hwan.com

meditated for 15 minutes, involuntarily opening my eyes. Not today, the other evening. if a task I need to do occurs to me, I need to write it down or else it will haunt me (through remembering it) later. wow I am really bad with updates, for which I apologize. I'm just.. too boring and busy to talk about anything. I saw Fantastic Mr Fox, that was primo. I don't have any stories to share, other than I recently realized that I am horribly, disfiguratively broke. Work is totally kicking my ass. So yeah, job and money stress await me in 2010. Been online dating, which I guess means I'm out there and meeting people, sometimes face to face! I bought Agricola and have yet to play it, although Settlers has been getting some action. I am taking today off, so I'm typing in my pajamas, a bit of free time before I have to get ready and get out there. The weather is a cool -6C, but it'll get up to zero later. Christmas and Boxing day are supposed to be 4 and 3 degrees...

Not my furniture Ok, yup, I bought a place . It still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I mean, I believe it to be true and am slowly (slowly) warming up to the idea but until I actually move in it's still a rather unreal thing for me. Certainly, it is nice to not have to flip through ugly, ugly housing listings. Now, paperwork and all the tedium that it brings are my daily plate. Oh, and financial strains, indeed and oh yes. Speaking of strains, my freakin' harddrive died! And it would seem I lost everything -- old photos (more recent ones are on flickr and at work), shows, movies.. and all my saved games! My personal notes on stuff. Gone. Well, not GONE gone.. presumably they're in stasis, comatose on a few drive platters, locked by a $1K key i.e. a data retrieval service. It's a frakking nightmare I tells ya! Although to be truthful I am getting more reading done at home; nearly halfway through The Crossing. Saw a couple movies recently, A Serious Man...

Well it's a fine how-do-you-do; my other memory stick died! For those keeping track, that's the second of two 1GB OCZ sticks dying. At least, I think it's the memory that's gone bad -- I suppose it's entirely possible that the motherboard sockets are gone, which would be quite the pain. On top of the cost of replacing the motherboard, there's the installation process. So yeah, I'm really hoping it's the sticks themselves that have gone. Strange, it's so quiet in my apartment when the computer is off. Is this how it must've been, back in the 19, uh, 1910s? I remember as a kid disappointed when in a house that didn't have a computer or TV. The reason for rebooting my computer, for indeed it was otherwise working fine before I turned it off, was that I'd been fiddling with the webserver and needed to update my HOSTS file. Yes, fiddling with the webserver because I'm getting familiar with MVC and in particular, Symfony, a PHP MV...

The product I'd been working on has finally been released . And yet, after all that toil and trouble, I do not feel much better than before. Perhaps I'd grown used to the stress of a deadline looming over me. Indeed, I seem to recall saying something to that effect before but cannot be bothered to look that up now. Having it out there in a mostly usable form is a relief, certainly. As a sort of reward for myself I purchased, and have since played, Dragon Age, the new BioWare RPG. Ah, that age old system of pausing battles, telling all your little dudes what spells to cast or action to take, unpausing to let them do it, and then pausing again. Artificial turn-based combat: delicious. Reminds me of my experiences with Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate, which is a good thing. No news on the housing front. I'm averaging about 1 acceptable property a month, so it's slow going. I'm in no particular hurry and do my best not to get worked up about it.

Work.. it consumes us, surrounds-- no, that's not how I meant to start. I have been pouring myself into work, a mould I am familiar with: staying late, stressing about deadlines, focused in my coding and procrastination. So many lines have passed through my mind and fingers, but to what end they will achieve is yet to be seen. I am not (yet) proud. I am a little worn. Movies! Lessee... Where The Wild Things Are (2009). I liked it. Not for kids, I'd say, though sure they'll enjoy parts. The look of the film is wonderful; I couldn't imagine it done better. Paranormal Activity (2009). Awesome. Enjoyable. Made me laugh at how good it was. Even now I smile thinking of how masterfully they've managed to tap into fear, to draw it out and run with it. Dude, just go see it. Some Like It Hot (1959). Pretty funny! Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon. I did find that I get uncomfortable watching beautiful women climbing over each other. How very o...

