hwan.com

I guess Christmas wasn't that bad. I did however suffer from a most dreadful bout of the flu, or something that I thought might be the flu -- soreness, an extreme lack of energy, dizziness, chills, a runny nose. I was out for a good four days, four days of misery and woe, physically and emotionally draining. And while the worst is over, I find that my emotions are still somewhat subdued. Indeed it's hard for me to find much joy in anything, anymore. My mind continues to turn over the events of the past year, of words said and left unsaid. I remember being unhappy and yet.... and yet I yearn to return, unwisely and beyond counsel. While ill I caught up on a few serials, namely The Office. I also started watching Justice League , mostly on a whim, and am very much enjoying it, though I admit that much of that enjoyment comes from guffawing and pointing out all the logical flaws and plot inconsistencies. Even so, more than a handful of the episodes have brought tears to my wi...

Ok, I wanted to quickly write up about the stuff I've been learning at those LiveGreen meetings. A couple weeks ago we talked about Toronto's waste disposal -- someone in the know explained how green bin waste is taken care of. Rather than just being cooked for a couple weeks (as some places do), it actually gets processed. First, everything's ground up into a finer mulch, to which water is added, making a slurry of guck. It is then put into a spinning tank, letting centrifugal force do the work of separating out the different parts so that heavier or lighter stuff (wood, or diaper tape, etc) is conveniently removed from the main mass. Tt this point it goes through the cooking stage (if I recall correctly, maybe not?), before it is mixed with regular soil as, by itself, it contains too much salt, etc. I also learned that, while there are no regulations in terms of how much non-City garbage has to be recycled, private waste disposal companies are actually quite good about...

It pains me every time I think about it -- my parents have sold their house. They've done so many renovations in anticipation of it going to the market, you'd hardly recognize it now. Well, the interior anyway -- the kitchen is completely redone, upstairs is all hardwood, as are the stairs. The cobblestoned backyard patio they've had for a while but looking at it now I'm amazed anew at the result that my dad put so many hours into. I really should visit them more often. I've just about picked out a new video card, and am aiming for either the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 ($280) or the XFX ATI Radeon 5870 ($380). I'd forgotten that there are so many flavours of each GPU these days. I used Ars Technica's system picks to help me get to my decision, which I've always found useful in the past. My current card, a Sapphire ATI HD 4870 x2 (2x1GB), conks out whenever I start doing anything that tasks the 3D GPU stuff, though at times (and more frequently with each ...

Ok, I did mean to update earlier but I've been... preoccupied of late. Well, my video card slowly dying is part of the excuse to be sure. I only realized today that it's actually over two years old! Seems like I only got it last year. Have I been playing games on it for that long?? It's a tiresome bore, I'll tell you. And I'm somewhat torn on what to "upgrade" to -- I bought my Sapphire ATI HD 4870 x2 2GB for $580, and it's now worth $300 new, which is actually about what I would like to spend, money not flowing as easily as it once did for me. I'll have to bite the bullet soon enough, there being a stack of games (Civ 5, Dead Rising 2, StarCraft 2, Fallout New Vegas) beckoning me to return. So Toronto voted in Rob Ford! What rot, what rot. I'm sure most of you are by now aware of the "amalgamation gap", the stark difference in voting attitudes between downtown Toronto and the suburbs. I mean, on some subconscious level I suppose I kn...

Oh what? Rocco Rossi has pulled out of the Toronto mayoral race? How is that whenever I start warming up to a candidate they pull out and give their support to Smitherman? Is the fear of a Rob Ford-Toronto that strong? Well maybe. The scary part of course is that Ford has even gotten this far. Or am I misguided in thinking this? Apparently a disturbing number of Toronto voters think so. I just can't tell what's reasonable anymore, that's how messed up, how incognizant the voting situation. So, I guess I'm now aiming to vote for Smitherman for Mayor and Pam McConnell for my ward, Ward 28. Unless of course you want to talk me out of it. But I'm not sure that I want to vote for Pantalone? Would he be better? Damnit why are all the candidates such losers? Argh!

