring to) didnt tell us!!!

10:15 AM
In my 4 years of undergrad, LM holds many bad memories. And today is another addition to the pile. The speaker, an old professor from the separatist province, read a book once about the history of laser, and decided that it was a good material for his last lecture during his visit to our famous campus. He promises that this lecture will be full of thrill and mystery like a blockbuster movie. I hope he doesnt mean brokeback mountain, because we dont have lubricants handy with us, or good night and good luck, because we see in color. I suppose the chemistry store in the basement may have a replacement.

10:30 AM
The lecture is really boring. He starts from the early 19th century. And it's hard to concentrate because of his french accent and the silent 'h' treatment, which keeps reminding me of steve martin in pink panther, and miniPO. "ee was black listed from the patent", "ees paper wasnt accepted", and so on.

11:00 AM
I wake up from my stupor, only to find that he has reached the late 50s. Thank god that he means to deliver his speech only up till the 60s, when laser became a household tool. I'm quite proud when my AS&M prof's name is up in the Canadian contribution slide. He sure has contributed a good portion to the discovery of laser, and the discovery of my hate towards old profs.

11:29 AM
The lecture ends. We collect our quantum structure homeworks, another couple of perfects for me, adding to the pair of hundreds (midterm and quiz) for condensed matter.

11:30AM

Stuck in SF

2006-02-14T15:35:00.000-05:00

Fuck I'm stuck in SF reading match commentary of Arsenal-Liverpool... And the match sounds, or.. reads really exciting... I've turned into Yaser with his late night cricket party, if you can call it as such. Jens just saved a penalty... Never in my life I expect a written paragraph to be as exciting as what I'm reading right now... This is truly magical. Arsenal is not playing very well, which is what I gather from reading this slowpoke 1 HP lazy man text commentary... I have never clicked on the refresh button as many times per minute as what I'm doing now... I'm in a dreadful state... just had a condensed matter quiz, which is not as bad as what one usually expect of Kee's exam. I heard many horrible tales from the physics student about this particular prof. The commentator just wrote a factoid, Arsenal has scored only nine in twelve away matches. I dont like that, that's 3/4 or 75%. That'll lower down my GPA. What am I talking about... somebody call a doctor! I don't need no doctor!!! LOL, the commentator is really funny. The grass is green and innocent. Don't blame miscontrol on the lovely pitch. There's about 12 minutes left before my next match, I mean lecture, and the course that will have the pleasure of my attendance is mse550. I cant say much about this lecture... FUCK what is wrong with the backspace on this keyboard, you have to press it right at the centre of the key to depress it... It's not DELL's keyboard, the CPU is DELL, but the keyboard is BELKIN... IT IS SHIT!

Wrappers

2006-02-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

I can't quite wrap my fingers around why the university assigns incompetent teachers one after another for important, fundamental courses. In first year, it was Mrs. Giant; granted I skipped most of her dull classes and thus my accusation may be unfounded; but letting an anti-science devotee teaching a class of engineering students is not something that the university should be proud of. Then the NSci chair came in second year, to teach the infamous thermodynamics, tied in position for the worst of the year with the fatty acid donut loving bio prof. Note to self, I must look for that viagra commercial that had an actor who looks not unlike my bio prof. Dick face shared the award for the most useless lecturer with egg head, although my current quantum prof, discussed in more detail later, could easily steal the award were it not for the mark that both dick and egg gave me.

SO after three years of yearning for a 'good' teacher, after all the lows I'll gladly take an 'okay' prof any time. But in came a chinese prof, you've all heard of my distaste of asian profs, in our quantum course. And oh boy, if you've ever wondered what an Indian teaching Mandarin to Uzbekistanis would sound like, you can come to room 219 for up close and personal viewing of the 769th wonder of the world. The relationship between students and professors arent as bad as students and tas, because despite their degree in bachelors, the inequality is not well defined; it's more like a squiggly line than a less than. They are still easily caught speechless when we ask out of the book questions, they wear jeans and sneakers, and they chew gum. The difference lies in the amount of swear words students say aloud and proudly in open spaces. However, the relation between student and profs is more akin to eating a sandwich/toast/sub/pita. We choose our courses as carefully as we choose our toppings. We make sure that none of the ingredients doesnt suit our taste buds, just as we checked the course description and syllabus for any mention of the word project. So a good, excellent profs in this dogma, is like a sandwich wrapper made of zip lock. You get what you paid for, your fingers are comfortably wrapped around the sandwich, preventing any sauce or small pieces of onions or green peppers to fall out, the wrapper is folded neatly so that you can kind of peel of the wrap to expose more sandwich for eating, instead of picking dropped toppings from the table into your mouth with the expectation that the flavour will combine as if nothing happened, no extra cleaning liquid aroma. But a terrible prof, like the quantum one, is like having a sandwich wrapped with a toilet paper. You dont know if he's come from a decent background. The sauce, the meat of the knowledge pours out of the wrapper. All you hear is mumbling, isolated phrases here and there that mean absolutely nothing. You look around, hoping to see your classmate having the same difficulty eating the meal. Some of them smiled knowingly, some are full of adrenaline, as if ready to pounce on the person standing in front of the class.

I got nothing else to write... it a quarter to midnight, and I better sleep.

No email/phonecall/letter as of ...

2006-02-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

And so the waiting period has begun. All the letters, transcipts of demise, and nitty gritty details of the application were sorted out. Oddly, no complaints from Defoe about not having time to write, or copy and paste rather, more than 4 letters. He's done 5 so far, and when pushed, I'm certain that he'll write me one more. Confirmation emails have been piling up in my inbox, alongside numerous nano club emails announcing the start of world war iii, and top ten guide to surviving the nuclear armageddon that will surely end the war. Seriously, five emails in the space of a week, regarding the same thing, is a bit of an overkill in my taste.

I wasnt prepared for this waiting period. I didnt really expect any admission from the US unis, or if I had any expectation, then it was overshadowed by the excitement over the letter-hunting until the point where it no longer exists. But the news that one of our classmates got an email from NWU about visiting the campus on March, my hope resurfaced. One of us, yeah, I'd like to treat all nanos as equal, except for certain individuals who are too much of an assfuck to be called a nano engineer or human for that matter, from now on, because it gives me some confidence. But as of 7.58pm est, no contact.

By the way, those taking 550, have you guys noticed that the instructor loves, to the point of addiction, writing sub-section. It's normal to see chapter 2.2 --insert title here--, but it's abnormal to write 2.2.2, and worse, I think when you have 2.2.2.2 in your notes, it's a sign from the creator above and below that your time is up. Your brain is officially and theologically fucked up.

Retards

2006-01-22T23:33:00.000-05:00

There comes a point in a man's life where he wonders if he'll ever see anything more idiotic than what he's seeing now, and that point appeared to me at 11:30 pm Sunday night, after watching Grey's Anatomy, when I was filling in the graduate application to the Electrical Engineering Department in University of Toronto. I was reading the requirements for enrolling in the master program, when a line caught my attention, it was about transcript. I thought to myself, humm, as a UofT student, surely they won't ask me to pay 10 bucks just to print my transcript, put it in an envelope, seal and stamp, send the envelope to the UofT mailing system, wait for a couple of days before it is sent to the electrical department, which is right across the road. What a fucking waste of money!!! I hate these cunts!! FUCK!!! Shit, I paid 7 grand for this crap, the MP washrooms still have two fucking taps, one hot and one cold. This is my last year of undergrad, and I still havent seen anything impressive in the campus, save for one massive rock that looks like a titan's testicle outside Galbraith. To top it all off, the application also asks detailed information about the PERSON responsible for my transcript. What the hell am I suppose to put?

Name: Sidney Smith
Address: Sidney Smith
Telephone: (416) 773-8258
Email: utoronto.ca@utoronto.ca? I tell you who's responsible for my transcript, yeah those profs who made life miserable because their lives are miserable and they want you to have a taste of it. It's your turn to have a taste of my crap, here's a 70% grade feces, signed, sealed, and delivered.

Book Cover

2006-01-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

Some people say don't judge a book by its cover, and I say judge a professor by his/her group website. When looking for research groups in US universities I subconsciously taught myself to drag the mouse to the upper left corner of the browser and click. As a proof, I can now go back to the previous page without looking at the arrow symbol... oh, Firefox just poped up a warning that there unsaved changes on the current page. None of that fancy mouse action needed anymore. Anyway, a lot of group websites are frankly speaking, full of bulltestis. You can tell if a prof is more concerned about his image than his research. The main page would consist of either: his full body image, staring into nothing, as if an opponent is bound to appear from nothingness to attack him, he is ready to face this challenge with his stare (see Lieutenant Robert's page for proof); or his close-up portrait, revealing all his humongous pores and blackheads, with an exotic look that is meant to hypnotize you into thinking that he is concerned about you, the future generation, the hope of all mankind, but instead in reality he is hoping for a talent agent to stumble upon his picture and brought him to recognition, in Hollywood no less, from his sad life as a prof. They spent more time designing their websites than looking after the grad students, or spending money to hire a web designer when the lab needed a new mass-spectrometer. Sadly these wannabe's are the ones that are somewhat popular, but if your inspiration is a belly dancer named Greta, I doubt I can describe you in any other words than cunt.

ARRRGGGHHH

2006-01-15T20:01:00.000-05:00

AAAA Bullffuck!!! Pussy football delaying 24 premier!!!

Seven Nil

2006-01-15T19:17:00.000-05:00

Aaahh, what a great weekend. Due to two factors, actually; one being the make poverty history event that my friend organized. It's for a good cause for sure, but undoubtedly, the highlights of the night were the blunders and fuck-ups by the performers, one of them the particle physicist 68'er. Somehow, he and the Argentinian maestro stopped half-way through their song, proceded to start a staring contest, and mouthed curse words, both in French and Spanish I presume, at each other. And if you thought they would learn from their mistakes, being engineers and all, then you thought wrong, because it happened twice. I expect better performance by mr. sixtyeight in Nocturne, with painted nails, wearing leather jacket and badminton shorts no less.

The other, the 7-0 drubbing of M'Boro by Arsenal. 4-0 in the first half, Henry's hattrick and a bunch of skills and flair shown when we were 7-0 up was glorious. Great performance all over the pitch. Ashley Cole is back, we signed a couple of players, plus Manu lost.

20 minutes from now, Jack is going to save the world again. I've waited for so long...

Christmas Movies

2005-12-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

The Holidays season can be characterized by these few phrases; lotsa gifts, healthy meal, no school, and atrocious tv schedules. So I thought it is proper to review some Christmas themed movies that I've recently viewed again, most notably on TBS, the king of all reruns.

Let's start with Die Hard, Die Harder, and Die Hard wif a Vengeance. Now this is what I'm talking about. An essential trilogy for those whose Yew Near resolution is to join the rifle or pistol club in their college; or kick some heavy accented foreigners in their astronomy classes; or stuff a terrorist's mouth with a mistletoe and let them kiss the butt of your shotgun before before you pummel them with some mixture of 90% Guinier-Preston zoned lead; or those who simply prefer saying yipikayeee madafaka!! than shit wanker fuckadoodledoo!! Great movie for undergraduates who're waiting for their ass profs to submit their letters of recommendation. Die Hard is one of those series that doesnt get boring even after multiple viewings. You know he's going to blow up that plane in number 2, leaving trail of fire for a makeshift landing strip, but it's still cool to watch. And notice the bad guy from the first one, Hans, is Snape from Harry Potter!!

Moving on to a family friendly movie, the Grinch. Now, I've never been a fan of these flashy kids movies, and the Grinch wasnt about to change my position. I can't stand the music, the set, everything about this movie smells dog poo on a third world country sewer with tadpoles making triangular swimming patterns. The movie is just overacted. Everthing is over the top, there's too much color, and fuck I dont understand the plot. Probably the worst movie I've ever seen.

A good family Christmas movie are the two Home Alones. Now these are class. These are like bottles of French wine made by Napoleon himself, with his barefoot, while he's naked, pissing on the grapes. You know it's bad influence for the young kids, what with the traps, massive head traumas, sore arses, and decapitations.. wait, there's no decapitations in Home Alone... but you love it anyway.

There's no Christmas without love, so Love Actually has to be on the list. The thing I like about this movie is, besides Keira and Hugh Grant, how they managed to hold together six or so different stories in two hours, each of them still beautiful in their own way. Who can forget the odd porn couple, and the unrequited love, and the boy's love story, and Frissel the sex god. To top it off, guess what, there's Snape again! As the adulterous boss! It's like he's a wizard!

For the perverts, the movies above may not be of your standard, so titles such as "Who wants to jingle Santa's balls" or "Tits the season to be horny" are more suitable for your private viewings.

Merry Christmas!!!

Wooohh!!

2005-12-16T11:46:00.000-05:00

Oh man, I've never been as excited as I am today after finding out the draw for CL 2nd round. Arsenal's going to kick some Madrid ass!!! What a dream match-up!! Plus, Barca is meeting Chelsea... AGAIN!! And Milan is facing Munich... Oh man, oh man. With this much excitement, I don't know if I can finish my exam without jumping up and down, summersaulting, cartwheeling around the class roo. There's going to be some guinea pig massacres for sacrificial offerings to the gods for Arsenal victories.

There's apparently a new scoring system in effect in the Badminton World Cup in China, I'm going to watch the semifinal tonight to see how it goes. Reportedly, the scoring is similar to another more popular racket sport that allows the birdie, or ball, to bounce once or something like that. I think they call it tennis or some sort. Anyway, so whoever wins the rally, score a point. It's up to 21 instead of the usual 15. I think there was a different scoring change some years ago that didnt work. I'm pretty sure this one wont work either. If this is their way to promote the sport, ie. simpler scoring system that mere mortals can understand (does scoring a point only if you're serving really that difficult to understand?), then they're on the wrong path. Maybe the women should start moaning while doing drop shots.

Well.. I'm off to the washroom to electroless-deposit some massive crap.

2 down

2005-12-09T19:53:00.000-05:00

Ah, you PEY'ers must miss that feeling you get when you fucked up your first two exams. Yeah, I had that feeling yesterday, it's like being tied on a chair in front of a IMAX screen showing History of Violence, no food, no drink, just History of Violence. Today was different though, with my next enemy a week away, I watched Scrubs, continuing where I left 2 months ago. Somehow, Aditya missed episodes 15-18 and 20. So the last thing I saw was Ginger hooking up with Barbie, and in episode 19, they've broken up. I think it's time to visit the campus network and leech off the terra byte sharers.

(Sing this in the tune of noel noel)
Go.. nano
Go.. nano
Ohh.. nano
Ohh.. nano

You can't spell nano
Without a ho.

The Dialogue

2005-12-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

Not everyone has the opportunity to converse with one of the world's greatest minds, Plato. Born as Aristocles, Plato, or Aristocles, changed his name to Plato, not unlike many great screen actors who changed their name because they sound sissy; like Charles Bronson (Charles Buchinsky). But in that fateful evening of December the 4th, 2005, we met each other, Plato and I, not Charles Bronson, in a cafe, and conversed about the meaning of life, death, and ultimately, TV. Surprisingly, Plato was up-to-date with current TV series, owing to his obsession with Greek theatres in his youth days; the Greek women of his age, he claimed, was more voluptuous than the actresses these days, which is a let down. But it didnt deter him from watching TV, which is a fresh change from smelly, sweaty theatres in Greek town of Athens, he explained. Here on, is a record of our dialogues...

KD: Plato my dear friend, are you still following those TV series? Most of them are approaching their fall finales. I expect a lot of cliffhangers, and dissapointment from the fans. I, myself, was thoroughly satisfied with the way Prison Break was ended. Mondays couldnt've been better!

P: Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools because they have to say something.

KD: Wha? Are you saying I talk too much?

P: ...

KD: Alright then, not much of a talker are you, more thinking eh? So what are your thoughts on the two comedies My Name Is Earl and The Office? I'm starting to believe in this karma stuff. And working in a paper company is certainly depressing.

P: That is exactly what I said to Aristotle yesterday: "apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation."

KD: Spot on there, you really are a great philosopher, Plato. And what of LOST? The series kills main characters without a flinch. Surely, with this rate, they can't go on for 15 seasons.

P: Well, No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Death is not the worst that can happen to men. But, must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?

KD: Cryptic, but true. By the way, Grey's Anatomy is taking over ER in my list of medical dramas. It's combination of drama, humor, and human values in general is a catalyst to its success, me thinks.

P: You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters.

KD: I see. (The new John Mayer song, Gravity, starts playing ...).

P: Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

KD: Wow, I didnt know you're a music lover yourself, Plato.