This year's Nuit Blanche was marred by large crowds and mundane exhibits. Is it my old man syndrome speaking thus? It's how I feel and I am certain that there are some who feel the same as I do. Certainly the size of the throngs cannot be disputed; I believe this year attracted the largest numbers yet. It wasn't all bad, I guess, but my dislike of line-ups was taken to its limit Saturday night. Sunday I stayed in, having gone to bed near 6 AM and getting up around 4 PM, groggy with a broken Circadian rhythm. I watched the first season of Party Down , an excellent new comedy. The next following I woke up feeling awful and was plagued with a malaise I had not felt in ages: a decidedly colitis -like sensation, only without the sharp abdominal pain. I plan to retire by 11 so that my body can get some extra rest. I guess I've watched a few other films since I last wrote, including: Wet Hot American Summer (2001). It has quite the who's-who cast in comedy , ...

Stressed, I'm seriously stressed. I mean, it's just money, right? Who knows what the morrow may bring? I am to be dropping a deposit on a place (766 King Street West) tomorrow evening. My agent gave me the impression that my bid will be low, but I based the amount on comfort level and conservative estimates of what I can really afford (as well, to a lesser extent, what the mortgage broker said). So I guess there's not that much to be worried about. But shifting large amounts of money around does have a kind of toll on me. Not having had dinner is of little help. Positives of the place? Close to work. Great kitchen, lots of light (skylight, south-facing), high ceiling, balcony with a BBQ. Negatives: No parking spot, no indoor bicycle rack. No amenities. A separate entrance would've been nice. I am not convinced that I want to live close to my work. Sure, it's convenient being able to walk to the office, but there's something to be said about working in one neig...

Wall Street I didn't bring my hat, which perhaps is just as well: the weather in New York was cloudy and wet. Drinking at night, sleeping in the morning, walking around the city during the day, resting in front of the TV and getting ready for the next night. Throughout it all I got to know my cousins a lot better, we not having much contact for the past, oh, 17 years? That's really the thing I take away from this trip. Oh, sure, I took some  pictures . There are a bunch of that High Line walkway, a section of raised train tracks converted into a park around a mile and a half long. It reminded me of that Ray Bradbury story, the one where the man travels back in time to shoot dinosaurs and accidentally steps on a butterfly, changing the course of history. Anyway, it was nice to see the park before it is inevitably ruined for everyone. I have, somewhat against my will or inclination, been playing Civ3 again. I had decided to not drink for the rest of September, but I ...

I was in Windsor, of all places. A wretched hive of vice and ramshackle buildings: spotless white casinos next to tenement complexes and boarded-up houses. I went to visit a friend, an old acquaintance from my Canadian Space Agency days. He has not changed in the least. We talked of our days at the CSA, of the work, of our bosses, of the astronauts. I enjoyed meeting the other Asians in Windsor; apart from some tourists, I think I may have been the oldest Korean there, which was very novel. However I'm not inclined to go again anytime soon. And next time I shall stay at a hotel! A short work week, this one; I will be leaving for New York on Thursday to visit family. After this, I shall rest my liver I do so swear it. I do somewhat lament my accidentally booking for the 9/11 weekend, oh vey. I rather forgot that the date means something down there. On September 9th, 2001 I was in the living room watching TV and my mom kept saying, "Oh my God." Spent a frantic h...