Movie time again! This time, an indulgence into "guy" films, though have I ever really strayed that far from the genre? Perhaps it's the cold weather, or the mind-numbingness of work, or the feeling that my life is accelerating away, like so much sand squeezed from my hands. Food, Inc. (2008). It almost turned me off meat -- chicken, pork, beef, all of the scariest meats. The film highlights well the fearsome food-making machine that is the Monsanto Company ; they are wicked and everything they touch is death, carefully formulated blight. Inception (2010). Indeed, I saw this only a few weeks ago in the theatre but I still feel like talking about it. Or rather, mentioning that I loved it On an unrelated note, what's up with all these YouTube comment spammers? See for yourself! I think y'all know my opinion of them ; may they suffer horribly, each and every one. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). My love of the Aubrey-Maturin series led me here, to a fascinating true n...

Yo. I shall try to quickly summarize things, for those wondering what's up with the Hwan: This past weekend, I did the Thanksgiving thing Monday with family at my aunt's new house in North York. The kids (my sister, her boyfriend and me) got a demonstration from my uncle of some of the products that his business is offering, throwing in some entertaining (though tragic from a business sense) stories of the difficulties he's faced in getting sales off the ground. Saturday I hung out with Loopy, visiting a magic shop , playing with an RC helicopter and playing 10PinShuffle , one of the nicer iPad apps out there -- it's one of those games that works so well on the device. I may even drop the $4 and get it, it's that good! I also joined Live Green Toronto , and hope to take part in, uh, something soon! It sounds like you mostly just stand around being helpful and give information to people about the programs available, pointing out ones relevant to them. I mea...

Of course, the Friday night I pick up StarCraft 2, Battle.net decides to go down for a few hours of maintenance/upgrades. Which means that I couldn't log in, preventing me from playing the game I just bought. Oh technology, why must you be so ugly? But I haven't come to you to write about the annoyances of StarCraft 2, have I? No wait, I have one more complaint -- my video card is prone to overheating! Indeed, after being off for so long (20 or so days, while I was away on vacation ), my computer started overheating at the mere hint of doing something GPU intensive. I also coincidentally upgraded my ATI (now AMD) drivers, so that may also have played a part in this near disaster. With some careful rebooting (as my machine would also freeze randomly), I was able to install a handy tweaker application, ATI Tray Tools for my Radeon HD4870 X2, mercifully allowing me to manually control the card's powerful fan, which I now leave blowing at a much higher speed than was p...

So I am back from my 20 days driving with the girlfriend through Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. A different route from last time in March , Maine exposing us to Mount Desert Island and the gorgeous Acadia National Park . We spent six days on the island, with many of those hours shopping or strolling in Bar Harbor 's many shops and cafes and restaurants. The star of course was the park proper, an immaculate fairy-tale of a park, verdant with vivid greens and blues, breathtaking views from the mountain and the surrounds. Jordan Pond, with "The Bubbles" Provincetown and Cape Cod, well, we saw more of the same as last time, only under a much warmer sun. The water remained chilling however and my swims were brief, shoulder-shakingly, teeth-chatteringly cold. We managed to see Yarmouth and Wood's Hole but mistakingly assumed we could just drive to the ferry dock to go to Martha's Vineyard (apparently one has to take a shuttle from Yarmouth) so instead we...

Numb, emotionally numb, as if all my body were frozen; every beat, held in time. I fought the long fight but in the end I succumbed and I feel the end is very near. The future now lays before me like an empty road, desolate, unknown, I stare at it through dry, blinking eyes. I commited relationship suicide, for lack of a better term. I'd always imagined myself to be brave and strong but I see more clearly now, clearly do I see the coward and weakling I inhabit. However, now that I've stepped on this path I must see it through to the end; going back is to return to a larger abyss. Who knew love could be so painful, so terrible? I'd not believed it until now, now that I've experienced the strange and the unexpected, the impossible to otherwise know without passing through it, a scathing and burning. In the end, was it me that I ran from, from my own crimes of heated passion, my inability to maintain full control of my faculties at all times? I feel changed, to b...