P: Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

KD: Sure... Well, I must be going right now. A complex calculus exam awaits on Tuesday.

P: I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

KD: Mmm.. Thank you.

P: My pleasure.

The Simpsons know material science!

2005-12-04T20:16:00.000-05:00

Another quickie! Just watched an episode of Simpsons, a repeat actually, where there is a new stamp museum in Springfield. An guess who's in the stamp museum, besides the pictures of Graham Bell, who promptly says "look at the patent number, bitch!" to Elisha Gray besides him, it's Katherine Blodgett of the famous Langmuir-Blodgett film! To PEY'rs Langmuir-Blodgett film is a film of atomic thickness, or thinness, that ... hmm.. cant really remember.. I think it has something to do with a moving platform, and submonolayer breakdown, and a monkey riding a unicycle. I wonder why the details escaped my mind... OH yeah, the course sucks!!

Stupid ROSI System

2005-11-29T21:24:00.000-05:00

Those who are UofT undergrads must've at some point in their 4 depressing year visited the almighty Student Web Service, the guardian of your records, your amount of unpaid tuition, your schedules, and most importantly, your transcripts. When you were first introduced to ROSI, you think.. wow, no more flimsy report cards, no more going to the student advisor asking for class change because the teacher sucked or because you want to have your spare at the end of the school, not in the middle of the day, or because you simply realized that fuck I don't need Creative Writing Class to be an engineer! So you enjoyed the service provided by ROSI, although you couldnt stand looking at the mascot in the main page. I still cant figure out what the hell he's supposed to be, he looks like an egg with ponytail. But then the day came when you need to order 6-10 transcripts for grad application. You think with ROSI, everything should be simple. BUT NO!!!! The stupid system doesnt allow you to input more than 40 chars per line in the add. line. The limit, he insists, is 5 lines with 40 chars per line. What the hell, am I suppose to shorten the admission director's name? The department's name? I dont know about you, but my friend, a physicist in the making, and I argued for 5-10 minutes about the number of chars in "The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences". We concluded that it has EXACTLY 40 chars (quotes uncounted), with two techniques; one by putting the cursor at the end or beginning of the phrase, and move to the beginning or end of the phrase, while counting by heart; and the other by counting the number of chars per word, and add the white spaces, without any error bars. Still, ROSI refused to take the address!!! So I ended putting "&" instead of "and". Retarded I say, fucking retarded.

Wax on, wax off

2005-11-26T00:09:00.000-05:00

Just want to say goodbye to Mr. Miyagi. Karate Kid was probably my favourite martial arts movie. Rest in Peace.

Anyway, the GreenGoblin is a jerk, more like an ass, since he doesnt want to fill in more than 3 reference forms. I mean, it's basically copy and paste isn't it? Sure there are some evaluation forms, but those are short ones. Why in Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and Jupiter's fucking names can he not copy and paste 6 fucking times!! WHY!!! And his reply was really short and cold, "Pick three universities -- don't have time for more." What the fucking donkey's testicle is he busy for? Preparing for the next Halloween costume? Fuck, he can just come as a Willem Defoe.

My proposed MSE lab title ... a quickie

2005-11-24T19:27:00.000-05:00

Bio-inspired Nanostructure Derived from Sphecidae Wasp: An Incoherent Theoretical Simulation Model Based on Oscillatory Metastable Jones' Criteria

Yeah, it's another bullshit lab where we have to identify a nanostructure on an insect and speculate what its function is. Then make up some feasible manufacturing method.

On another note, Prison Break next week is its fall finale... I heard there will be no new episode until next MAY?! FOX is getting more and more mental each week, first KC, then PB.

When two become one

2005-11-22T17:45:00.000-05:00

Have you any idea how difficult it is to write in one language while conversing in another AT THE SAME TIME? Yeah, trust me no easy task. This happened a while ago when PO found me in SF lab, chatting, and he promptly ranted about his GR prof, QM2 course, and the ridiculously easy GT math course. I mean, it's almost impossible to understand a physicist talking about tensor and Korean profs even when you're concentrating at him, let alone listening to that inarticulate oration while giving hints to your friend who's about to take the damn GRE test in Indonesian. Imagine that... I'm sure you can't.

And one more thing, I am going to trademark the alternate essay writing technique, whereby you open two documents, in my case, it was a music essay on Mozart's Eine Kleine Calvine Kleine Nachtmusik movement #3 and a Statement of Purpose for graduate school, and procede to write both of them, alternately. The two essays preferably are from different fields, that is, no essays on "Plastic Electronics: Spastic or Not?" and "MSE459 Lab Report: Electrodeposition -- Why are We Studying Old Techniques of Metal Plating When I Chose Nanotechnology". Rather, something like "The Nous of Platonism and Aristotlism in Modern Society" and "MSE459 Lab Report: Electrodeposition -- Do It Yourself -- A Guide to Ancient Electrodeposition Technique Apparently Useful for Modern, Intelligent, even Genius Nanotechnology Student -- Why Bother Studying Nanotechnology When You Can Grind Powder Long Enough to Make Nanoparticles". Wonderful ideas will flow and tunnel from one essay to another, and what you get is a hybrid, a mutant, like a gryffin. Mmmm.. Gryffindor...

Anyway, just a heads up to y'all 0T6PEY'ers, take your GRE sooner than later...

Cancelled Series

2005-11-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

There was once a series called Firefly, then the morons from Fox cancelled the series. History has repeated itself when I checked the tv schedule today, expecting a fresh new episode of Kitchen Confidential, yes I'm very interested in cooking, maybe I should've gone to a cooking school and become a chef, rather than this stupid thing they call engineering science, it's overrated you know, promotes diversity of knowledge my ass, the only diversity we got is mark distribution. Anyway, so the series got cancelled, and I'm so pissed right now because KC one of the two new comedies that is actually good, the other one being MNIE. I mean compared to other new comedies, this show is way better, AND there is no fake laugh tracks. Fuck balls.

Anyway, has anyone notice that the new Smallville opening scene is cheesey beyond the cheesy level permitted in tv. The actors are doing that looking over shoulder thing like runway models. TV series should just copy Lost opening scene.. oh wait.. they already did (Invasion and Surface)...

Labs

2005-10-27T17:56:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to have your material science lab turned into another practice lecture from a TA, who somehow assumes that we know his signature sign language (I'm an expert in sign language, 5 of them in fact, Italian, Chinese, English, Javanese and Physics sign languages, but this TA is out of this world. I swear he was combining Egyptian hieroglyphics sign language, with the handwaving technique made famous by many physicist around the globe), and another to have a TA who parades his hairy belly button while he's doing arm gymnastics trying to explain the relation between the width of a spectrum peak and the size of crystal. It was very odd, his shirt was tucked all around, mimicing the fashion statement of my friend PO, but the very front of it somehow came out short. Our German prof must be very lazy not to design a lab that has some lab experience in it, instead of a lab that consists of handouts, printouts, and bellybuttons.

Tomorrow, I have another lab, optics this time. This one is going to be interesting, and since I'm pretty much guaranteed an 85% in this course after I fucking nailed the midterm right on the crucifix, I'll take it easy... Other people didnt do so well, and I'm guessing this is because they are ECE students... Okay, the prof isn't that good, but face it, all Chinese, or Oriental in general, can't teach, even if they're fluent in English. We are not built to teach. We can learn, and leech, and copy your product, make it better, sell it cheaper, and get huge profit. But we can't teach.

Consider...

2005-10-17T13:27:00.000-04:00

not taking MSE459, or any other material science course, because if summarizing abstract, plucking out figures, photocopying diagrams, copying formulas, making reference to Reed-Hill book and material science journals, and favouring material science students over the obviously more intellegent nano students, are what it takes to be a professor in UofT, then you all have the honor of calling me professor emeritus. Fuck, call the janitor in SF an assistant professor.

applying to Microsoft, because apparently, it is the fastest way to distribute your resumes, as noted by the email sent to us indicating that a bunch of resumes were stolen on their way to Microsoft secret headquarter. I guess using Internet Explorer isn't the only way to get your personal information stolen due to Microsoft's lack of security. I'm hoping the culprit is from Google, or Sony, or IBM, or maybe MIT's chair of graduate school.

sending your Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Engineering Science or Software Engineering resumes to Microsoft, because you'll get a chance to win an XBOX360. I must say that it is a good offer. One question though, does it come premodded?

What's in a Name

2005-10-06T18:04:00.000-04:00

I reckon I have the responsibility to update my blog once a week or so, especially when spectacularly funny or odd news are circulating. So here goes. I love this band Coldplay and everything they do, like charity, no drugs, and free trade and all that neat stuff with the finger painting, except the vegetarian policy of course, because I looove meat. But when the lead singer names his daughter "Apple", man, that's just out of this world crazy. I mean, is it that hard to find a name for your kids? I cant imagine how traumatic that kid's high school experience is going to be. But that's not all mate, Jason Lee's son is "Pilot Inspektor". That's right, it's not a typo, it's inspector with a freaking K . I thought he was acting in "My Name is Earl". Maybe it is a biography after all. And you think it would stop right there, with the media criticizing the perposterous names and the human activists claiming child abuse. Just this week, superman is born, "Kal-El Coppola Cage". This is just crazy, and I thought I had a problem when I was little jumping from my bed pretending to be Goggle V (google it if you dont recognize the name). Next thing you see, it's going to be "Complex Variable Spears", or "Guinness Beer Lohan", the possibilities are endless.

There has to be an explanation to this chaos. And I shall offer one, it may not be the correct one, but it is logical, and the facts are out there, you be the judge. This disease is called FONFS, pronounced fnd-fs, which stands for Funny and Odd Name Fetish Syndrom. It is caused primarily by the abundance of normal, common, harmless western name being attached to porn stars. You don't want your kids named after porn stars, what if he happens to be one of those inflicted by another disease I call GYA, which stands for Googling Yourself Addiction. There's a good chance he/she might catch the flick that he/she starred in. Now that's worth paying 100 bucks for a family psychiatrist. There's only one possible solution, in my professional opinion as the founder of FONFS institute, and that is to adopt asian names into the western culture. Eh, Cap Sam Bong sounds good now doesnt it?

Who's Bright Idea Was It To ...

2005-10-01T19:20:00.000-04:00

watch the most boring, mind-bogglingly dull, yet high rated, movie called History of Violence? There were 4 or 5 fight scenes, most, if not all, lasted 30 seconds, in between a whole bunch of dialogues, crying, sex, more dialogues, more crying, more sex, and more crying. I can summarize this movie as such: Tom Stall, or Joey Tribbiani .. Joey Cusak, or Tom Stall had sex with his wife in a cheeleader uniform, scene was cut right before they went 69. Tom killed two guys. A bunch of mafia boys tried to bring him back to his old self. But Tom doesnt want no more Joey in his life. Tom had sex again with his wife, if you can call that making love, it's more like rape. Tom killed three guys now. Turns out his bro wants him dead. Tom had enough and becomes Joey again, Joey killed his brother. Joey's brother's brain matter splattered on the sidewalk. Joey goes back home and eat some mashed potatoes, while thinking about his brother's brain matter that is laying on the sidewalk in Philly or somewhere. Why I saw this movie? SERENITY, which is AWESOME I saw it today, was sold out for the next three viewings, and we were stuck in downtown wanting to watch something. And somebody, I'm not naming names here, persuaded us to watch HoV with him because no one else wanted to watch that god damned shitty movie. At least in Into the Blue, a blue bikinied Jessica Alba would leave a longer lasting impression. And to those arguing that The Blair Witch Project was a masterpice, go fuck yourself under a lamp post. I could film those squirrels in my backyard and still be better.
bomb Bali again... oh wait I know the answer to this... those fucking Muslim extremist!! What the fuck man... stop with the bombing... go watch America's Top Model or Martha Stewart. And my uncle and his family is in Bali, and we cant reach him now. This is fucked up.

Workshop

2005-09-22T19:15:00.000-04:00

I decided to browse through the NSERC website to find out what kind of averages they seek, forms to fill, shit to present, and stuff, and guess what I found. The exact duplicate of the "workshop" presentation that I attended yesterday. That "workshop" was pratically a read-aloud, sing-along, hear me rant kind of thing, and she was no J.K. Rowling for sure. Anyway, A- average in all your last two years of studies. That about does it for me. 76 last semester because of those useless courses. Janitorial college is sounding good right about now. And what the fuck, they are asking for summary of your project proposal, 12 months prior to your graduate studies, well guess what, sons of bitches, I cant even decide what course to take!!!!

Funny, "IQ, personality ... determine your future"... hmmm I always thought that eng sci syllabus determines my future, I meant ruined my future. On the back, it has a weird graph, showing characters vs IQ plot.

Timetable

2005-09-22T17:55:00.000-04:00

Here's my timetable, in case some of you want to stalk outside, say, BA1190, and maybe take pictures of me and shit, it might be worth a lot when I become the first one to jump off BA atrium after a tutorial or something...

As you can see hopefully by now, if not, then click the above link, it's not what you expected from an eng sci. My Thursday, for example, is free of Ozin I'm-so-fucking-rich-I-have-a-gold-coated-optical-microscope lecture from 4 to 6, instead, a major - and when I say major, it's life threatening stuff, not something like the discovery of an undetectable particle stuff - conflict in the hour of 8 to 9 pm. I'm speaking of the airing of two series simultaneously, in different channels of course, Alias and The O.C.

Speaking of series, next week marks the beginning of a series of workshops that will supposedly help us fill in scholarship forms that we are most definitely not qualified academically, resumes to companies that will most definitely not hire us for our lack of experience, and preparation to interviews that we will most definitely not get. I bet our eng sci administrator never went to any of these so called workshop. I think she got the position through some other means. S3xual m3ans... mmm 3... prime number...

In other news, some German beer company declared that they will donate 10 kL of beer to the fans of the team who beat Bayern first this year, they are unbeaten so far this season, and their streak stretches to the end of last season. I got nothing to say about this, just thought it was funny.

Timetable CONFLIX

2005-09-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

I hereby declare war with the administration in the engsci department. Our humanities course is not approved, despite our constant bickering, our backup humanties course is cancelled, despite the number of people interested in it and the fact that it is offered once in three years, you can't back out of something that you have promised three years ago, imagine the number of people who would be dissapointed, I mean Haley comet did come across once in 76 years without fail, yes I had to look the number in the web since the first course that is not approved is about astronomy, which is one of the reasons why I am interested, the fact that I don't know anything about constellation and stuff; our replacement backup humanities course is, you guessed it, not approved. It's not like we didn't argue our case strong enough, despite her attempts to distract us with her pair of assets, which she duly covered during a meeting with a professor. Anyway, we're left with DTS, no not Digital Transient System, nor Donkey Testicle Soup, but worse, it is Diaspora Transinternational Studies. Go nuts with google on that one.

And that's just the beginning of course selection, or the end, rather. I'm also deciding between Modern Optics, Fundamental of Optics, or Solid State Chemistry. A couple of other courses are already left out thanks to a rapid fire, british accented donkey on fire, and a nervous, flustered korean lady. Between the three, modern optics is the best in terms of teaching, but the most difficult in terms of topics. The problem is that I dont have enough waves background, and for that, I thank Jellinek. That fucker fucked us over. Anyway, SSChem, no not Super Saiyan Chemistry you nerd, is coming up tomorrow, 4-6 pm, taught by none other than the I-have-gold-coated-optical-microscope-because-I'm-fucking-rich Ozin. I shall witnessed the difference in technique between master, Ozin, and apprentice, Landskron.

Season Premieres

2005-09-07T14:01:00.000-04:00

Woooooohh!!! finally some new episodes and new series on TV. Last week, I embraced the premiere of Prison Break. Although it's no 24 or Lost, it's still intriguing. You cant guess what his plan is, there's got to be more of the tattoo that what we've seen, schweitzer allen 'some numbers' and the prison map to name a couple. It has the potential to be the 4 8 15 16 23 42. But there's no way a prison doctor is that pretty.

And I shall welcome the come back of OC, hoping that it'll be better than last season. There better be a death this season, I'm getting tired of Seth and Summer making up.

Tomorrow we shall have a welcoming party for another new series, Reunion, which was hyped as Friends + 24, from what I've read. And thus, we are back to normal life. School in the morning, TV at night.

Summer: Epilogue

2005-08-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

Well, summer is almost over, so I thought a word or two is appropriate before foul languages start to appear come September 8th. I have to say that this break went by faster than last year, it's not that we had longer summer last year, but the fact that I did more work during the last outing may explain this discrepancy. So what have I accomplished this summer?