So, like, what's the word, boyos? Tired of writing, that's the problem. No, gosh, what an awful start. I was thinking of putting down some thoughts on the recent Michael Bryant cycling incident , now that some more details have been leaked. The cyclist had left his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend's apartment less than an hour earlier, with police called in to handle the domestic disturbance. He was also possibly drunk, and may still have been drunk and upset at the time of the incident. Bryant or his wife, the passenger, made a 911 call during the incident. The cyclist likely died of injuries received while hanging on to the side of the car, although it's possible that he was also run over at some point. What I wanted to say is that the situation is not that black and white. People panic in high stress situations, especially if they're not used to it. Perhaps Bryant's flight instinct kicked in, wanting to protect his wife from a belligerent stranger. Maybe ...

Dear dear dear.. I've spent many an evening watching movies I've meant to see. Here's the latest batch that I've burned through: Alexander Nevsky . The haircut that endures time and space. An operatic track is used in The Simpsons episode G.I. (Annoyed Grunt) First Blood . Yup, that one, drawling Stallone and all. Why are small towns given such a bad rap? They Live . I think I got this one so that I could experience the source material for Duke Nukem. The bubblegum line was the best part. Gran Torino . I very much enjoyed Eastwood's laying down of slurs. The Hurt Locker . Excellent, one of the best of 2009. The ending's a bit long/forced, but doesn't detract much from the rest of the film. The Outsiders . I would've loved this as a teenager. I'd be a greaser, definitely. Up . Wonderful prelude. My eyes watered. Who Killed The Electric Car? I'd avoided this one but it's quite informative, if a little biased/heavy-hande...

A busy week it was. Firstly, big news from work -- they're outsourcing my job! But.... they are also "promoting" me into development. The quotes are there because no-one's mentioned anything regarding a pay raise. I might be getting one, I might not. A lot more work, a lot more responsibility. However it is yet to be seen. Moving from customer support to development is a major transition and I'm not sure I quite know how I feel about it. On the one hand I'll get a chance to fix all those bugs and issues I'm always having to log. On the other: meetings, schedules, and projects, oh my! Also, my days of getting into work at 10 are pretty much over. Tuesday was karate, not much to say there. Wednesday I saw Up and really enjoyed it. I've only seen a handful of Pixar films and they have all been rather excellent and Up continues that trend. I found it spoke especially to me, an old man in my own mind. Thursday was a social with some of the ...

Camp went well, I think. I am hesitant to say that I had an awesome time because I'm still digesting the experience, as it were, having returned Friday evening. Also, the kids' enthusiasm dwindled as the days passed, homesickness becoming an ever constant knell. Not sure how typical that is, or whether I played a positive or negative role there. I am glad to have done it, sure, and I feel much more ready for next time. I mean, I learned so much about the experience that I could do it again, sure. Only, not so soon -- it was draining, requiring one to be "on" from 7 AM to 10 PM every day. I will in any case definitely bring better sleeping supplies next time (ie. a pillow and a blanket). Hopefully I'll see a property or two tomorrow. The real estate market in Toronto, so it seems to me, right now is very competitive -- not a lot of properties and the good ones get snatched up within a few days. Not an ideal situation for someone like myself, who is slow ...

I got myself a realtor, yup. Looking at some properties, lofts and townhouses (Copy and paste the links and add a zero, "0", to make it work. They expire at the end of this week). I guess there's a medley of good and bad stuff out there, hope to get a closer glimpse of some this week before going to camp. I got pre-approved for a, in my opinion, redonkulous amount of money, which does broaden my options somewhat. Not that I'll use the full pre-approval amount, it being stretched to the absolute limit of what I can afford. Although already I find myself thinking about money, something I've wanted to avoid doing ever since finishing university, a time where I was constantly worried about having enough. It's just a big pain! And just the THOUGHT of having a mortgage has such an effect on me, yeesh. Tipping less, buying less, scrutinizing bills. Make it stop! I was at camp this weekend, getting ready for my time there next week. I hear all these st...