So I underwent a physical examination a few weeks ago (June 17th) and received the results today. Overall my health seems pretty good: Glucose plasma fasting 4.8 mmol/L (3.6-6.0 is normal, 6.1-6.9 is impaired, >6.9 is "provisional diagnosis of diabetes mellitus") Creatinine (a measure of kidney function) is 83 mmol/L, which I believe is normal. Bilirubin total: 11 umol/L (normal < 23) Urate: 371 umol/L (200-440) Cholesterol: 4.33 (desired: < 5.2) Triglycerides: 1.38 mmol/L (< 2.3) HDL cholesterol: 1.31 mmol/L LDL cholesterol calc.: 2.39 mmol/L Vitamin B12: 337 pmol/L (possibly deficient if < 150, probably if < 110) Ferritin: 165 ug/L (80-300 is normal, Iron deficient if <12) Sodium: 141 mmol/L (135 - 145) Potassium: 4.6 mmol/L (3.3 - 5.1) Chloride: 100 mmol/L (95-108) Alkaline phosphatase: 46 U/L (40-129) AST (Aspartate transaminase): 29 U/L (<37) ALT ( Alanine transaminase ): 1.55 mIU/L (0.35 - 5.00) Hemoglobin: 143 g/L (135-170) ...

Well, it certainly has been a while. Am I still passing through a cleansing fire? I certainly feel my mind is not entirely there. This past weekend my girlfriend and I went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a short drive from Toronto, though it's made much longer by traffic. We stopped in St. Catherines, which I liken to a somewhat less classy Waterloo. Oh, of course, we drove through the fields of wine country, which, if you skip actually going inside the wineries, can be done in nearly a day. The stretching verdant fields of grapes is much like you'd imagine, and a rewarding sight. The next day we walked about the downtown proper, the sidewalks teeming with tourists. All of the eateries we tried were overpriced and staffed by disinterested teenagers serving uninspired, bland dishes; thankfully we brought some sandwiches for picnicking so not all of our meals were complete disappointments. We saw Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard , which was billed (seemingly to me) as a comedy...

I went to Buffalo on the May 2-4 weekend. Victoria Day. The same. Anyway, I left the photos at home so I don't have anything to link to. I haven't much in terms of a story to tell anyway, other than why would anyone go to Buffalo? Shopping? Sure. Some historical buildings, of which we saw a few. The most upsetting bit was that the swimming pool of the Holiday Inn was closed for the weekend! Much grumbling ensued. Ok, whatever. I've been playing Starcraft 2 regularly since I got it a couple weeks ago, and I'm slowly polishing my Zerg play. Here are a few mental notes I've developed in that time. Practice: Concentrate on one race, one map, one match up (although these last two are not directly supported by the Quick Match system). Often not that easy to hold an early expansion -- scouting is very key here. As Zerg: Use Overlords to lay down Creep highways to expansion, on important corridors. Consider using a few burrowed Roaches to sneak behi...

Hola amigos!! Summer has finally come around the bend and I now find myself trying to find the optimal balance between cooling the condo and dealing with the noise of the heat pump. That is to say, if I choose too low a temperature the heat pump is on frequently and it's loud enough that it can wake me. Of course, if I use it less then I'm sweating uncomfortably. Such was the battle fought last night, a three hour battle I might add. The thought of sleeping downstairs occurs to me now. I've been watching StarCraft 2 beta videos for the past while and although the game is a lot different from the original, there seems to be enough carried over that older SC1 skills still apply in the new game. I like that they've cleaned up much of the micro, allowing players (like carpel tunnel-sufferers like me) to concentrate more on strategy. It does seem that many newer players still have problems with their macro game , something I (and perhaps many others) consider the ab...