First and foremost, I learned about numerical methods, integration, differential equation, fourier transform, more integration, and solid state physics, or solid state semiconductor, as my supervisor aver, he also calls quantum wires nano wires. I won't bore you with all the details, but I thought I should share a little bit of that wonderful feeling when you realised that you should've listened more attentively to what the proffessor in electromagnetism class was babbling about. Pill-box? I've heard about it before. Poisson equation? Is that in French, if it is, then I'm sorry, I don't speak French.

Then I started drawing again. There's a wonderful subforum in cgtalk.com that's full of instruction, sample models, and theories on color, shading, and sketching. That got me started and you can see some masterpiece in a few posts below. Of course I couldn't follow all the exercise due to time constraint, but I'm happy that my right hand still has talent, although after years devoid of tableting, the process felt very stiff. Beware of erection as some people who visit my page have complained.

Staying with the topic of art, I also learned new songs, both on acoustic and classical guitar. I think I posted a couple as well down below. Still practising on that 2 or 3 successive rasquedos, while admiring the ukulele version of "My Guitar Gently Weeps".

To conclude the summary of what I did, I went to York Uni looking for Sharapova, only to find expensive hotdog.

So what about what I DIDN'T do. I had a list before summer of things to do, but sadly, it decide to dissapear on the first day of summer. So I was left wandering aimlessly. Things I remember I should've done: learn how to play GO, yeah this was from last year. I got a GO program but cant even beat the first level of difficulty, pathetic really. That manga didnt help me either; buy an ukulele. Not really on the list before summer, but I sort of mentally added it in the middle of the period; start oil/acrylic painting; pick up my dusty telescope and start star-gazing. */Hmmm, this is a really bad spot to stop the entry, but I'm hungry/*

Spider

2005-08-27T14:58:00.000-04:00

Since Arsenal is not playing this weekend, I have something else to write about besides football. There's GRE on Thursday anyway, and I'm far from ready for that nasty test. And I'm having second thoughts about US schools. It's probably not worth it.

Speaking of US schools, I know where I'm not going. South. Yeah, I know, south is hot, nice place, but I wouldn't want myself to get one of these holes:

If you havent realised that there's a fucking 1cm hole on that unfortunate photo model, then you can piss off and drink some of those kaballah energy juice. That came from a brown recluse spider. A fucking tiny spider that lives in the South US states. They say the bite appears to be harmless until 12 hours, when it's already too late. And I thought centipedes are ugly. These spiders are on par with Drogba.

Hey, guess what, Brad Pitt's in the neighbourhood. Well, not really, but he's in Calgary, Canada. And apparently, some radio station put up a reward for his appearing in the station. I have no idea why people want to hear Brad Pitt in the radio. I can only think of one thing to ask him... "How was Angelina?" And I predict the answer is some word that more or less means good.

2005-08-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

That's all I want to say today.. actually, no. I fucking hate that piece of shit Drogba. You wonder, the least Chelsea could do with all that pocket money is send the ugly motherfucker to get some nip and tuck. He's so ugly god confessed that he made a mistake. Did I mention I fucking hate that asshole?

We didnt play that well, agreed, but we didnt deserve to lose either. Henry in particular needs to get his priorities sorted out. He went back to halfway line far too often. He should've stayed up front and let the midfield do their job, so he can do his job, that is to score some goals.

Anyway, Indo has two reps in the Finals of IBF World Championship, three if you count the team playing for US. It's been 7 years or more since I saw a badminton match and was amazed at the celerity compared to tennis. And it's really funny when the translator struggled to explain our strategy after winning one semifinal. He managed to get out of it by literally repeating the question.

1st Round Thoughts

2005-08-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

Yippeee, Arsenal won 2 zip against a Newcastle side that put 10 men behind the ball during most of the game, even 11 until one of them got sent of for dangerous play. I'm sorry, you cant defend the best attacking side in the league and expect to win, unless the referree is in the Mike Riley school of thought, whose ideology is to brandish red cards and give penalty to the team from Manchester. Chelsea better buy another 50million signing before our meet and greet this Sunday. Too early to decide the championship, but the result should affect the outcome, mentally or otherwise.

Yippooo, Sharapova has pulled out of the Rogers Cup. So I went there on Sunday expecting the first encounter with the tall beauty, and instead had an expensive, dry, tough all-beef hot-dog. Apparently, she has a chest injury... hmmm... chest... must be due to excessive groping by a fan. With this, there's no one to follow in the tourney... unless you have the hots for muscular conan-built females.

Fox has announced that Paula Abdul will continue judging the next Idol, oh my god, another one... Promising a better "enhanced non-fraternization policy" for the next installment, they expect there will be no controversial individual coaching that might lead to sexual intercourse, that plagued 2 seasons ago, this year. I'm confused, so what was the policy before, and how is this "enhanced" one going to prevent gang-bang? "Dear contestants, this season we have an ENHANCED non-fraternization policy, ENFraP, for short, where we will monitor your relationship with the judges. Digital sensors have been installed on the stage as well as on the judges chairs to detect bulging around the crotch area. Anyone caught having a stimulation during performance is presumed to be having a 'fraternization'. Please be advised that this equipment does not have any affect on your fertility, since the radiation emitted is well below the danger level."

Arsenal vs Russian's Toy

2005-08-06T17:36:00.000-04:00

WOOOHHH!!!! The excitement is building towards tomorrow's Community Match, Arsenal vs Chelsea. Must control self.... OMGOMGOMGOMG giggles giggles... PPLive for those who doesnt have access to cable sports channel, be it espn, foxsports world, or goaltv, like me. By the way, theScore channel has finally bought the rights to air the Sunday matches, the big showdowns, while sportsnet is still showing crappy games, with their two crappy hosts. At least theScore has that big clown who's really funny and always hogs the camera, and keeps comparing slow players to his grandma.

Small Change

2005-08-04T17:52:00.000-04:00

Small update, I've changed the comment settings so that everyone can post, as requested by a Ruda group member. Post away lads!!

And yeah, I'm adjusting my trigger finger (right hand index finger) to press R1 and R2 simultaneously to do a super-cancel in WE9, a great game by the way, that's way different in gameplay compared to WE8 that I need to drop back to 3 stars. The AI is damn good now, and my favourite 1-2 pass doesnt work as well. I never knew super-cancel was a critical technique in WE series, I guess I never paid attention to the guide. Anyway, I'm shocked at Arsenal's stats as a team, the teamwork is well below most top teams. NU seems better overall, and of course Chelsea has been upgraded. I tell you, I'm not going to spend my time with something irrelevant to my thesis and graduate school. Back to playing WE9 it is.

Stupid Headlines

2005-08-02T20:31:00.000-04:00

Maybe I've chosen the wrong occupation, being a newspaper writer seems so much easier. When you read headlines such as "London bombers are amateurs", you begin to think that it doesnt take much to be a newspaper writer. I mean, what the fuck is this guy thinking, amateur is the first thing that's associated with suicide bombers. It's like 'Tsunami survivors found alive.' When I think of amateur, I think of someone who doesnt have the experience along with the knowledge of the subject in mind. I'm an amateur guitar player, because I'm not that good, have no stage/performance experience, know only a few songs by heart (Neon, April, and Why Georgia, for example), and I don't spend my day practicing. I don't think you can have experience being a suicide bomber. It's your only, first and last, chance. You can brag it when you meet your makers, you'll go, 'Yo, I'm a pro suicide bomber, I have experience. Guess how many times I have had the opportunity to wrap myself tight with plastic explosives and C4, or carry a bag full of the mentioned chemicals; it really depends on your style, fashion-wise a bag says something about your personality, red means you're romantic, green means you dont eat meat?' Answer is one buddy, one. But before you blow yourself up, you're still an amateur.

On a different note, Apple has released a four-buttoned mouse, called Mighty Mouse. Two of the buttons arent clickable, touch sensitive thingy underneath. I wonder, when will they come up with a 28-buttoned mouse, 26 for alphabets, and 2 for enter and backspace, add a scroll wheel somewhere...

7524.16

2005-07-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

There goes the only reason Canadian Idol is watchable, the hot contestant, who actually sings pretty damn well, Ashley Leitao is eliminated. Add the ever annoying host, multiply the unfunny judges, and the annoying host - did I just write annoying host twice, yes I did.. but never mind you - integrate the whole thing over a close loop from 8 to 9 - the showtime, get it? - you'll get a number a bit over 1000 which is the number of audience that actually care about the winner. Watch the previous winner, that discordant sounding prick, get a haircut sissy, and stop using lipstick! And to the judges, see that lamp post and feces across the street, pick one and I'll help you shove it up your behind and or mouth.

The tuition fee for next year probing has increased by ... actually I don't remember the figures last year, but it's already fracking expensive - note the Battlestar Galactica spin on 'fuck'. If I'm paying this much, they better upgrade those washrooms in SF and MP, or better yet, add some washrooms in MB and HA. What building has washrooms on every other floors? Wait, I know this answer, pick me, pick me... HA!!! If you happen to step on organic land mines in HA stairs, you know what's happened half an hour ago. Yeah, they better upgrade those washrooms. Just some suggestions here, maybe we can add a spa or something similar to all washrooms, Victoria Secret approved masseuses - thank god for online dictionary - in every men washrooms, and, oh I dunno, Brad Pitt clone - or do you girls prefer Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom? - in the women's. Fuck, if you think I'm demanding too much, maybe just add a divider between the peeing booth for god sake. And change those damned posters, I'm getting tired of reading about 'Think your degree is on sale' or some crap about free market.

Anyway, thank's to aditya who filled up half my new, expen$ive external hard drive to keep me busy for the rest of the summer. Boondock Saint is great!!!

Sketches

2005-07-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

Some sketches I did this past two weeks, using reference from the web. Enjoy!

Old School

2005-07-22T19:03:00.000-04:00

Well, no major signings yet for Vieira replacement, and it's been a week. Still some Baptista rumors, one camp reports that Seville's president has agreed a fee, and the other says that Baptista doesn't want to move this year so that he could get a Spanish/Euro passport. Anyway, Henry scored a spectacular goal the other day, controlled the ball with his thigh, flicked it over a defender, and lobbed the ball over the keeper. Brilliant really.

Next-gen consoles are coming out in a year, and so it's appropriate, I think, to revisit some of the old school games (ie the ones in NES, SNES, Genesis). Like Contra I, II, and III, the series that really defines the old school, no AI, poor graphics (that includes choppy animation), dialogues that rivals B sci fi movies, and plot that's almost as good as watching baseball. Contra series is definitely one that requires brain space, instead of brain power, and I have decided to devote my left brain hemisphere to memorizing the levels. And where do GREs and thesis go you ask, I say up your arse!

Well, here's another Hedges song, definitely an easy one. Took me one week to get it done,... not perfect, a bit sloppy in fact. And it's not an interesting song, not as energetic as the other Hedges pieces. Next one's gonna be better, I swear.

Roaches

The Number Four is Free

2005-07-16T12:17:00.000-04:00

Yea yea no updates for more than a week, well guess what, I'm 'busy'.

Let's start with the biggest news of the week, Patrick Vieira has left the Arsenal after 9 years of service, and I doubt it's because of the red currant jersey that Arsenal will don next season, although it way be a catalyst or some sort. Anyway, I think he has passed his peak and like many others before him (Overmars, Anelka, and Petit come into mind) he left a gap in the squad, in the midfield specifically. But like others before him (see above) I believe that his replacement, whoever is in Wenger's mind, will be better. Anyway, I wish him good luck in Juventus.

My sister and I lined up for the 6th Potter book last night, and since we pre-ordered it, the line was quick. She is currently devouring almost half the book, while I'm still in the second chapter. With GRE coming, anatomy books, and Wells' collection, rest assured my summer will be busy. The 6th book's cover like the others before it, leaves much space for improvements. I dont know who painted these covers, but they are not top quality covers. Hey, even my organic chemistry book has better cover!

We went to Ottawa this week, and what a coincidence it was that the National Gallery of Canada is having a rennaisance in florence exhibit. I'm revisiting my sketching techniques and found those pieces very inspiring. Pity that the Michelangelo and da Vinci's exhibits number to only about 20. The rest to me, are unknowns, since it's been a long time since I got my Doctoral in Art History, but suffice to say they are comparable to the two masters.

Lastly before I go and sort out the pictures and movies from the trip, here's a piece from Hedges that I've been working for the past month. As always, it is neither perfect nor complete, the ending I havent touched. I have other partial recordings of Hedges pieces, but they are mostly strumming, not my strongest technique, so I've left them. This recording follows a power tab file that although incorrect in some parts is enough for me to get the gist. Plus, a live recording of his concert helps a lot with the rhythm and some technique. Most notably the 12th fret slap and the subsequent strum/thump, where I stumble most of the time. Listen to the file, and you get what I'm saying. Again, the recoring is incomplete, and of course played slower than it is written for. I hope this will jump start posting of recordings by my blog friends who have stopped blogging for some reason.

Ragamuffin

BANG!

2005-07-08T16:32:00.000-04:00

Wow, you know you're obssessed with something when something else larger is happening in the world, and all you can think about is the first something in this sentence. Like me, when the news of the attack in London, the first thing that came up was 'are the Arsenal players okay', 'anyone related to or have something to do with Arsenal injured or affected'.

Anyway, I went to Pt. Pelee the last two days. There's supposed to be bird migration, the town's main attraction, late summer or early fall, but obviously, yesterday wasn't late summer nor early fall, so nothing much to see down there.

War of the Worlds was amazing, the experience would've been sooo much better, if it wasnt for one of my 'friend' who kept trying to offer us chips. He was very proud of himself for sneaking a bunch of chips into the theatre, I could swear he was giggling with joy when he opened the package LOUDLY of the top of the allowed decibel chart inside a theatre. Next time he does that, those chips will go inside him the other way around, if you know what I mean.

Let's talk about work, shall we?

I've been trying to capture this PAL DV cassette from my cousin in Jakarta to no avail. My Sony DVcam is NTSC based, but it plays the cassette fine. But when I capture the file to my computer, all I get is artifact-ridden images. Tried all the free programs that I know of, and I get the same symptoms, artifacts. I think the computer assumes that the cassette is NTSC since the camera is NTSC, and captures the PAL video with NTSC preferences. So I'm stuck with the free version of Ulead that only comes with ONE template, and that is Christmas. And what d'yknow I get Jingle Bells as background music.

Canada Day

2005-07-01T23:11:00.000-04:00

Just came back from Mel Lastman Sqr for Canada Day, first one for me. Fireworks weren't as spectacular as I expected and I'm certainly not in awe with the music. A bit of flamenco when I arrived was pretty entertaining, but when a country singer went on stage, it became boring faster that you can say ukulele. It's a cold night too, and since I only wore a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, people might think that I was a master in dancing, a guru of break dancing, or a learned jujitsu artist, when I was trying to keep my hands warm.

Speaking of ukulele, ukuleledisco.com has a variety of clips on ukulele players. And it's a pretty awesome sight, those ukulele players. Check out Jake Shimabukuro, a very skilled player. Crazy struming and very pretty tunes, no doubt he's one of a kind. Listen to his take on "My Guitar Gently Weeps", and you might just weep. I might start looking for an ukulele now. Anybody play or know where to learn or buy ukulele in Toronto? I figure it's not that expensive, around $200 maybe, since it's so tiny you swear only midgets play them. I have to say, size doesn't matter. It's how you use it.

On another note, my friend must be very nervous now. Third shark attack in a week in Florida. It's Shark 3 Man 0, Mr. hungryhippo. It's time to restore the balance. You have a lot to catch up. I suggest you start by watching Jaws 1 to 3, Deep Blue Sea, and maybe Shark Tale in case brute force doesn't work.

Update

2005-06-24T16:42:00.000-04:00

Some people, whose names I won't reveal here, dont update their blogs, like jesterhat, oops, did I just typed that. Nevermind, I'm too lazy to reach for the backspace key. Of course, for jesterhat, who does monkey typing like its a lost art, every key is like reaching for the moon. Now, I'm pretty sure he's got a lot of shit to write about, but he's just too lazy to do it. I know he's kind of obssessed with Naruto now, so why cant he write something about it. Or how he's improving in Halo 2, as a bait while I snipe Ben. We still lost 15 - 5.