I don't have much to say about my grandmother. My memories are fairly fragmented, can't really picture her that well. I know that she used to carry me around a lot, wrapped tightly to her back. I remember her curly hair and her fondness for sweets. She never really had a good grip of English and I can't recall ever having a real conversation with her. We buried her Saturday morning, a grey overcast day with a light rain. I hadn't expected to cry but I did, when I heard my aunt praying for her through her sobs. It was nice to see all the family together, a rare occasion by any measure. I went and bought that Plants Vs Zombies game and it was a fun 10 hours or so. I enjoyed the demo and the full game did not disappoint. I guess it falls into that tower-defence genre of games, where you place units to prevent the enemy from reaching its goal. I pretty much like every aspect of the game except the clicking part --- there's so much of it! What is up with cas...

Summer's here, somewhere. I actually haven't much to mention. Time, it goes by and there it goes. Went to a couple shows (saw The Balconies, The Reason , Sunrisers ), played some go , participated in the Ride for Heart , tried a friend's recumbent bicycle . Oh, the Ride for Heart was good. My friend and I raced for much of it, finishing the 50 km in just a bit over 2 hours, with a short break between and some easy riding in the first 12 km. I enjoy going fast and blowing by other cyclists, and this is really the only time/place I can do so without feeling guilty about being a hothead. See ya later, sluggards! We went for pho afterwards, a filling meal on Spadina. I've also played a couple hours of Rock Band, that pleasure of getting to know a song without needing to learn guitar. Foo Fighter's Everlong (love that video!) and Jimmy Eat World's The Middle being, I think, my favourites to play. Ok, I'll try to do some work now. Catch you peeps ...

Blargh, i guess the reach of my laziness know no bounds. Since my last post I attended Toronto The Good and finished my bicycle maintenance course. Am reading up on condos, haven't actually looked at anything yet. Did some volunteer training for ooch , my stint is coming up in July. Hmm yeah, basically, not doing any productive work (which I consider to be 2profiles and hwan.com) and spending a whole heck of a lot of time goofing around. Not 100% true of course. My bicycle has received some much needed care and is riding fairly smoothly. I did manage to get yet another flat. One more and I'll replace the tire, which apparently is a cheap piece of rubber not too far removed from garbage. I straightened up the head piece, finding the quill to be quite the rusty hunk of metal . Bottom bracket axle needs changing. Replaced the brakes with a set that are hardly any better. Cleaned and re-greased the rear axle. Ok, but seriously now, why is there so much road constru...

I've been wondering what to do with hwan.com, it being somewhat boring and tiresome to update. Do people even visit anymore? Well, whether they do or no, I'm going to give the site another facelift. Time to rise anew, my Frankenblog! I spent some of today tinkering with a JavaScript function that returns a calendar month in an HTML table , taking the year, month, and an array of values representing days that require links. A fun exercise. Next, I'm going to FINALLY build some utility classes/functions for handling the hwan.com entries. The current page code, while neat, is quite broken and a pain to use. Things that have been going on? A lot of StarCraft, bicycle classes. Some reading done, some exercise. Very little socializing or shopping. Thinking about buying a place has made me rueful about my improvident spending habits. I wish there was an easy way to get a home.

I was walking home and fiddling with my iPhone when it slipped out of my hands and bounced into a storm grate. Scrambling on the floor I tried in vain to squeeze an arm through. I continued home distraught when I ran into Sarah Silverman. I don't actually recall sleeping with her but it may have happened, I'm not sure. There was another girl in the dream, in another setting, unnamed and faceless now, a sidenote in my imagination. I do remember coming back the next day to the grate and prying it open. I lowered myself gingerly into the water and lifted my iPhone out, shaking off the excess water. I don't look at it, for fear of what I might see. I've grown rather accustomed to it. Outside of the iPod functionality I primarily use it for its WiFi though I have been more active with taking pictures and posting them to twitter. Speaking of which, I'm finding it very difficult to come up with material for hwan.com these days. It's just that there's no...

Monday I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and my sleep hasn't been quite the same since. Well, nearly the same in that I haven't gotten to work early for quite a while. I do enjoy getting there early (a rare happenstance), before anyone else, my tasks rolling and everything in the zone. Ah, to sleep on time. An alarm to go to bed! Someday I may actually do it. Played a few ICCup games of StarCraft, did alright. My game has improved considerably, but I still need to practice my technical skills and micro. I've chosen Zerg as my race but the constant expanding and building is such a hassle, albeit a necessary one. It's seems obvious why so many players choose Protoss, with their simple, powerful units. Unfortunately I've only one friend at my level, but that's enough for us to both continue growing, building off the skills of the other. I've also been reading the Battle Angel Alita manga. Addictive and thankfully not that long. I like that it deal...

Bicycle class yesterday. Need to get a new chain and new brake cables, will want to tune-up the latter, install the former next class. Lots of characters. Story-filled old men, quiet young dudes, shady fellows. It's quite entertaining though I do find all the stories tiresome. Not the teacher though; I find him quite the sage. Funny, I keep thinking I'll have something to say but I'm afraid I don't. No real tales to tell. OH I've been getting into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs . Love the lead singer's voice, reminds me of Siouxsie Sioux. Zero, Maps, all the tracks are really right up my alley. I saw them play on last weeks Saturday Night Live and was impressed. Also I might start getting into Glass Candy as I am fairly in love with their version of Computer Love . Yeah sorry, can't think of anything else worth mentioning right now. Mayhaps after the weekend?

I woke up and realized that I hardly drank anything today, Good Friday. At work it's easy to keep drinking -- water, coffee, juice, that's all we got and plenty of it. But at home it simply doesn't occur to me to make myself a drink. Perhaps subconsciously I just don't want to wash the cup. Whatever the reason, I hardly drank anything. Two cups of instant coffee( awful I know), that's it. So, a few glasses of watered down Tropicana and I'll return to bed. I kept thinking it was Saturday, the day had all the trappings of one for me: no plans, no work, got up just before noon. Cleaned the apartment, did a little laundry, watched some TV, played some games. Good day. I sure could go for some ramen right now.

So it turns out that having a hole in a bicycle tire tread causes the inner tube to explode when inflated. Two inner tubes later, I've replaced both the front and back treads and my bike feels very different. The new treads are tacky and stick amazingly to the road; almost too well as they kick up a lot of gravel, making a disheartening sound as the stones grind against the rain fenders. My attempt to clean the chain has resulted in a clunky ride -- the internals of the rear axle no longer spins freely. Not that I remember it doing so but it does dwell on my mind now. I bought some MOO minicards and while I don't have much excuse to give them out I do find them fun to have. I'll need to remember next time however that they really do have very limited real estate for pictures as they managed to crop out the edges of the ones I'd uploaded. I also got that little keychain dispenser which is larger than I'd imagined but still quite neat. Quiet weekend thus far. ...

I blame my tumblr.com page for the lack of updates. And Twitter. And FaceBook, though to a much lesser extent. Those are good places to check up on my "What's my mood?"-type updates. I've been meaning to add a link to my tumblr here. But obviously I'm too lazy to do it, though writing about it is no problem for me. Making (and eating) dumplings. So that jury duty thing didn't turn out to be much of anything as we were dismissed early, there apparently being no need for us that week. I did a lot of sitting around trying to do work on a WiFi connection and, as such, not getting a whole lot done. The experience is very much like waiting for your flight at the airport, after you've passed customs -- you can't go anywhere, you're stuck in a big room with a bunch of strangers, and you're all waiting for your number to be called. I didn't really meet anyone there, but it was refreshing to be reminded of who exactly makes up the popu...