But nevermind that, speaking of another Ben, Ben Mulroney, the Canadian Idol host for those of you outside Canada, is officially an ass. If you want to see the face of the next Super 9Tailed Dragon Palm Attack of the Wha? Valley victim, check out Canadian Idol every Tuesday at 8pm. And guess what, if you havent got enough of Ben Mulroney, the fact that his last name rhymes with the ManUre big mouthed cursing ogre Wayne Rooney does little to ease my anger, at 8pm Wednesday you can catch the fuckface in the result show. Man, that guy is not funny. I can't believe he's a celebrity in Canada, he's pathetic. The audience dont laugh at his jokes, and I'm sure they have the bristle boards with 'laugh' 'applause' 'cheer' 'stand up' 'sit down'. That's it, I'm ordering a Black Hawk to raid his residence.

TV Tome no more...

2005-06-17T09:25:00.000-04:00

The new site sucks really. TVTome was great because it was really simple. Everyday, I could just go to the right column of the page, look at the highlight for that night's schedule, and on the bottom of the list, there is a 'what's more' link to the full schedule for that day's prime time TV. the schedule page would have links to the shows that are airing and from there, you can pretty much get any info about the show, synopsis from last episode in case you missed it which you won't really because from TVTome's schedule, you cant miss a thing. They also have list of upcoming episodes easily accessed from the shows main page. But the most important feature is the news section in each show's main page. It provides a summary of news about the show, ie the cast news, guest stars, cancellations/renewals, airing of future episodes, and a whole lot more than whale meat on a petree.

Now, there's the TV.com. Which, I repeat, totally sucks. The page is ad-heavy, navigations are pain in the ass. And guess what? There is no link to the schedule tonight!! What are they thinking? Making money? Well, I guess so. But people will stop visiting the site. They even put the schedule in some random order. Oh yes I checked it by refreshing the page. Once, they sort it alphabetically by show title, next by the show time, and next I cant even figure out how. This is why I missed the new episode of The Inside last Wednesday. And the news section has only links to yahoo, reutres, etc. news page. If I want to browse these kinds of news, news.google is so much better. Please return the design to its original.

Futureshop = Shit

2005-06-13T18:14:00.000-04:00

God damn futureshop! I hate that fucking store. WAAAAGHHH!!! The kind of people they hire disgust me!! The online store is even worse! I ordered Coldplay's X&Y cd on June 5th and it hasnt arrived, and worse, I can't find the fucking 'cancel order' option. What the FUCK is their problem?! I swear next time I come to their store, I'll use their HDTV display as a fucking urinal. Maybe that will attract the attention of those Persian attendants who are conversing in Farsi every single second while the customers are waiting for their answer.

Customer: 'Hi, where is the Firewire cable?'
Futureshop Dickhead: 'Umm, let me ask someone, please wait right here.'
Futureshop Elephant-dung steps into the crowd, conversing animatedly for 5 minutes.
Futureshop Asshole: 'They don't know about cables, let me check in the back'.
Customer: 'I think it's here.'
Futureshop Assface: 'Umm, no. That's Firewire cable.'
Customer: 'Which is what I was looking for.'
Futureshop Donkey-brained-mofo: 'Really, you sure about that?'
Customer: 'Is there any other model, this one is too expensive.'
Futureshop Wanker-extraordinaire: 'Let me check again.'
Customer: 'In that case, no thank's.'
Futureshop Shitness-maximus: 'You sure, coz I can go there and back in a second.'
Customer: 'You asking for a spanking, monkey face?'
.
.
.

I dont hate Persians by the way. They are excellent footballers, and I respect that. But futureshop needs some schooling. Amazon and Chapters took less than 1 day to send my books/cds. They have excellent tracking of your shipments that lets you know when/where your order is arriving. All futureshit .. shop has is 'three simple steps'. I'm at the second 'billing verified, item ready to ship', or some shit like that, for a week. I must repeat, WHAT THE FUCK is their problem?!

WWRRAAAGHHH

2005-06-08T18:23:00.000-04:00

Bollocks!! The temporary unavailability of coolstreaming has officially ruined my summer. This service is what provided me with live football match week in and week out. Now I cant watch any international matches because the idiots in TSN, or whoever decide the programs, prefer the thrilling succession of kids attempting to spell words that I'm sure, are or should be banned from being spoken by some law in some remote region in the world (see my current obssession of mocking spelling bees in the previous post below). This is really sad. I have to resort to streaming choppy 93 kbits/sec of some Arabic TV stream. I wonder what kind of infomercial they have there? I cant even begin to imagine.... wait, actually I can. Buy 2 explosives get 1 free explosives, a machete, a do-it-yourself book on assassination, an extra torturing guide for the n00bs, and a free 1-year subcription to CNN. Dont ask me why CNN, I just made that up.

spellingB

2005-06-07T23:23:00.000-04:00

Now since when did spelling fucking bee qualify as a sport? I'm switching channel tonight and guess what, they were showing spelling bee taped delay. There's really no point in showing it live I suppose. The purpose of showing a sporting event live is, beside the huge lump of money involved in it and promoting the said sport, to avoid spoilers in the morning or afternoon news. If everyone has seen the scoreline, there is really no spoilers to be spoiled later. In the case of spelling bee, no one cares about the winner or what word they spelled to settle the bout, in fact no one cares about anything to do with spelling bees. The last thing that astonished me, sportwise that is, was the inclusion of janitorial sport, or 'curling' to those hardcore sportsmen and women and the janitorial sport supporters, in the TSN lineup, ahead of the Champions' League quarters. Thank god they realized that the numbers of viewers at that period goes to zero as the limit goes to the hour. That is, lim (h-->hour) of f(h) = 0 where f(h) is the number of viewer as a complex function of h. Champions' League matches were shown live this year. I have set my tolerance level. Curling, poker match, CELEBRITY poker match have pretty much filled the column. They better start showing UEFA cup or La Liga games next season or I will.. well I dunno what I will do. Can't really subscribe to those digital channels showing football all day. I can virtually kiss school goodbye at that point.

More Better

2005-05-31T20:13:00.000-04:00

My wallet feels a tad heavy for some reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not because of my first paycheck, which if you consider the amount of actual work I do every hour that approximately accumulates to 10 min/hour for 5 hours/day, is actually not bad. The rest of the hour, if you must know, is spent browsing the web, staring at the blue wallpaper in the linux lab in SF1012, scrolling through my iPod, taking a deep breath, cleaning my finger nails, slouching and unslouching, etc. etc. The majority though is browsing the web. In the morning, webmail.utoronto.ca, gmail.com, the-magicbox.com, bigsoccer.com/forum, arseblog.com (essential), soccernet.com, news.google.com, webmail.utoronto.ca (again, in case new emails from eng sci club, eng soc, or other bullshit organization/association need deletions), blogs, superficial.com (some pics are nsfw!), rottentomatoes.com, tvtome.com (sadly mostly empty for the rest of summer), www.imdb.com, cgtalk.com, are some daily websites to visit. My bulging wallet is caused by the stash of movie tickets. Allow me to go through some of them. Some of the printing is illegible, I'll manage nonetheless.

Spiderman 2, saw it the first Friday, the Thursday before was a public holiday, and subsequently, the Friday was made a holiday by the University, but I came not knowing this important decision. So I decided to make my trip downtown worth and watch Spiderman 2. The afternoon I played soccer in front campus.

King Arthur, saw it with my sis. Not a good show, Kiera looked oddly sexy.

Constantine. Some people like it, some dont. Hilarious lines which are bad for a movie that talks about satan. Roger didnt enjoy the show either.

Master and Commander. Saw it myself, since no one was interested in the movie. I liked it, some parts are too long, but this is a movie about sailing or naval. It is supposed to be quiet and ethereal in the sea, I think.

Wow, Signs, that takes us a while back. Cant really remember, but the best part was when the alien appeared in the amateur video, no not THAT kind of amateur video, perv!

Terminator 3, see above. Not a movie that one would see twice.

There are about 5 more, but my fingers are tired. Here they are, in no particular order. Catch Me If You Can. Sinbad. Pirates of the Carribean: COTBP. Matrix: Revolutions. Brother Bear. Matrix: Revolutions.. wtf, I saw it twice? One in IMAX in think. Underworld. Yeah that's about it. Where the HELL are the tickets to Incredibles and Nemo?!

Last words are always the hardest to write. Ah, we are going to watch Cinderella Boy this Friday, hopefully. I hope it's more better than the previous movie I caught, SW:ROTS. The reviews are certainly positive.

Locke, Shock and One Smoking Hatch

2005-05-26T18:56:00.000-04:00

Unlike some people I know, I stayed watching LOST finale yesterday, and what a good decision it was. The writing and acting were solid as always and the cliffhanger is what we all expect. As I predicted, more question rather than answers in last night episode, which is going to be replayed tonight in CTV at 8pm because of Idol finale yesterday, and guess what, I was right once again, Carrie is the Idol, it's so obvious even Clark Kent would laugh at that.. doesnt make sense but whatever. Anyway, some stuff that I think will play an important part, or minimal, I dont know what the writers are thinking, for next season:

More on the numbers. Hugo will have to explain everything about the numbers, and we'll see how everyone reacts because at least one of those numbers is significant in the castaways' lives. Like the 23k reward for Kate's capture, gate 23 was the boarding gate for the plane.

The others who kidnapped the boy. They dont seem Ethan-like, they are more like hobos, but maybe Ethan was spying, so he's got to blend and stuff. Sawyer and Jin, what happened to them?

The guardian is apparently some black cloud, reference to Crichton's Prey? Or maybe some type of ghost/spirit? Or the island trying to materialize.

What about the bird? They seem to focus on the bird before the guardian came.
And the comic book with the polar bear in it?
Did Walt and Hurley know each other before they met in the plane?
Charlie's addiction is back?

The big thing next season will be Jack vs Locke. Something like science vs faith again. Locke needs to sort out his head. He's crazier than a physicist trying to find dark matters. It's not there, or you cant find it because it's DARK. It's a lost cause buddy. I'm telling you, it's like the ether theory, you all are going to the MODERN ENCYCLOPEDIA of PHYSICS under the chapter titled FAILURE subtitled A Disgrace to Nature. You'll be spending half your time screaming: OY! Keep your finger out of my butthole!!

But of course, the hatch. I know everyone is dying to know what's inside the hatch, but this is the main hook. It's the Bruce Willis is dead of the series. It's the I am your father of the series.. Wait scratch that out, my bad, we've known for the past what.. 10 years that vader is luke's father. Pathetique!! If the finale was about the hatch, there wouldnt be LOST anymore, and we wouldnt want that, would we?

Shootouts!!

2005-05-25T19:16:00.000-04:00

TWO penalty shootouts in two finals within a week is not good for my heart, granted today's didn't interest me as much as the weekend's, but it was still unhealthy. Let me try to get my opinions sorted here.

First, first half was dominated by Kaka, Crespo, and Pirlo. Kaka made the first chip pass over the Liverpool defense that led to Crespo's first goal, and the second assists was brilliant, it was from well inside his half, turned his marker, immediately release a laser precision pass to Crespo who got his second. I thought Shevchenko didnt play as well as I imagined he would, and more to that later.

Second half was without much interest apart from the 6 minute goal blitz from Liverpool. The third, a penalty, was a weak call in my opinion, but rightly given since Milan's second happened right after Nesta literally cuddled the ball inside the penalty area and the ref waved away, the Liverpool players were still arguing when Kaka slipped the pass.

And of course, with full time score of 3-3, they went into extra time, and of course, into penalty, since both sides didnt want to make any mistake, and thus decided to play granny pace. And oh my... you think you've seen or heard penalty shootouts drama, THIS one is special. And nope, not for the two saves by Dudek from Pirlo and Serginho, but the way Dudek intimidates the taker. He did this dance aerobic thingy that surely be in the top 10 saves of the century. It was and awesome and disturbing sight at the same time. I should get a gif file. Trust me, dont watch that crap with Will Ferrel, for better laughs and entertainment, this match is the one. Best comeback ever. But the football wasnt great, just the comeback, you know, all that crap about spirit, mentality and determination stuff thingy stuff...

And just a heads up on LOST finale AND ALIAS finale. Everyone watch those two instead of Idol please! Show that reality shows suck donkey testicles.

God Loves Arsenal

2005-05-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

YESSSHHH!!! Arsenal the 2004/2005 FA Cup Champion! I have to say, we didnt deserve to win with our below par performance today. ManUre had a few chances to take the lead, and shouldve done so was it not for van Horsey's finishing and Lehmann's exceptional saves, I must say, he looks to keep his place for next season. I can't really comment on Arsenal's game because they hardly play at all. We were definitely outplayed. The best team didnt win, big deal, it happened in last year semi. In the end, we are the champion, and I'm happy with that.

Even better, the big wuss cried:

Winning team (8 of em, 2 taking and saving penalty at the other end, and the other got sent off):

Did Jesus Have a 6-pack?

2005-05-21T09:05:00.000-04:00

I saw ROTS yesterday and I must say that I'm quite impressed by the movie. A good ending to the saga, although I think the reviews I've read are very generous. From what I've seen, it was much much better than the first two prequel, but not better than other movies I've seen this year that received lower or on par score. I don't think ROTS is a LOT better than Kingdom of Heaven, or Hitchhiker's. It's just that movies like KoH will forever be compared to the great that is Gladiator, while comparison of ROTS to AOTC and the first one, which I forget, will obviously give an advantage to ROTS; the first trilogy, of course, doesnt count because it's waaaayyy back some us cant remember how good or bad it is. Anyway, the movie itself provides a lot of action and heavy CG scenes. In fact, this may be the reason why accomplished actors cant act in the 3 Lucas' films for beans. Even with the performance acting degree that I have, I cant imagine standing in front of blue screens and act. And the dialogue didnt improve from AOTC; things like "You are so beautiful" "I'm beautiful only because I love you" "No, I LOVE you" shouldnt be banned from being spoken.. ever. Also "We should be smarter than this" "Apparently we are not". And the fighting isnt that great, since you can barely see what is happening with all that over-luminescenced saber twirling around the screen, and guess what, evidently, Jedis cant fight bare handed. But in the end, you'll like the movie, because you have to. It is the end of a big thing, like if the universe ends, you cannot not notice it. Otherwise you'll be the you-didnt-like-ROTS guy. Face it, with what social life engineers have, just pretend that you like the damn movie.

Oh, just a reminder, Arsenal - ManUre in Cardiff around 30 minutes. Should be a cracker. I expect ManUre to go king-kong on us.

The Mother of Finales

2005-05-19T18:35:00.000-04:00

So the season finales have begun with first Veronica Mars a week ago, then the doomed Enterprise, and the unfortunate Jack and Bobby which was canceled by WB, damn them! The only teen show with good storyline, content, and moral. And yesterday, Joan was also canceled by CBS. Fuck them I say! Of course a few good shows are showing their finales in the coming weeks, and I expect 24, Lost and Alias to present cliffhangers and more questions rather than answers.

For example, in 24, was the lady who took Tony hostage the lady at the end of season 2 who attempted to assassinate President Palmer? Is she going to be the new Nina, or the Murdock of 24; in case you forget, Murdock is MacGyver's sworn enemy. It'd be an excellent plot if Jack has an enemy that is as good as him. The man behind ALL the terrorist attacks from season 1 to the current. And with the series expanded to season 6 or 7, I think they need a main bad guy/girl.

Then there is Lost. I cant even start this. I'm lost for words. There's the number, the hatch, the ship/black rock/dark territory, the raft, the OTHERS!, the smoke pillar, the guardian, the polar bears, the baby, the.. Locke. It's gonna be crazy.

And don't forget other small series, like Smallville, which had its season finale yesterday (dont worry, I'm dling it), and god knows when will the writer let Clark fly without support (from tornado nor the black diamond/kryptonite thingy); like American Idol, yes it's categorized as a small series because despite its rating, it has no depth, no writing, no tension, suspense, drama, or cliffhangers (it's a TIE!, the winner will be decided by coin toss!!); ER with Carter leaving; OC and OTH with... hmmm.. let's predict this one... (1 hour till the finale as of writing), Marissa in hospital, Tray and Ryan fighting... AGAIN, Sandy and Kirsten fighting... AGAIN, Seth and Summer...

Ah, and we almost reach the end, the last finale, the final of the trilogy, or prequel trilogy, or sextet, or .. ah what the fuck... it's EPISODE III. Yeah, finally we get to see what happened to Anakin, oh wait, we already know *SPOILER WARNING*, he going to the dark side. Got himself pretty badly cut, and thus has to resort to wearing a black camouflage with breathing support. So please, let's end this SW saga once and for all. No more SW speak for at least half a year please? Until the 3D animation series comes that is.

So what's the mother of all finales?