I was catching up on my 30 Rock viewing the other day and Liz Lemon said something to the effect of "...It used be that you only had to wait for a phone call. Now guys can ignore you with so many different devices..." e.g. Facebook, myspace, twitter, MSN. That insight struck a chord with me -- there really ARE so many ways to not meet people, to not talk to friends, to not communicate. Or perhaps micro-communicate, batch communicate. Microbatch communication? Publishing thoughts, 140 characters at a time. I feel a bit stretched thin. Jury duty, indeed. Just the selection part mind you. They sit you in this big room with around 200 other people, waiting for your section to be called. I spent the first day fiddling with the laptop work lent me so that I could still be productive, though Remote Desktopping on One Zone high speed internet is an exercise in time travel, the bad kind where things sometimes take a while to catch up to where you are. I will be going to the courthou...

Wow, I'm taken aback by the vitriol that many critics are throwing at Watchmen , notably those on Rottentomatoes . Seriously, 43% on the tomatometer? Ouch. I enjoyed the film enough that I picked up a copy of the comic, something I'd always wanted to own but just never really had enough interest or reason to do so. I found it for half price, this latest reprint (the 22nd?) likely causing Alan Moore to spin in his grave, poor fellow. Still, from where does all this hate for the movie come from? I admit that it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's easily more entertaining than 90% of the junk out there. I don't watch that junk but I'm certain of the validity of my statement. Bicycle season! And with it comes.. flat tires. My ride home from Koreatown somehow earned me a flat tire. I went to buy some wrenches today, but I got the wrong size. Perhaps the time to replace the tread is nigh.

I got sick on the weekend, some kind of flu-like thing that kept my energy levels way down. So low did I feel, depressing, morbid thoughts swimming about my head as I tossed and turned, unable to rest peacefully. All better now, thankfully yes. Now if only March would get back on track towards warmer days and nights. Unwilling to venture outside I finally got around to installing and playing Mass Effect, BioWare's action RPG from 2007 and it is good. It reminds me strongly of Knights of the Old Republic which isn't that surprising -- why change a winning formula? Planets to explore, lots of crazy races and creatures, fun combat and easy inventory system, plenty of character dialog and development and NPC banter. A fair bit of walking in this one too, but I don't mind it all that much. I've only played about 10 hours or so worth and so far everything I've seen has been pretty delicious. The planet surveying brings to mind Star Control 2, what with the resource searc...

I am trying that Indigo shortcovers.com iPhone app and, while I do enjoy the actual reading of books on my phone, the software could really use some work. My biggest beef is that it connects to the server if you haven't opened the application for a while, even though all you want to do is continue with the page that was already downloaded. Which is itself another issue -- the app seems to only download a chapter at a time. Is it so hard to load pages in the background so that I never have to face a loading screen? The interface while reading manages to annoy me by taking up valuable real estate with an unnecessary menu bar at the top and bottom (guys, it's a touch-screen device; I don't need back and forward buttons). A Kindle-killer I think not. It especially doesn't help that the search engine for titles is dastardly poor. Oh hey, yeah, The Watchmen this weekend. Not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I entirely expect the plot to be mangled and perhaps stripped of...

Curse this weather! Until the day I howl for a cooler time I find these -24 windchills quite upsetting. Thankfully today is the last day for this zaniness, at least for the foreseeable, forecastable next few days. The cold troubled me yesterday during a workout, my ankles locking up as I stretched. It could just be the old in the them but I'm going to blame the chilly walk from St. Clair to Eglinton. St. Clair being where I participated in a group interview to volunteer for a camp counsellor position, something I kind of rashly (after much goading) decided to try for. I enjoyed myself enough, though I do wonder if my quiet (i.e. shy and introverted) nature appealed to the interviewers any. That reminds me, I need to look up what it'll take to get my Bronze Cross recertified. Hmm, it's changed since I took it. Which admittedly was back 1993. The new office is fine. Did I mention they moved me to a new office? Well they did, it's on the floor beneath the ma...