Scholarship

2005-05-14T08:24:00.000-04:00

I hate when department people send me emails about job opportunities and scholarships or whatever free stuff because it is virtually impossible to get those position. They require high average, like the Sargent job "I prefer high 90s student", or previous experience. Today, I got an email saying there is an abundant scholarship leftovers for us to grab. And that it is not only based on academic achievements, but also extra curriculler activites. Hey, guess what, if you are in EngSci, you don't have a life, let alone time for extra curricullar activities. And if I pretend that I have an extra curricullar activity, it won't be hockey or sailing, as required by Don, but football/soccer for you north americans. Wait, let me correct that... but watching football/soccer for you north americans. If they count that as an extra curricullar activity, I would easily clock 20 hours per week worth of extra curricullar activities, give or take the minutes here and there due to studying between throw ins, corners, free kicks, half times, fights, and crowd shots.

Kingdom of Heaven is decent, although by the time the movie finishes, you may get sick of orlando bloom. I believe, he only has 5 lines in the first half hour or so. I guess we are supposed to understand what he's saying, or not saying, from his expressions, which dont differ that much from "my wife commited suicide" to "I'm going to kill you" to "I'm scared because I killed someone" to "you are my father?". Eventually, he got some lines to scream with, you know, the typical rally pep talk thingy before the battle. But yeah, the movie is pretty long. Too many battles, not enough one on one duel.

Double Blow

2005-05-12T23:11:00.000-04:00

Before you get some sexually disturbing images from reading the title, I should point out that the two blows are: one, btefnet.com, my tv episode source, is down because of MPAA or so I heard. Now I'm in the same spot as mr donut, who has no internet connection, imagine the horror, for 3 days! Two, my iPod almost, ALMOST met the same fate that jesterhat's iPod suffered. Luckily, mine doesn't contain any ancient death songs, and thus it survived. I don't know what happened exactly, but when I connected it to the PC, the iPod screen went to a static battery image. I unplugged and plugged it back only to find the "hardware not recognized" warning that jesterhat got a few days ago. I almost, ALMOST cried, but if there's something that EngSci nano has taught me, it is the power of GOOGLING. Apparently, lots of people had the same problem, and although some of them decided to send it back, or reseted the device, thankfully, the simplest solution works for my case. 10 min of charging, because you see, my iPod was completely drained, worked like magic. I waited 10 minutes, unplugged and plugged it in, and voiilaa! "device is ready to use arsehole!" So maybe, without any power, the PC just recognized the iPod as a USB drive, not a player. jesterhat shouldnt have sent his back. I guess physics option isnt that smart afterall. Oh! There's a particle. WHERE?! Here in my fucking pocket, wanker! Aaww, don't cry, here's a particle for you. Oopss, dropped it, guess you have to spend another 5 years looking for it! HAHAHAHHAHAhahahhaa... okay..

More Back to Sulking

2005-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:00

Good god, I'm turning into Marvin if this academic history page doesn't show any 80s! I hate this fucking semester!! AAARRGGGHHHHhhhhhhh!!!! There goes U.S. schools. At least now I don't really have to study THAT hard for GREs.

Anyway, season finale for Veronica Mars, a really good ending to a great first season, but hey, One Tree Hill was great in its first season, and now, it's just blagh, blurp, barf, fart! Same thing goes for O.C. The problem is now that the murder who dunnit mystery thing has finally been solved, and wow, what an unexpected murderer, what's the storyline for the second season? And what happened to Logan? Was he the one outside Veronica's house? I cant wait to watch, I mean download unless CTV starts a VM marathon in the summer and pick up the second season, the second season... (the second season, the second season, the second season...)

Oooh.. Arsenal 7-0 drubbing of Everton is a pure joy to watch. I could cry watching the match again. It's that good. Almost, almost flawless performance, a few stray passes in our half got to my nerves, but 7 goals.. wow... "it's almost as exciting as hockey or basketball"! If this form goes on to the next season, the undefeated streak may be repeated. Watch out ManUre and Chelsea!

Meh

2005-05-09T14:49:00.000-04:00

Wow, summer is just as I expected it to be, a lot like last summer, which comprised of coming late (10am-ish, hey 10 amish!) to the lab only to find you are the earliest; waiting for your post-doc/Phd student to come see you and ask you to go to the lab and do something with him/her, or you looking for your post-doc/Phd student around the lab and subsequently to the next building and the next one as well; reading papers/manuals; getting some pops; walk around the lab, once the others arrive that is, just to show your face; counting the seconds until the clock reaches 12 pm, lunch time; eating your lunch as fast as possible so as to maximize the number of minutes you spend honing your Halo 2 skill although you know that you have pretty much the whole day to play; counting the seconds again until the clock reaches 3 pm, which you think is the appropriate time to bolt out of the campus. Well here I am, 2:56 pm, 4 more minutes.

So, who wants to watc Kingdom of Heaven? I was really hyped about the movie, again because of the trailer and the awesome cast (Ralph Fiennes and Neeson, okay, Orlando, who I think is not suited for a main role). But the reviews didnt look good. 40% rotten. I thought I would skip this one Gladiator clone, or more like Troy clone, judging from the reviews. See, now the movie seems really exciting compared to my daily schedule, so I think I'll spice up my day tomorrow by watching Kingdom of Heaven.

Alright, enough rant, 3 pm it is. Ciao!

Back to Sulking

2005-05-05T16:06:00.000-04:00

Shouldnt have clicked on www.rosi.utoronto.ca a week into the summer holiday. Make that mistake, and the summer is ruined. I made that mistake. Half-way to finding out your marks, you get the choice of "Would you like your name to be displayed on your academic history? Yes or No". This my friend, is the point of no return, unless of course you click the cross at the top right of your browser, or the left arrow on the left which will display post data unsecured or whatever crap warning that you immediately closed. So I'm back to sulking. My marks arent as good as I expected, especially the economics one, which I thought I would save from the 60's after final as I did so many times in previous courses (Biomed. Engineering and Quantum Mechanics come to mind). But the fact that I hated the courses and the lecturer, the monotesticled giantass burgerswallowing Brent, from day one, didnt help my cause. The nanostructure one is also dissapointing, although I had a feeling that it will be as low because of the high class average and the fact that I had below average coming into the exam. But there is still hope for the atoms and less for the materials chem courses. This past semester was definitely my lowest mark SO FAR. Sadly, it is crucial for application to graduate school. Well, staying in Toronto isnt that bad.

Good thing is that I might actually get a scholarship, wow marks in the 70s and still getting a scholarship what kind of university is this can I get in, because someone decline their award. Unfortunately, it depends on the administration in Ottawa because technically, it is past the deadline. Funny thing is, I think I know who declined it. My friend got into Caltech for a summer internship or something. I'd like to wish him good luck, and dont forget to promote engsci in Caltech, especially the nano option, because it is the best, THE program to get into (if you want to get 70s).

On another note, my iPod mini has LESS than the 18 hour battery life stated in the website. At most, it has 10 hours or so. Very dissapointing. What if I'm stranded in an island, where polar bears terrorize me, or a maniac French woman trying to kill me, or a hatch that wont open, or mysterious numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42. Then they are saying that I only have 10 hours of music? Come on!

6 Fucking Minutes of Added Time

2005-05-03T23:03:00.000-04:00

Well well well. Chelsea finally lost in the CL semifinal, and I return to support Arsenal after a brief 2 hours or so period of becoming a Liverpool fan. The match was settled with a dubious goal and after that, not many chances except for the last 5 minutes. There were a few scares in the Liverpool goal, especially in the added time, which brings up the title to this entry. I thought that only Man United gets a special 6 minutes of stoppage time, enough for them to score a goal from a goalmouth scramble or a controversial penalty call, but apparently, Chelsea has that same ridiculous privilege. Who the fuck counted 6 minutes? Sure, there were time wasting, injuries and the unfortunate incidents of a couple of morons who ran on the pitch and waved a shirt in front of the Portugese fuckface Mourinho, and to that, I say good job, but surely, 6 minutes was just a joke. Liverpool were the better team over the two legs, although Mourinho wont agree with my assesment, but I dont agree with his tactics either. Punting long balls towards the lone striker, hoping he will nod it down to oncoming midfielders are not football. By the way, it is a pleasure to see Chelsea players crying on the field. Those shitheads dont deserve to be in the final.

Anyway, Hitchhiker's Guide was excellent. They couldve explained better about the towel, and tighten the story more, but the graphics were great, Marvin is adorable (or annoying), the Heart of Gold is nicely designed, and the whale scene is perfectly done, couldnt have imagined a better execution.

So next movie is going to be Kingdom of Heaven I guess, House of Wax will be torrentized or rentalized. By the way, we saw the stars, or more like their backs as they stepped outside of the limousine, in MM today from mmm.. say approximately 20 m. My friend proclaimed that he got as close as 5 m to Elisha and Paris by shoving around the little kids. He went nuts afterwards. I for one dont want to know what he is doing tonight.

House of Wax

2005-05-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

Nope, this entry is NOT about House of Wax, which will totally suck, but about the casts that are coming downtown tomorrow in MM. We plan to watch Hitchhiker's Guide and maybe stop by the corner to catch a glimpse or two of ms. Cuthbert assets, which will be a challenging task if the event is packed, which I'm almost certain it would be as always eventhough the guest stars arent really stars (like those unknown Canadian artists or Lisa Presley). Fortunately, the size of the target(s) will help us locate them. Word of caution, we should send a sniper team to take out the other 'star' by the name of Hilton. People experienced in Halo1/2 may contact me.

Anyway, Episode 3 is coming out soon, and as most of you have heard, geeks have started lining up in front of theatres. Now, I read somewhere that there are suppose to be two camps of SW fanatics. Those who crave for spoilers, and those who devote their lives on not reading any spoilers. So am I correct to assume that the spoiler-free camp is at a diadvantage here? Can't the spoileriffic camp grab a super megaphone and just read out loud the script/plot that must have been leaked to the net since, what, last year? Then, we can have like a gang fight with plastic light saber, stormtroopers, chewies, and stuff.

So Liverpool vs Chelsea shall be recorded tomorrow. The outcome is of no interest to me, except if Liverpool trash Chelsea 3-0.

Sulking

2005-05-01T08:30:00.000-04:00

Aaarrrghh... Chelsea finally won the League, with three games to spare and like 11 points ahead of Arsenal. So I'm just sulking right now. I've decided to switch my allegiance to Liverpool for one day (Tuesday) when they beat Chelsea.

jesterhat got an iPod as well. I dont know if he's making this up or what not. Maybe he'll start wearing baggy pants and colarless shirt. He claimed that he beat me and moe. We'll see who kicks whose ass (is that the right grammar, I don't care, English grammar is so complicated compared to Indonesian, although some phrases cant be said with the proper meaning and grace in Indonesian), when we see whose iPod holds better songs. Let me give you some perspective here, on the scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is a 'legendary song even god would sing along'; 4 is 'excellent rendition'; 3 is 'okay after multiple consecutive listening'; 2 is 'yuck you call this music, i can write and sing a better song'; 1 is 'metal?!, DEATH metal?! you've got to be kidding, they still listen to THAT? that's sad really'. The one with the most points of course, wins. I'm guessing PO wouldnt do so well.

Anyway, just found out from starfire's blog that there was an Indonesian bazaar yesterday. If it was the one in the church, then there goes my annual visit the house of the lord. Too bad, usually I got the invitation and the food is good. I guess they gave up luring me with good food to go to church.

The Day After The End

2005-04-29T19:33:00.000-04:00

Mad props to Saigin for organizing a very well organized dinner-bowling combination. The 6.30 'dinner' was very tasty. I had an otherwise ordinary roast beef slice, onion, and bread was it not for the lemon/basil sauce that accompanied the sandwich. The sauce, with a hint of sourness from the lemon, and the aroma of basil, my favourite spice (if you can call it spice, it's really a leaf) courtesy of my uncle who cooked the green sauced pasta, is very delicious. Unfortunately, I didnt have the stomach to try out the dessert.

Then we went to bowling. As a newbie, I got the beginners luck by scoring 109, the second highest score in the first game. The first place was shared by Saigin and mr. french jesterhat with his weird unnatural bowling 'grip'. Its like the first time you see someone put with the claw stance. You go, wtf man, are you a midget?! Anyway, my thumb was sore after playing the first round and my bowls went left and right afterwards.

BUT! the main event yesterday came BEFORE the dinner, DURING the exam. I dont know what happened, but maybemoe decided that he shall be deaf for the first 10 minutes of the exam, and ignored the warning, which was bellowed THREE (T-H-R-E-E) times during that period, that any other electronics besides non-programmable calculators and watches were not allowed during exam. They MUST, and she stressed that word so many times, MUST not be placed on the desk. 5 minutes into the exam, when I was staring at the first question, another notation question that I loath, the examiner went over maybemoe's table and grabbed his CELLPHONE (or handphone whatever term you're comfortable with) and whispered, I told you, I'm sorry, you have to get your phone back later. And something about student card or student number. I almost chocked holding back my laughter as I saw Roger turned back and stared blankly at maybemo....... It was a sight to behold, befitting of the last class event that he will attend with us.

Anyway, just want to say good luck to all those going for PEYs, keep blogging guys!! And I might watch Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy next week. Better prepare my towel!!

Got my iPod mini!

2005-04-29T11:47:00.000-04:00

There you go Saigin. And I beat moe to it! More later, it's charging right now.

1st Leg

2005-04-25T22:26:00.000-04:00

Weee, good news that we wont see Ashton without his pants because The Interpreter is top in the box office, while the chick flick is down at the 4th spot! And I'm happy to say that I played a part in it by watching the movie today. Well, technically, my ticket wasnt counted towards the weekend box office, but still. The movie was good, not great. Certainly, the plot could be a bit tighter, but the acting makes up for it. Although I thought Sean Penn put on the same expression in every shots, and his last two movies that I've seen (this one and Mystic River), he's been using the same sad face. His movie with Dakotta Fanning was great, but I cant remember the title. Oh well, I look forward to watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy.

Anyway, guess what! I saw two minutes, count that, TWO minutes of basketball tonight. Actually, in that two minute, maybe like 50 seconds were actual gameplay. The rest were ball out of bounds, fouls, head shots at the ref, commentators, coaches, bench players, more fouls, more fouls. This game is booorrinnggg. Get some contact people. Rub a few skins here and there. Grab some balls. I can tell you this, Yao Ming is not Chinese. Or if he is, then he's a mutant. I'm Chinese, and we dont grow THAT tall. His parents must have hung him by his feet from a tree. Let the gravity do the work. We are the smartest you know, well along with the brown. I saw this interview in CNN about some doctor who investigated the declining education standard in the U.S. high schools. Saying how students in Asia are superior, and how the American high school is a joke.

Ok, so tomorrow, the 1st leg CL semifinal will be played in San Siro I think, AC Milan vs PSV. PSV, I heard, is a defensive team, coach by none other than Hiddink, who led S.Korea in WC2002. I hope AC just trash them. Let them know negative football is a disgrace. Speaking of trashing, I want Liverpool to trash those midgets from Chelsea. Here eat some Madagascar roaches wanker! On that note, Madagascar roach seems to be a delicacy according to Fear Factor.

Free Electron Gas

2005-04-22T14:58:00.000-04:00

Wow, no blogging for almost 4 days. Well, there is little to say this week except for the fact that Arsenal drew Chelsea in a game that they could ve won easily if Pires converted those two early chances. So I think we concede the title to the Russians. After spending gazillion of euros on players and manager, they finally got it. Good job, money CAN buy everything (Beattle's song comes into mind.. Can't buy me looooovee.. Money can't buy me loovee.. ookkkayyy..). But money CAN buy love. Ben Affleck just bought Jennifer Garner, with a ring that apparently cost LESS than the other Jennifer's ring. Well, at least he bought a new one, I think he's scared after watching Garner's weekly exercise in ALIAS, as well as the movie Electra, which I have just rented and planned to watch this afternoon. The movie sucked I heard, but what the hell, she'll be wearing leather the whole 2 hours.

Speaking of below par movies, Ashton the Dumb new movie came out today. And as part of his promotion, he went to Leno's show last night and talked about the supposed 'bet' that he had with the director. They argued if the movie will be top the box office this weekend, but Ashton, with his allmighty wisdom, realised that he had made another SHITT (with double T no less) that cant compete with The Interpreter that has 3 THREE OSCAR winners. So they made a bet that if the movie went to the top, Ashton would pose as Calvin Klein's underwear model. The ladies in the show of course, went histerical. Please, DO NOT watch this movie. I would rather watch a midget porn or something in the same category.