Huh, I saw another person reading one of the Belgariad books today, this time on the 504 streetcar. Seeing it really brought to mind how I loved that series, way way back when. Right now I'm actually reading The Fellowship of The Ring again, though I can't recall when I previously read it. No wait, I know exactly when it was -- when I was brushing up for the Peter Jackson movies ! Oh me. I've been fiddling a bit with the Luxury hwan.com theme. Unfortunately it makes this page look ugly if you don't have ClearType (or the equivalent) running on your machine. If it's too awful please let me know and I'll change it back or something. I did a whole slew of sit-ups on my carpet and now I have a blister on my tailbone. Seriously, what is up with that??

I rather enjoyed that Oscars. Hugh Jackman, kudos to you, sir. Loved the intro song and dance routine. Kudos to Steve Martin and Tiny Fey, Ben Stiller. The reality television reviews before each actor award, hmmm, not sure about those. I liked it when the person giving the speech added their own personal touch to what sounded otherwise like a very robotic speech. OH big kudos to that little bit James Franco and Seth Rogen did, ha, that made me laugh. Also: domo arigato, mr roboto. So Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner, eh? I guessed as much after that musical number they did but for a while I thought it was going to be a race between Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I recently saw Slumdog Millionaire (as well as The Wrestler and Kung Fu Panda), and well... I would be hesitant to call it the Best Picture. It was entertaining, certainly, but it had a few things that didn't sit well me. Mostly I didn't think Dev Patel was very good -- wooden, bland, simple. Sor...

Howdy. Winter still here, but a crack is there, letting light through. After that Twestival shindig, I kind of got pulled into that meta-status world of Twitter , Blip.fm , and Tumblr . Contrasting Twitter and Facebook is an interesting exercise. I mean, Twitter is more about listening in on other people's thoughts while Facebook is this claustrophobic high school with kids showing off their latest works to each other, gossipy, glossy. To the internet, everyone! Let's all soak up that brilliant glow, those heavenly emissions. See what I see and despair! Or just take note of this mundane detail I've decided to fill the dead air with, it's just me wanting to get some attention from anyone Facebook decides should hear. Toronto! Snap out of it! Facebook isn't free -- you're spending your life reading notifications, one page refresh at a time. I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant but I guess it kind of did. Me, a dinosaur of the blog/webjo age, ...

Last night I went to TwestivalTO held at Circa, a club where the old SegaCity used to be. I found out about the event mostly through boredom i.e. I was restless and used Facebook to find out what was going on in Toronto. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I envisioned a bunch of young male nerds with smartphones drinking domestic beers, crowding around the few women and/or texting/twittering constantly.  My assumption proved quite lacking regarding the male/female ratio but the incessant smartphone use was spot on. I also didn't expect to meet the Raptor ladies or to get on CityTV (their news site, anyway -- I'm not sure if the snippet was actually broadcast). Er, don't get too excited about that video link, as I don't actually say anything. Yes, immortalized holding my iPhone and a Jamesons. All in all a memorable night, considering my reservations about attending a Facebook event. I do still have concerns over how much good for the charity (if indeed "c...

Oh hey, ok, someone finally explained the "base metaphor" for dating in convenient image form: Base System . I remember mentioning my confusion about the system (but am unable to find the entry now), with only a homerun making any real sense. Seems I'm not the only one . Oh American sports and your zany wordplay ! Weather's warmed up somewhat eh? I took advantage of the fair air to work off a hangover Saturday afternoon by taking a run through High Park. Dear it was tough, arduous work! So very out of shape and now so very sore, mostly on my thighs. Haven't gotten the bicycle out, maybe will do later this week. Oh hey I watch The Transporter for the first time yesterday. Was it yesterday? Yes. And while I enjoyed I also laughed at how incredibly silly it was. It just plain does not make any sense, none at all. Picked up some new music, Sigur Ros and MGMT. Well, new to me anyways.