Anyway, I decided to start studying for quantum. I'm hoping that the exam would be similar to the last year quantum. The problem is, I have borrowed this Kittel (I refused to pronounce it Kittel as in key-tell, Kittle like little sounds better, sounds like I'm way above this pathetique small insignificant book) book, since 3 weeks ago. And so it's due today. I cant renew it as someone had put a hold on it. So guess what wanker, I'm gonna keep it till next week! Take that! Ball crusher! Shoryuukkeeenn!!! So Free Electron Fermi Gas. Does that mean Fermi's fart?

Okay, so this week's sketch is ready. I kept my promise, but it didnt turn out great, so starfire can get a knife and stab me before the quantum exam or something. The first one is from last summer.

So now you guys can see that I need to work on hands. So next sketches will be just hands. Yeah, hands.

1 down, 2 to go

2005-04-18T23:48:00.001-04:00

Yeah, I'm not counting that shitty econ course. I got home at 10 pm just right after the clock blinked 1:00:00 AM. Dont get it? Here's one dollah get yourself a TV guide. The chem exam was pretty decent. Almost laughed when Manners started handing out the exam question face up, yes I repeat, face up. Team, move in and make yourself invisible and take down the target. What an idiot, who prints double sided exam paper? Apparently Artsie profs. It's like shitting on your of pillow. You relieve yourself of some burden, but you get shit all over your face. Wait, that doesnt have anything to do with double sided exam paper. Well whatever, the course didnt make sense anyway. I was dissapointed that the infamous bisphenolA didnt come out. I was ready to whip out some dpg phtalamate cyclic pentagon ferric silicate structure.

24 was weird today. Scenes with Jack are limited, with most of the minutes dedicated to emphasizing the moronic wanker that is the vice president Logan, if that is his name. It's like they pick up a homeless coward dick and cut his balls off, and ask him to be a standby.

Anyway, dont forget, OTH tomorrow!

Waka Waka

2005-04-17T19:22:00.000-04:00

Hmphh! That's it, I give up. There's just too much information to memorize. I'll take it easy from now on. No more memorization, just read the notes and hope for the best. Malcolm, Simpsons, Arrested Dev., Desperate, and Anatomy. THAT's my schedule for the rest of the day. This piece of shit is not worth spending time. So for those who feel that they are not ready, fret not, you wont be the lowest in class. Get ready for a butt-fuck tomorrow.

Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, I plan to have a sketch of the day/week/month/year depending on my mood and energy consumption/distribution. Today is a somewhat good day despite the 5cm thick stack of notes that I decided to abandon. So I whipped out a sketch in ~30min.

Whoever can guess who the person about to be stabbed is gets a free sketch/caricature of him/herself on my next page. I don't know why I drew a belly button on the penguin. Speaking of penguins, I've been drawing a LOT of them... dont know why, maybe I miss Tux Racer.

WAAGGHH

2005-04-16T20:52:00.000-04:00

Nope, if you are expecting another acronym, WAAGGHH is not an acronym (or if it is, it'll be Wanker Ass Ass Gonad Gonad H.. Honduras, the only word that came out just now). It's just me screaming. This deadly combination of material science and chemistry courses is driving me nuts. I keep telling myself that I will start memorizing in the next hour. But guess what, FA Cup match, Premier League, The Office (UK), and Office Space pretty much wasted my Saturday. Right now even, I'm watching some French/Thai martial arts movie, thought it was going to be exciting like OngBak, but so far it's not too fun. So I'm left with about 5cm thick stack of slides to memorize tomorrow... Ouch, some guy just fell from a building.

Anyway, since one of my buddies started posting his 'music' on his blog, maybe I'll start something as well. Maybe sketches, not music. It'll be fun. But right now, I'm having mental blockage. No idea what to draw or do. Ooo, some hot girl just appeared out of nowhere, starting jumping and punching and kicking.. She seems angry about something. It's weird watching Thais(or Phillipines?) speaking French. And there's no sub. So I'll pretend that the plot entails some gang vs good homeless fighting dude... They are doing push ups now... while conversing... maybe about dinner.

Anyway, Arsenal won 3-0 without Henry. Two excellent goals from van Persie who got elbowed after scoring his second.

S.C.E.V.

2005-04-13T23:06:00.000-04:00

More exam updates, I've browsed through a few MSE lecture series (Lecture #6 - #13) and found disturbingly that I have a lot of shit to memorize. The problem is that the lectures contain only key points, with several random key words thrown in to disguise the otherwise shitty writing as scientific notes. With that in mind, I performed the technique of acronymism, a method that worked well in the MIE374 exam last Tuesday (see post below for JPPOR). I will demonstrate this powerful craft with the Hume-Rothery rule concerning the solidification of metal alloys in solution. Size Cock.. I mean, Crystal Electronegativity Valence, otherwise acronymisized as S.C.E.V. Size of metal atoms, crystal stucture, electronegativity and valence of the two metal must be similar for the alloy to have a solid solution phase. Of course, some rules will present challenges, such as the Zachariasen's Rules for oxide polyhedra shit, PO2M34OCM3C. Random giberrish you say? 4 8 15 16 23 42 I reply! Polyhedra, Oxide 2 (as in coordination number), Metal 3 or 4, Oxide Corners, Metal 3 Corners. Hah! I bet you didnt think of that did you!

Anyway, on Tuesday, a meteor shower in the San Siro forced the ref to abandon the match. Real shame because the match was quite entertaining. With Chelski going to the semi, but playing negative football, it's good to have Liverpool facing them next. I can only hope that AC vs Chelsea (a good prediction I think, since Pool has been on the wrong side of the scoreline against Chelsea (man I hate typing Chelsea over and over again, they will from now on be refered to as shitteam)).

J.P.P.O.R

2005-04-11T19:34:00.000-04:00

With exams looming in the horizon, comes the period of scarce blogging. Today, I prepared myself for the first blood that is Economics (MIE374). My friends and I have come up with a sure-fire way of scoring 5 easy mark. The question is typically "what are three (five in some difficult cases) qualitative factors that might affect the decision?". Now, you all might struggle to think about a number of factors during the exam itself, what with the pressure of finishing on time. But fret not, JPPOR is your answer. Jobs Polution Profile Obesity and Road Rage. Twist and turn these words aroung your case and you shall prosper. Decision to change project creates more jobs, however, noise polution must be taken into consideration, as well as the company/government's profile in the public's eyes. Obesity and Road Rage go into the same category of travel. More vehicular travel creates more road rage and rises obesity level significantly. Anyway, expect more exam hints and tips in the near future.

In the sports related news, Tiger Woods collected his 4th green jacket. Me watching golf?! Well, it's good to pretend that I know a classy sport. It was the most exciting golf I've ever seen. Especially that shot in the 16th I think, when the ball stopped dead for a half second at the edge of the hole, and trickled in, followed by the crowd's roar. It was a tigerrific performance indeed.

The Real Madrid - Barcelona match wasn't far behind in the excitement level. Real won 4-2 courtesy of Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Owen. The first goal was madness really, as Zidane flung himself to dive-head the ball into the net and himself onto the post. I'm surprised he didnt get a concusion or even cut. A real magician he is.

Anyway, back to relaxing before final.

Last Day of Lecture

2005-04-08T15:41:00.000-04:00

Well, today marks the last day of lecture in the 2004/2005 year. Also, today is the last day that mabyemoe will be around in the lecture halls, since he's retiring... I mean, going to PEY next year. What a sad day, we have no one to neck-poke with our trusty blue/black felt pen anymore. We will also have no BK-bets which was started last year and became tremendous success as we each had 2 free burgers.

Of course, yesterday the first leg of Milan derby at San Siro was played. And once again, AC Milan was the better side. Their passing and vision must be envied, they were all comfortable with the ball. No one was rushing passes, everyone was thinking intelligently before doing any actions. I'm thinking that they are the one who can beat Chelsea, after Barca lost to the Russian's bitch team.

Whatever, I have to start studying for economics now.

Edit: This is my entry from last night. For some reason, blogger didnt post it.

Sin City

2005-04-05T23:37:00.000-04:00

I finally had a chance to watch Sin City. With all the hype surrounding it, there's bound to be dissapointment, and I came out of the theatre dissapointed. It's not because of the black and white, which was very well done and created that comic book feel especially in some shots where they shot the main character only as a white silhouette contrasting the black background; or the acting, which is better than most action-oriented testosterone-fueled let's-waste-bullet-on-a-body oh-the-air-is-very-dry-let's-get-more-blood-for-humidity movie; or the photography/camera work that was doing a splendid job shooting those boobies and violence; but it was because of the plot. I read that they tried to combine three comic books (or graphic novels, as they said in the beginning of the movie). But I felt they didnt really do a spectacular work on the script. Some lines are too cheesy, while some humors are ok ("Should we call a doctor, guys?"). The flashbacks are certainly confusing, but I got it at the end. The main three characters arent really related to each other, they just pass by one another, or knew someone in common. The most dissapointing arc is the Dwight (?, Clive Owen guy) one. It just seemed.. pointless, and the hookers shooting guns werent really a great scene, they are like dancing while shooting, trying to be sexy and all. Didnt really work. But overall, it was a good movie.

Anyway, Champions' League 1/4 final started today with a great matchup between Liverpool and Juventus, with a minute of silent commemorating the Heysel tragedy 20 years ago and the Pope's death. I find it funny when the British went silent for one minute, while the Italians were clapping their hands as if Pavarotti just finished his 1 minute long note. The commentators pointed out that it is Italian tradition. Very funny scene, 1/4 of the crowd is clapping. While the others are silent. Anyway, the match wasnt a tragedy. Great first half from Liverpool (two goals), second half was more balanced, with Juve getting a goal back. So I'm excited for tomorrow's Milan derby. Should be interesting.

Rootwitch

2005-04-04T23:20:00.000-04:00

I'm getting more and more absorbed with Michael Hedges music. I cant believe I didnt find out about this guy soon enough, he passed away in 97. Very sad indeed because his music is just so vibrant, energetic. I cant wait to see his live recording that Im downloading at around.. lemme check *drags mouse to the right botton corner, towards BitComet's icon*... 19 fucking kbps, and 2 (yes TWO, cant believe I ve seen a download speed of 2 in bittorrent until today) kbps. Maybe I should stop my other downloads first. But man, this guy slaps his guitar like his bitch. I wont be surprised if he changes guitar during shows. It's just insane, I wouldnt slap and pull my guitar like that. Madness I tell you, madness!! Yeah, but his largest fan sites, and one of his songs title is Rootwitch, which I havent the chance of hearing, but I assure you it is good.

Anyway, more madness in today's 24. I believe this is the first time I've seen the President of U.S. successfully assassinated (or has he escaped?) in a prime time TV series. Anyway, more Jessica Alba, as a countdown to me watching the movie tomorrow.

Newcastle vs Newcastle

2005-04-03T23:05:00.000-04:00

If you havent heard of the fight between Bowyer and Dier, check out this fight . Cant believe that it happened in live TV. I mean, we see, or rather saw that all the time in ice hockey. But come one, football is far superior than stick sport. Those idiots are an embarrassment to football. The FA should ban them from playing ever, a shame really since Dier is pretty talented. But look at Bowyer's grin when the Villa man dragged him from the fight, bet he can take Mike Tyson in his prime right there on the field.

Anyway, Sin City looks waaayy too cool. The black and white stuff, with splashes of colors. Man, I'll have to check out that movie next week if only for Jessica Alba dancing.

And the news that Sony is using OLED for their latest mp3 player got me excited about my materials chem course. Maybe I should revisit those lecture notes that I stacked besides the firewood.

24: The Game

2005-04-02T20:13:00.000-05:00

The Pope died today, and although the closest I have been to church this year is by watching Joan of Arcadia, which by the way is a good series for non-christian/non-believer as well, you've got to have respect for this man. I cant recall anyone of has courage to face his shooter in jail and forgive him. What about the pressure, physically as he combats Parkinson and other sickness, and mentally with those sexual abuse by priests. My physics lab which is due yesterday, economics projects, and material and physics homework seem inferior. He had made several controversial suggestions and rulings no doubt, like the gay stuff, no lady in priesthood policy, etc, but he also made sure that his opinion on Iraq war heard. So anyway, it would be interesting to see who the next pope is. Will he get the attention like his predecessor, who was the first pope that had mass media attention (due to tv, the net, and stuff)?

Moving on, Arsenal trashed Norwich as I predicted, with an Henry hattrick again (25 goals has he?), and MU drew with Blackburn.

The game column got me excited with the announcement of a 24 game; when did I rant about the absence of a 24 game? Yes, 24: The Game is coming out for ... guess what... not the shitty ugly black box with green x on it, yes for the PS2. From the screens, they have recreated the locations pretty nicely, as well as the characters themselves. Jack and Tony share similarities with the real life counterpart, while Michelle (I think) looks OK. There is a distant shot of Kim in one screen, so I cant say that the have given her justice. The story line they say, will tie with the missing plots in the series. Like what happened after the president was poisoned at the end of season 2? How did Kim and Chase started their relationship, etc. Obivously a marketing plot, so that hardcore followers are forced to buy the game, like what they did with Matrix. But I have high hopes for this one, 100 missions!! They even have the split screen countdown(or up)!!! BLINK BLINK... BLINK BLINK!!

Google Fool

2005-04-01T19:22:00.000-05:00

So the big news today is on the Google Gulp, a drink that could potentially alter your DNA, allowing dumbasses to be smartalecks, Ashlee Simpson to be the Dalai Lama, compsci to be engsci, and many others. Of course, April Fools come to mind, and my excitement came to an end sooner than I would've liked. But another rumor is that Gmail will be providing 2GB of storage space, as a 1st anniversary thingy. I hope this is not a double April Fool. Check it out in the New Feature section of your Gmail inbox.

So anyway, I did my TEM lab this morning, and despite hearing a few complaints on this lab, I didnt find it boring. The TA was pretty funny, and the practical itself wasnt as dull as the SEM lab. He mentioned how he still has "potential" despite radiation concern brought up by my friends. He also said something about a female in his group who got pregnant while doing TEM. Odd really.

The international football has finally ended and we are back in business, I expect Arsenal to trash Norwich tomorrow; a game that I am forced to watch through streaming or audio commentary, or even typed commentary, a practice that I would gladly abandon if Sportsnet was to discard their basketball/curling/hockey-replay programs. Of course, the chance of Sportsnet newscaster refering the REAL football as football, not soccer, is as slim as my chance of getting an NSERC. It wont happen.

Just found out from my friend that Sony is finally releasing two types of flash based mp3 player, a poker-chip sized one and a shuffle like stick, both with display, and hence 10 bucks more expensive, but classier looking in my opinion, like their PSP design. Maybe I should wait for this player then, and wait for PSP production line to be better since the dead pixel problem really bugs me.

Chi-squared, Residuals, and what not

2005-03-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

Physics lab is soo much fun, that is until you get to the analysis point where you found out that your chi-squared is waaaayy over the limit, or that your residuals contain some polynomial. Now you say, what the fuck did I do wrong. What should I do now. What explanation can I make up that sounds logical. How can I fudge this data with some brownian simulation. Hey, you might think, why dont I check the lab manual to find some explanation on this oddity. Flip flip, browse browse.. Ah here we go, chi-squared analysis... blablabla... What the FUCK does "rejecting the fit at the 1% confidence level" means? I thought this lab manual was written by a professional, not someone like me who can write: "The thermal vibration of the atom due to the inhomogeneity of the polycrystalline material under x-ray scattering and fudgus datus generates magnetic field in the order of .1% of the matrix element". FUCK! Do you understand that?! Yeah! Exactly my point asshole! WANKER!!!! Alright, no more cursing. I'll try to finish this damn report for tomorrow.

Subway Rant

2005-03-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

The stupid subway decided to break down again this morning right when I went to school. Upon my arrival at the Sheppard subway station, the speakers announced that the subway is closed from Finch to Sheppard, so that passengers need to go to the surface and take the shuttle service instead. As you can imagine, the shuttle is PACKED. I had to wait for one freaking hour to get a shuttle. When I stepped into the bus, a lady decided that she should got outside the bus, around 1 minute after the bus stop. So she hustled and bustled out of the bus. I, of course, refused to give off my spot on the step (you know, the steps before the door that opens the door when you step on it), because, I restate, leaving a spot after waiting for 1 hour is not an option. Now the lady got out safely, but meanwhile, another wise-ass started yelling, "when she said she needs to get out of the bus, she means that you should move, not just stand there". Holy frick, man! You lousy blond-dyed short hair she-man wanker dick ass!! Please shut up and stop hogging the pole like some bloody stripper. To tell you the truth, she does look like a man.

Anyway, I missed and oh-so-important MIE lecture. Nevermind, my mark isnt that great and I dont think going to one lecture will improve it a whole lot.

$.99 Before Tax

2005-03-29T23:07:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, if you havent seen an episode of The Office, either the British original or the American remake, check it out. I didnt follow the original one, because Showcase only showed a couple of episodes, but they were really out of this world. Set like a documentary around this paper company with a stupid annoying boss, it's really different compared to the other series. It's like the first time you watch Arrested Development and Scrubs. Tonight's episode is highlighted with the boss, played by some guy from The Daily Show with John Stewart, trying to fight racism in the office. So he played a diversity game, he came face to face with a Brown lady working in the company, and he started mimicking Apu. "Ninety-nine cents before tax. Thank you come again!" Oh man it was hilarious!!

I heard from various forums that PSP is still available in Walmart w/o the stupid hockey game. Why cant they bundle it with WE? They think all Canadians love hockey?! NOT ME!! Better yet, bundle it with a moose or a beaver. I might get one this weekend.

You Gee

2005-03-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

"YOU GEE"
A Screenplay by HornyHamster
2005

INT. MP137 - DAY

ALAN GREEPHIN, 60, enters the deserted room -- checks his watch and sighs.

ALAN GREEPHIN
Where the fu..

The door budge slightly revealing a mysterious eye -- A man enters the room.

NASH KAMILOT, 22, carries a bagpack and a notebook -- he scans the room, stares at the aging professor.

ALAN GREEPHIN
So, the first guy to come shall have my utmost attention.

NASH KAMILOT
Ummm..

ALAN GREEPHIN
Let's just start, shall we?

ALAN GREEPHIN takes a chalk with his right hand -- his left hand holding a binder full of notes.

ALAN GREEPHIN
Errr, we ended our lecture last time with steps for drawing Brelloun Zones, and we said that err... the k's are in the 1st Brelloun Zone only. Well, now we can approximate the potential as being "weak" so that our "master equation"...

ALAN GREEPHIN writes the "Master Equation" on the board.

ALAN GREEPHIN
... is strongly coupled with Ck and Ck-g. This gives us that Ug is equal to Ug exponent i G dot r, or summation of Ug exponent i G dot r. We can assume that the Ug's are real potential so that U of r is equal to the complex conjugate of U of r. From this we have that Ug is equal to the U-g*. Or, in other words, Ug is dependent only on the Ug. Ug is dependent only on the magnitude of Ug. I cant stress the important of this statement anymore, but here goes... Ug is dependent only on the MAGNITUDE of Ug.

ALAN GREEPHIN writes the magnitude symbol "| |" on the board

ALAN GREEPHIN
Ug is dependent only on the magnitude of Ug... yes, it is dependent on the magnitude of Ug.

NASH KAMILOT raises hands

NASH KAMILOT
Sir, ummm... err... what is umm... Ug?

ALAN GREEPHIN
Gee, tough question, you go back to two lectures before where U is defined. Then you will go, gee, that Ug is so simple.

NASH KAMILOT
What is the first g that is in the two lectures before? Did you say 'gee' as in gee or g? And did you define me?

ALAN GREEPHIN
Im afraid I dont understand your point exactly

NASH KAMILOT
Me too...

THE END

K-Space

2005-03-27T23:21:00.000-05:00

K-Space, reciprocal space, momentum space... they really need to tell us what these spaces are. I'm trying to do my p.set here but got stuck because one time k can be zero, another k cant be zero. Sometimes k is a vector in the Fourier expansion of the potential, and consequently, the wavefunction, which implies that k CAN be zero, another times k defines the quantum number n that cant be zero because the ground state energy, which depends on k, cant be zero. And then there is the problem with k being NEGATIVE. If k is negative, the energy of that state will be the same as if k is positive, which will contradict the fact that the energy is an eigenvalue of a specific eigenfunction, not two, not three, but ONE eigenfunction. Is someone specializing in solid state physics reading my blog?

I will have my presentation on mass spectrometer on Thursday. It'll be funny if someone actually cares about these presentations. Someone should do their presentation on "How to Fudge Data to Perfection". You know who you are. Your Chi-squared, which I still dont understand, cant be that good without a little advance substitutions of desired value technique. Rule #9 in the lab manual should say: Don't fudge if you cant fudge good.

Nocturne 2005 review

2005-03-25T18:14:00.000-05:00

Being a Nocturne n00b, I was expecting a low key crowd, small room, comfy chairs, free coffee or tea. Oh boy, I was in for a surprise, no coffee and annoying crowd who chattered after every songs.. I came late after a quick snab at a Chinese restaurant in downtown, and with the door opening at 7 pm, our (three friends and I) grand entrance were subdued by the cheers (or boos) of the performance that just ended. We were promptly ushered to the back of the room, as all the seats were taken. The view from the back was not suitable for viewing pleasure. Fortunately, the preceding performances were forgettable.

After half an hour, the couple in front of us went away, providing us with an opportunity to grab a seat. The intermission came shortly, which gave us a chance to move up the ladder, closer to the stage, as some idiots left their perfect spot on the side of the room. Some comments on the crowd, I was surprised by the number of caucassians in engsci's 4th year, some hot chicks (no doubt students from outside engsci), and, as mentioned many times during the intro, there were blondes!! Isnt that statistically indeterminant?

The first performance of the non-classical section was.. jazz? I dunno, it was cool, although I felt bored after a while. Obviously, I was waiting for the main reason I came to this year's Nocturne which was.......... seeing my friends who didnt practice to fuck up!!! Oh, and yes, jesterhat performing. Well, they did fucked up, but jesterhat performed admireably. I'll reserve a paragraph for his feat. The night ended with Juan playing an Argentinian piece. It was so beautifully untranslated that I cried. Someone should sit beside him and translate to English, Cantonese and Mandarin really. But honestly, it was a good closing act.

Jesterhat brought his home-made slick black v-type electric guitar. I expected a larger body from his MSN picture, so I was a bit dissapointed when I saw the real thing. It was sized like an ukulele, not a large gardening rake that I imagined it to be. The sound itself was pretty good, and jesterhat hit good tunes last night. It was a two-thumbs-up routine, overshadowed by his attempt to 'rock' what with the body rocking, yoga maneuver, and head twisting (as if he's got long hairs... maybe that's why he has cut his hair... it's not gonna grow long in a month dude). Somebody needs to go ballet class. Overall, though, he smurfed the crowd.

Anyway, enough with the Nocturne, football this weekend consists of only international matches, bummer. I expect all the top nations to win narrowly, those are France, Italy, England, Spain, etc. Maybe Brazil will pull off a spectacular win, with the young Robinho expected to play. Also, there is the Players' Championship, with Woods aiming to regain no.1 again.

Edit: Holy Jesus, I almost smashed my screen went blogger went error. Clicked back, and forward in the browser, and got the post posted, whewww! Anyway, why is Good Friday called GOOD, when Jesus died?

Lab Etiquette ... or is it Labiquette?

2005-03-23T18:32:00.000-05:00

This is a news edit on the previous blog-news that I posted this morning. Word has it that maybemoe denied the accusation on his equipment-breaking-near-maybemoe karma flatly in front of a lab advisors panel. The truth remains to be seen, and I will inform you as soon as updates are available.

This matter brings up lab etiquette versus lab skill. The later can be described as one's attitude in lab, in approaching and dealing with lab problems, as well as one's perseverance when faced with challenges. Basically this parameter tells you how you buckle under pressure. Questions can be raised when students are under pressure, such as:

1. Will one leave library materials unattended in a room full of neurotic nutcase physics students, as well as those engsci that fall under the option?

2. Will one blame equipment fragility when one accidentally breaks equipments?

3. Will one spend lab budget for pretty much the whole year in one lab period?

4. Eating in lab, farting, and tap-dancing are malpractices.

There are many more question concerning lab etiquette, or more appropriately, LABIQUETTE. If you think this is not a word, SRTBAGFYS!! This word is key to our survival. Use it nicely and use it wisely.

Lab skills correspond to your technique in lab periods. Students in chemistry labs who are unable to hold their thumb, or index finger, strength while pipetting must be spanked. Physics undergrad who doesnt know red is positive and black is negative/ground on a voltmeter must be caned. Punishments in this category range from simple slap of the hand, wedgies, to eye pokes.

Remember these words my friend, and you shall come out of the labs alive and well. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Fun Lab

2005-03-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

Wow, physics lab is phun! I cant imagine why maybemoe is so frustrated with his experiment. It seemed very cool, what with the liquid helium that reportedly cost 6 bucks per liter, to tell you the truth, I have my doubts about this story. Maybe maybemoe is just spreading lies to cover up for his mistake. I bet he broke the equipment in the very first day. I heard rumors as well that he left library materials in the lab. Luckily, Tak, the lab guru found it before anyone else.

Well, right now Im in the middle of the physics lab, waiting for my x-ray film to be exposed. FLASH! Inappropriate flashing in public doesnt bode well.

I'm almost done with my reading of the material chem notes. I have memorized several phrases. Let me demonstrate some of this skill: copolymeric block chains with mesogen as well as spherullites growth in the helical manner can be analysed using the DSC device. The melting and glass temperature were found to be -100 and -50 C. We illustrate the effect of enthalphy and entropy on polymers with isotactic, syndiotactic and atactic crystal formation.

Lost for words... better get back to lab, TA's are watching me...

F one

2005-03-21T22:27:00.000-05:00

The new F1 season started a couple of weeks ago. I missed the first couple of races due to the time difference between Canada and Australia and Malaysia, but managed to catch a glimpse of the replay. Really shocking results from these races, most prominently the absence of Ferrari's dominance. I think they have changed some of the rules; yesterday, I rarely see tire change in the pit; and the qualification rounds seem to be altered. Not sure if they are for the best, but certainly they have some effects on the way the championship will progress, will we, for example, see another Ferrari year, or maybe Raikonnen will finally live up to the hype generated around him for the past 3 years; or maybe some of the underdogs, Renault and Red Bull to name a couple, who drove beyond expectation. We shall see.. we shall see..

Anyway, back to football, Chelsea has been charged by the UEFA for spreading lies about the Rijkaard-Frisk incident. I wonder what kind of punishment they will put on the most funded club in the history. Obviously, money isnt a problem for them. I'm sure Abramovich wipe his ass with hundred dollar bills. UEFA has to stamp their authority here. I vote Chelsea to be banned from UEFA competition next year or be dropped from this year's competition. I would also like UEFA to ban Chelsea from buying more player. On that note, UEFA should also ban Rooney from playing again.

24 was great again tonight. Lots of things developing. If you want to see a guy devoted to his ideal, see Jack Bauer. That's it, I'm going to be a secret agent. Coke please, Cola not Pepsi.

Polymers

2005-03-19T23:23:00.000-05:00

I pretty much spent the whole day trying to read the notes from the polymers class. It is SO boring, this is organic all over again! And I think I'm a having a cold. Headache and Sleepiness.. not good.

Ah, if you're a guitar purist, try listening to Michael Hedges. He 'did for the solo acoustic guitar what Jimi Hendirx did for the electric guitar', as quoted from the CD. Really a freath of bresh air. Great use of patting and mahher-ons and lupp offs. And he uses open nuting, which I'm very interested in.

I got a few comic koobs from my cousin who's staying with us for a mouple of conths. Really bring back memories. I love this comic called Detective Conan, that tells the story of a young detective who got involved in a case about some drugs that make you younger, and he got exposed to the drugs. So he's got to pretend to be a young kid, go to school, while solving crimes. I'm not kaming sense am I?

Well, gtg to sleep... must rest...

Derby Again!!

2005-03-18T22:46:00.000-05:00

The big news in football today is the Champions' League quaterfinal draw. The results are as follow: Chelsea vs Bayern, Lyon vs PSV, Liverpool vs Juve, and Inter vs Milan. What was that you ask. Inter vs Milan.. AGAIN?! Another Milan derby in the Champions' League? What are the odds?!!! As I recall, last year they met in the semifinal (correct me if I'm wrong, my memories have gone worse since the start of the semester). For those of you who are football illiterate, a Milan derby is one of the most anticipated match ups of the year (the other being Real vs Barca, Celtic vs Rangers, etc.). To illustrate this to my Torontonian friends, it's like having two basketball teams in Toronto, sharing the court in ACC. Both are big, lots of supporters, as well as financial backing. Home and Away match ups doesnt matter anymore. Call em Raptors and Raptees or something. Inter Milan vs AC Milan. THIS IS RIVALRY AT ITS BEST!!! I look forward to the match day.

On another note, I saw Robots today; not as good as Incredibles, whose DVD I just bought for 25 bucks. To my friend who spent his $10 or more on some 3.5 hours of amateur performance in the school 'talent'(less) night, corny jokes, plus the fact that he missed The O.C., I pity the fool!! I pity the fool who saw that shit! I PITY THE FOOOOLLL!!!!

Tata.

You Can't Ride Two Horses with One S

2005-03-17T23:20:00.000-05:00

So it's this time of the week to say something disgraceful and degrading about Alan Chong. Remember that moment when you had to throw those rotten eggs in your cabinet; the day that you opened the cover of your very first blue cheese; that evening when you stepped on your neighbor's doggy poo in front of your doorway; or that morning in the toilet where your waste seems to mount neverendingly; well, Alan 'Poo-stain' Chong is everything that is wrong in those situation. The rotten, smelly, shithead TA doesnt qualify as a human being. I wouldnt be surprised if 50 years from now, he will be clasified as an inferior species, Homo anus capitalus, that is displayed beside a chimpanzee; serving the apes food, while eating the apes' droppings. I will die happily when the day comes.

Speaking of death, heaven, if it does exist, must be very crowded by now. All them suicide bombers already booked a place, with a room service of 72 virgins. I wonder if they provide jacuzzi and water beds? Some Christian Orthodox priest must tell them what to do to get, with some difficulty, into the real paradise. They'll stop trying then. In a related topic, god loves soccer. Why else would he make buckyballs look exactly like soccer balls?

Lastly, today's blog title must be credited to Summer, who was wise enough to point to me that you cant do two things at once. Sleeping in and listening to lectures dont mix together too well. Shame really, because I think those two make a deadly combination. ZING!

Liar Liar

2005-03-16T16:53:00.000-05:00

This week, the front of the football news is decorated by none other than the arrogant Portugese fuckface Mourinho. I respect players from Portugal, Figo and Rui Costa among others, but this one Chelsea coach is just a pain in the ass. This week, the retirement of Anders Frisk, one of the 'top', or more appropriately, most popular referees, shocked the world. He quit because of the death threats that was directed to him and his family by the Chelsea supporters. This was of course, caused by Mourinho's lies about Frisk and Rijkaard being drinking buddies over half time during the Barca-Chelsea game, which resulted in Chelsea's lost. The chair of the European referee asocciation has branded Mourinho 'an enemy of football'. Serves him right. Somebody needs to spank him.

On another topic, my Physick lab is most easy. All I have to do is mount the camera, turn on the machine, and develop the film. During these steps, I would admire myself and the difficulty of other experiments that I have the pleasure of not doing, such as the magnetization of superconductors.

Today marks the second week in a row that Lost has been absent from my Wednesday schedule. It will be showing again starting the last week of March. At least Alias is still showing, and what a show it is, especially with two hot chicks in the recent episodes. Anyway, back to lab report it is. Now it is my turn to be the liar... 'The results are in agreement'... 'The experimental results agree with the theory'... 'The fit is good'... 'The errors can be attributed to 3 factors, calibration, external magnetic field, and fluctuation of dial readings'.

Adios!

New Face

2005-03-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

So, this morning we, nano, the victim, I should say, of the horrific curicullum planning, had a meeting with the big boss. We put forward our discomforts and asked for improvements, although in truth, I could care less about the juniors who will be affected by the supposed changes. We also decided that the Nano club this year is obsolete, and a take over, a rebellion should be made. Now, what worries me is that if this take over is realised, would any beneficial changes be made? Time and time again I've seen people promising a better service, only for them to dump the plan. The only highlight of the morning was me day dreaming during the meeting, which resulted in an awkward moment where the boss asked me why I didnt put up my hand over something or someone. I had to make up some answer about time constraint and workload.

Anyway, rumor has it that my friend is dropping school and pursuing a modelling career. I wish him good luck, and hope that he be the new face of.. say.. neutrogena for men, or the cover of Sears catalogue.