Wednesday night I saw Waltz with Bashir at the Carleton with some friends. I really liked the music and sound, which the animation made stand out -- every footstep and breath and bullet all the more audible. The beach memory music in particular I found haunting. Yeah, the first half or so of the movie I felt was excellent, when the memories are still just fragments, broken pieces that don't line up. It's when they start forming a coherent picture does the movie begin to turn into this .. well, lame, boring documentary. I had hoped that the final statement would be more profound or beautiful but alas, I did not find it so. Still, overall I quite enjoyed it. I've also been playing a bit of Mount and Blade, this neat independent game, a sandboxed action RPG. The bit that brings me back to it is the mounted combat -- there's something very satisfying about riding circles around bandits and shooting arrows at them. I just.. I can't quite explain what it is. F...

First things first, I got my new iPhone. I had lost my old one the night of my birthday , it having likely fallen out of my pocket into a taxi from the same pants I lost my trusty SCP-4000 . Comfortable those pants but negligent in their holding of valuables! And I say "old", but I only had that iPhone for about 3 months, sigh. So, it turns out that to replace a 16 GB iPhone costs $650 CDN I kid you not. Once again I had to turn to Rogers customer service to rant about the price thrust upon me. After an anxious wait they offered me a refurbished one for $250 which I greedily took. It has since arrived and iTunes, surprisingly to me, restored all my files and setting properly and conveniently so that I am back to where I was, minus $250 but without the scratches and the wonky Home button my old iPhone had. Today I applied that Invisible Shield I had ordered on-line, a small project reminiscent of my days working with vinyl graphics. Second things second, my apartment ...

Birthday was a quiet night out with a friend, playing pool and such. So much so that I seem to have misplaced my iPhone, yes precious. I briefly flirted with the idea of not getting a replacement but it seems nobody wants me to go without it. I miss the iPod functionality most and have turned to imeem.com for my temporary music fix. Oh, but back to my birthday. Yes very quiet and I have no recollection of the latter parts of the evening. Exactly. Saturday I spent primarily in bed haunted by odd, unexpected dreams. In the late afternoon I was able to finally drag myself from my hangover grave to frantically clean my apartment before my family came over for dinner. My mom brought her usual serving of far more food than necessary, though all completely appreciated. Presents, yes. Nothing extravagant, some books, a plant, bowls, homemade cookies. Funny, I was so stressed trying to get my apartment in shape and it seemed to all work out and I guess I stressed for naught. Sund...

For no real reason other than curiosity I installed Prince of Persia first. The graphics are as tasty as the screenshots. I love the animated oil painting design, and the colors are rich and summer-y, the scenery divine. The gameplay is somewhat mixed -- I'm not a huge fan of platformers, so all the jumping and running and climbing didn't do much for me. At first the instant respawning was quite nice, then the animation became annoying (because I died so frequently) and then it became an acceptable punishment as I got better, the animations less obtrusive. And, even though visually you can see quite far, it felt like a very small, tiny world since you could only stand in a few places here and there. The fights, again, beautiful to watch, but somewhat tiresome in practice. They were satisfying to win, sure, but they felt more like a timing puzzle than a battle. I did like the banter between the Prince and Elika, at times comedic, other times serious, and later on playful and ...

Yes, in the last minute throes of uncertainty, I went to Kitchener to hang out with Growl and company for New Year's Eve, thanks to an unsolicited last minute offer. The night was... largely, mostly, almost entirely uneventful. Drinks (SoCos) and shots (Jager bombs) were had. Photos were taken. Names were forgotten. Coats, mittens and scarves were lost. Words were slurred. Asses were slapped. Friends were reunited. The day following the only nearby place to eat was Tim Horton's, Waterloo otherwise a ghost town. Growl and I then played some eight hours of Mirror's Edge, that new first-person parkour platformer. I have to say, it looks downright gorgeous -- such clean, simple designs and graphics, without any of that murkiness that seems so popular today. The game can be difficult at times but when you start getting the hang of wall-jumps and wall-running, well, it's an exhilarating, rewarding experience. As a tumbling/running/clambering-over-things game, it...