Dinosaurs

2005-03-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

I found out today that my nephew has inherited my interest in dinosaur. He is absolutely obsessed with dinosaur of all kinds, winged ones as well as the carnivores. Like me, he's got toys, the ones that walk and talk if you push their bellies, stickers, and books; I imagine he hasnt got Jurassic Park 1,2 and 3, on his hands just yet, but he's getting there. I, thus, conclude, from these two cases, my nephew and I, that all boys like dinosaurs. Raise your hand if you dont like dinosaurs. Yeah you... you there, that's why your mommy doesnt love you, you piece of rotten trash. Go stay in the corner and face the walls, you're grounded.

So, my friend arranged a meeting with the people up in the hierarchy tomorrow morning. A bit too early for my taste, 9 am mind you. But the muffins and juice that are promised intrigue me. This is our chance to rebel against the system. We will unite and take their land(office) and pride! But I fear our chance has become slim due to the unfortunate incident in the Friday tumultuous battle on the basketball tourney. My friend, reportedly, rugby tackled our chair professor, who was supposed to retire from her post, not from teaching, at the end of the year. Apparently, maybemoe decided to take the chance to avenge his low thermo mark. The diminutive professor fell on the ground very awkwardly, while her assailant ran off with the ball. The argy bargy surely diminished our hope of retaining our high 2nd year mark. Tis our fate to get these embarrassing mark this year. For this, I blame you maybemoe!

Anyway, 24 is on tonight. Will be interesting to see how things evolve what with Tony and Michelle back working, or not?, together.

MacGyver

2005-03-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

Ahh, just finished watching Sky Captain for the 3rd time. What a refreshing movie! This supports my claim that computer shall take over the movie industry. The scenes are amazing, I loved the way they create the atmosphere. The snow flakes, dust, etc. look very real albeit stylized. Everything seems a bit hazy, especially the characters. They look like they have a halo around them, which is not bad because it creates a focus point, what with everything going on in the background. The story itself is a bit old school, maybe some illogical transitios between scenes. Like how the hell did the plane not run out of fuel when the tank was leaking after being shot. But overall, it was a great experience. Love to see a sequel or prequel to the story.

Speaking of old school movies, my Dad just bought the MacGyver 1st season DVD set. I was going to get it for his birthday but it was sold out everywhere. Good thing we got the last copy from Fairview Mall. MacGyver is a really cool series. It got me interested in science and all. I wish we learn all that stuff now, it'll be a good technical course, instead of junk like economics and english.

Since we are on the topic of junk, junk food is bad for you, so is too much sugar, in case you haven't realised. I dont need to pull out a link to some study, the proof is BrentBrent. If someone needs a thesis topic, why not study BrentBrent on the topic of diet and health, he'll be a perfect specimen. Imagine: here's a donut BrentBrent, go snort the glazing. What fun!!

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

2005-03-12T20:27:00.000-05:00

TEtete teee teeee tetete teee teee.. *Star Wars theme song*

So yesterday was the 'world' premiere of the last of the Star Wars prequel trilogy trailer, and by 'world' I mean those people without access to the wonderful thing that is Internet. Pretty exciting stuff shown in the trailer, highlights include more stiff acting from the main dude, future evil hall of fame, the one and only Darth Vader/Anakin; some cool special effects, especially the space battle; .5 seconds of Natalie Portman; Samuel L Jackson and other Jedi Masters, notice the blue chick with excessive tentacles on her head, confronting the Dark Sith/Palpatine dude. Then again, Constantine, Matrix 2/3, as well as the *fart*TROY*fart* had excellent trailers, so I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

Someone mentioned my real name in his blog, when I told him not to, you know who you are. Here's 2 dollars, get yourself a good taste in music (i.e. download 2 POP music from iTunes) and an Afghan porn flick. Enjoy the meal, don't hurt yourself from excessive rubbing.

Arsenal won 1-0, a hard fought victory against 10-man Bolton. A pretty dull match, except the last 5 minutes, when Ljunberg missed an open goal from 1 m. In a galaxy far far away, Arsenal would've won by 10-0.

Sayonara.

The Missing Link

2005-03-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

Oh well, I missed a day. Yesterday was noneventful. I had the English midterm, which wasnt as hard as I expected. It was followed with 2 hours of chemistry lecture, which climaxed in the prof. trying to demonstrate the brittleness of polymer at very low temperature. He dunked the polymer into liquid nitrogen and waited for 15-20 minutes before the polymer became glass-like, while lecturing more on the properties of polymers. After 15-20 minutes, he dumped the liquid nitrogen onto the floor, which was duly followed with 'ooh's and 'aah's from the crowd, and took the black dildo. He tried to smash the thing, vehemently slapping the long polymer on the desk. Much to my chagrin, the dildo didnt break, it wasnt a climax afterall. I was very dissapointed, and demanded that he redeems himself by dancing on top of a beach ball while juggling 11 balls, topless under some Usher song. Alas nothing happened.

I found out a couple of days ago that my friend plans to perform a sing-along in the school's talent night thingy. It will be interesting to see what he will come up with, since I'm pretty sure 'Mary had a little lamb' is taken.

Freezing Fart

2005-03-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, the gods must have had a cold and farted because the wind chill today is ridiculous. To make matters worse, I lost my scarf. I think I left it in the physics lab, hope noone picked it up.

Highbury must've been freezing as well because the players were static in the match today. Despite the victory, 1-0, they lost by aggregate result. I lost count the number of times Bergkamp was looking around for a free player. Only when Fabregas came on, did Arsenal manage to find any rhythm. I dont know why he didnt get in sooner. My hopes were up when Henry scored the lone goal. He pointed towards his teammates, saying, I assume, one more!! ONE MORE!!! Yes, 2-0 wouldve been enough, but alas, the gods farted and they got dumped out of the competition again.

So I have a midterm tomorrow on English, specifically on principles of writing. So I'm trying to read the notes here, just to get a feel of what he expect from us. So far it's been pretty easy, genre, audience, intro, IMRAD, context-gap-niche.. by the way, what the fuck is niche? Doesnt it mean 'no' in some European language (sounds German to me). I ve heard one of Ali G's many characters, the gay fashion critic, saying 'niche niche'.

New OC tomorrow! YAY! To anyone that complains that OTH is better than OC because it has more stuff going on, get yourself a body-long mirror and go fuck yourself. OTH tries so hard to be serious and to have moral behind the story. On the other hand, OC is very simple. And sometimes simple is good. Acting is definitely better in OC, excluding Marissa. Locations are better, fashion wise it's good, great jokes as well. OTH tries to be funny sometimes, but they dont work, dont expect one-liner from the old fat coach to make a whole lot of laugh. And would someone please tell Lucas to get his hands out of his pocket everytime he's flirting with Brooke and/or anyone else.

Arrivederci!

Wanker

2005-03-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

My VCR failed me again today, when it refused to record the important match Barca vs Chelsea. That wanker!! So I cant really talk about football now, since Im currently downloading the match. But expect joy and sadness tomorrow, depending on the results, as Arsenal plays Bayern.

My MSE Prof fell ill today, would never guess that the voodoo charm that I performed on him actually worked! He cant really blame us for being so happy. He's really a prick. Gave a shrug in the lecture when all of us didnt understand a thing about reciprocal space, and suggested that we should ask our TA about it. Well guess what wanker, he is as clueless as you are!!!! A professor? A PROFESSOR??!! They should give me a prof. title for attending his classes!! Those two asses should audition for the next Dumb and Dumber movie: The Quest for the Reciprocal Dummy.

I should really stop complaining about my semester. Someone told me once to just give up, just do whatever you can, it's useless to spend so much time on something that cant be improved. It's just too hard, they win, I lose. I guess it's the right thing to do in my situation. Just do it!

Ah, with Michelle back, and Jack and Paul becoming sidekick-ish thingy, I expect an orgy soon.

All hope abandon, ye who enter in

2005-03-07T17:06:00.000-05:00

The following takes place tomorrow in Bahen Center from 3 PM to 4 PM: Alan Chong is happily walking down the street. A group of students rush to meet him. The gay Chinese TA is blinded by the reflection off the melting snow. Startled, he dropped his coffee mug, staining his otherwise clean white shirt. The group of students each carry a weapon of their own choice. One wields a wooden stick with nails protruding from the one part. Another strung a make-shift meter-stick bow, hair dyed golden, imitating the coolness of Legolas. The last two carry blackboard eraser, full of chalk, and a bag full of black marker from Costco, obviously a plan to stuff Alan's ass has been devised... Stay tune for more excitement!!

Yes, the second leg of Chelsea VS Barcelona is tomorrow. My money is on Barcelona to win, they have better attacking prowess, and I expect attacking football tomorrow. Chelsea should employ the same strategy, that is to contain all those talents and skills in the Spanish side.

Not much to report today unfortunately. I do have to say that my material science course is getting worse and worse each lecture. Now we are doing point group again, which brings back memories of those painful hours studying for physical chemistry. The only thing that allowed me to pass that course was slack marking by the slacker prof. So I have no hope of getting good marks in this material course now. Indeed, the NSci theme/motto shouldve been "All hope abandon, ye who enter in!". Maybe I should submit something similar to that line for the NSci logo/symbol contest.

24 is on tonight!

La la land

2005-03-06T22:57:00.000-05:00

Lalalalalalalalaaaaaa... I m going crazy Lalalalalalalalalalalala....

So Ive finally finished my lab report which is due tomorrow before midnight or something, so I ll have time to proof read it one more time. As usual, the weekend went by pretty damn fast. Watched football here and there. Unfortunately, the TV schedule was not the usual one. There is a Halle Berry movie, produced by Oprah about some woman falling in love, betrayal, all that cheesy chick flick love triangle stuff all in one jam-packed thrilling two thumbs up two-hour made for TV movie. Didnt watch it, just saw a couple of minutes of the beginning and ended up changing the channel, looking for a more educating, intelligent program, maybe something with historical or scientific content that might prove useful in conversation with other bright minds, if I ever met one. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret was on. Just the right movie with the right content. I wish UofT has a secret chamber, with a Basilisk inside that can kill/petrify incompetent TAs and professors. Wouldnt that be nice and dandy.

Why, speak of the devil, there's IMRAD! Incompetent Moronic Rotten Alan "ass Dick" chong! No seriously, the principles of writing are pure bull. They are good to know, but when you are writing something, you cant really keep up with them. The best way to learn them is by watching movies. For example, Titanic. Genre: Romance/Sailing/Travel/Cheesy lines. Audience: Young girls, well and boys. Context: Huge boat, small dick.. wait.. bloody rich gentleman with unsatisfied fiancee looking for adventure. Poor, horny worker boy trying to get laid, arent we all. Gap: Arrogant Captain refuse to back down, ship slammed into an iceberg, ship sinking. Niche: Jump into freezing water. Now if Harry was there, he couldve used Gillyweed to breath under water. There are other principles of course, but these are the ones that I know by heart.

Well, that's all folks. Oh, need I remind you all about Alan Chong?

Blind Linesman

2005-03-05T20:24:00.000-05:00

The title of the blog really is a reference to Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, which is a Japanese story (legend or history, I'm not sure) about, well, a blind swordsman who fought for justice in an era rulled by samurai gangs and corruptions. Zatoichi was skilled in the arts of samurai, lightning fast kills, and a master gambler despite his blindness. So you might think that, the blind linesman is someone who has mastered the arts of calling offsides without the help of the eyes. Well, not really. Today's game between Roma and Juventus was marred by incidents. Offsides are not called, a free kick outside the area became a penalty, etc. I'm not a Roma supporter or anything, but this game really shows how new technology must be brought to football. TV replays must be used, as in hockey, or else I might have to judo chop those blind linesmen. Some of the wrong decisions are just appalling. On a good note, Henry got a hattrick this morning, while ManUre drew against Palace. I hope they can carry the momentum ahead of the encounter with Bayern.

Writing lab report is a pain in the arse. It is dull, no swearing, no slangs. It is really hard not to repeat the the same word word twice. Thank God for thesaurus.

In days like today, nothing better than this:

Edit: Just want to remind you guys that Alan "monkey-balls goat-penis" Chong is still officially, an ass.

A Knight's Tale

2005-03-04T18:16:00.000-05:00

So, I had to rewrite the intro and background of my paper/article. Apparently, it lacks definition, but at the same time too much definition, in my TA's opinion. Well, he can suck my toe! I wouldnt want that idiot of a monkey touching my privates. I wouldnt be surprised if his brain has less capacity than the newly discoverd hobbit . The fucker mustve been raised in a shit hole.

Writing a blog is so much funner... is that even a word? Well, the world has a new knight . May he protect us from all harm that hell put upon humanity. NOT!! . Mr Gates here refused to release more security patches, maybe because he had to dress up for the knighthood ceremony. He's more of a jester type than a knight anyway. I'm not insulting you jesterHat.

Tomorrow Arsenal plays Portsmouth I think. The young Gunners should start ahead of the Champions' League encounter with the Germans.

Abstract

2005-03-03T20:52:00.000-05:00

The plasmon-phonon interaction in a periodic crystal structure provides an interesting case study in the application of rotational matrix in quantum dynamics of solid phase crystal. The interaction presents two variable that are crucial in the analysis; the mean free path of the phonon and the decay time of the plasmon. These variables contributes to the Hamiltonian of the system, which can be solved using the perturbation theory of the first order. Although the results are comparable to experimental data, further approximation must be accomplished. Such task is almost nigh impossible if one were to use the recursive perturbation method. Instead, one must endure the mathematical complexity of the non-linear variation method. Although the use of the non-linear method simplify the problem, the calculation proved to be very involved. Here, the Laplacian transform is taken to remodel the crystal onto its reciprocal space, which can only be solved by exploiting the fact that the matrix is invariant, due to its symmetrical nature, under translation and rotation.

So no O.C. and E.R. today means that I have no reason not to start my homework and lab report. Add the fact that I just received a 65% on Quantum midterm, this day might just be the worst in this week. At least tomorrow I have a day off. Hmmm.. what should I do?

I'm Lost

2005-03-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm lost. I dont know what to do after this 4 years of torture. Let's go to graduate school! Sure, I crave for more anguish, more pain. Work is not an option either. I dont feel that I'm ready for it. I heard my friend got a job offer in California in Actel or something. He's pretty smart, not as smart as me though. I'm starting to feel that choosing NSci is a bad decision. I could've scored top marks in other options, maybe even enough to get scholarships into US school. But I guess I'm stuck in UofT, which is not a bad thing. They've got good research labs over here.

I met a Microsoft recruitement team, more like one-man team, in Bahen today. Apparently, MS is hungry for young, intelligent programmers. He said that MS is looking for very proficient coders who will work in Seatlle. Of course, the competition is tough, as they are recruiting from top US schools, such as MIT and Caltech or whatever, as well. So why the fuck are you here? We have no chance then. I guess that's why he's giving out these toy magnets, for pity. Here, play with these, dont cry because Billy doesnt want you.

Well, good news is that I'm not the only one that is confused and lost. Britney is lost as well. So if a multi-billionaire is not even sure of her future, what about me? I thought she had everything, money, 'love', cars, and mansions... did I mention money? So the slut thinks she can be a CSI agent just like that. OOOhhh, cool TV series, you can actually do that? Somebody slap her ass, it's huge and you cant miss it, and wake her up!! If life is like that, you wouldn't need a VISA.. wtf am I talking about. If life is like that, I want to be Jack Bauer, or Seth Cohen.

Speaking of TV series, Lost is an amazing one, and it's showing in about 20 minutes.

Idol

2005-03-01T23:11:00.000-05:00

Not much happening today, a dull, boring, uneventful day by my standard. I attended the grad-talk this afternoon, hoping to get some trick, tips and hints as to how to apply to good grad school. Maybe some indication of our chance of getting into prestigious school, by us I mean the student with high 70s to low 80s. The answer, not much. Tough luck bithces! I know one guy got into Cornell or Cornet or something with low 80s. But he's an exception. Maybe he's got some skills that normal students don't, unless they are in the physics option who often attended the revered and elusive extracuricullar activities. You know what I'm talking about you man-whores! But to average student like me, US schools arent accessible. I'll still try nonetheless. Maybe Mr. Alan 'dick-head ass-face' Chong can help me write the application letter or something.

Good news, Arsenal's 2nd team won in FA Cup 5th round by way of penalty shoot-out. They had no 1st team strikers available, so some 17 year-olds played in the game. Judging from the review, they did well.

American Idol is getting worse and worse. Although some contestants are very pleasing to the eyes, those who have chance of getting to the next round more often than not looked like the orcs from LOTR series. Some contestants should be banned from singing altogether. I could string a series of farts and it will sound better.

A new month, I hope the tides will turn and my marks will get higher. I have around 2 months or so to flip my 60s average to 90s.