Indeed, this Hwan is losing the energy to update hwan.com. I have watched a few films of late, though recalling them is not all that easy. Kick-Ass . I enjoyed the fighting and the daughter/father team, but the rest of the film was mostly unpalatable. The obvious Toronto landmarks mercifully distracted me from some of the more painful bits. Disgrace , 2009. Shakes up everything without closure; some things can't be fixed even when they obviously need to be. Uncomfortable to watch. Malkovich is excellent. Battle in Heaven . Yikes, just yikes. Another film difficult to, ahem, swallow. Leaves a lasting visual impression, even if the plot is otherwise non-existent. Broken Embraces . Well-acted enough but predictable, obvious. Departures . I thought it was rather enjoyable. Quirky. Right up my alley. 3 Extremes , 2005. Not for the faint of heart: bloody gristly crunchy goodness. Fruit Chan, Takashi Miike, Chan Wook Park. In truth I only saw two of the three storie...

How was your Easter weekend? I spent mine in the Muskoka area , enjoying a strangely quiet long weekend with good weather; nary a mosquito to be seen. Some rain but mostly mild, sometimes even hot, weather. Falls near Bracebridge The relative emptiness was due to the earliness of the season, as I'm told that people wait until May before making the drive up. As such the roads and towns were open to stress-free exploration; my favourite kind of roadtrip! Along with those trip photos , I also posted the housewarming pictures , which, if you haven't been to my place yet, should give you a better idea of what my place looks like. The party itself went well enough -- lots of people showed up, but less than I'd accounted for. Certainly my fears of running out of food were unrealized. And I was disappointed that only two of my coworkers made an appearance. Anyway, thanks to y'all who showed up! Oddly enough I thought that I'd have a lot to write about but, s...

Miserable would adequately describe how I feel right now, for yet again I am trapped in the clutches of a cold, that awkward beast. I would really appreciate science figuring out a sure-fire way to lessen its symptoms for I could use some real relief right now. I have been taking Tylenol to reduce the fever but my liver (or something in that area) gave me some pains the other night so I'm avoiding it right now. With this unforeseen time at home I started watching The Big Bang Theory, which is growing on me, a light fare perfect for occupying my cold-numbed mind, distracting me temporarily from my ails. One particularly pleasing scene is where Sheldon admonishes Penny at the supermarket: "Well, there's some value in taking a multi-vitamin but the human body can only absorb so much. What you're buying here are the ingredients for very expensive urine." Whoo, take that pseudoscience! I've also been reading Bobwhite Comics , a webcomic about art students ...

Cape Cod Got back from my Vermont, Boston, Cape Cod trip Sunday night; some 3000 km of driving! Lots of walking too, so I'm somewhat still recovering. In actual fact, I stayed at home today with a fever and stuffy nose. Nicest day in March and I slept much of it away. We did have some pretty good days weather-wise in Boston and Cape Cod, but it was snowy and/or rainy while in Vermont, my first trip to any of these places. Ok, so the itinerary went something like: Drive from Toronto to Burlington, VT. Enjoy the Vermont countryside, stop in a couple tiny towns. Check into the wrong Holiday Inn, drive to right one. Burlington reminds me a lot of Guelph; laid back, quiet university town with lots of pro-environment sentiments, hippies. Ripped off by the parking meters. Lunched at a Skinny Pancake. Small drive down the highway through the mountains. Dinner at an Olive Garden where a friendly couple struck up a conversation. Visit Montpelier before heading down the s...

A couple weeks ago a couple friends and I worked on a submission to an "Internet viral video" contest put on by Doritos (the corned chip people). After throwing around a bunch of ideas, we agreed upon the one that took as little effort as possible and still be technically better than the other submissions. We came up with LOLCAT CRUNCH , which, viewing it again now, is not really all that great or entertaining (though you'd be doing me a big favor by rating us, indeed, possibly financially). It's strange -- the night we edited it, the thing that came out of that session was so amazing and awesome and we were sure we'd do well. However, when we submitted it we were given a message stating it would take 48 hours before the video went online. Two days, three days, then the weekend passed and still our video didn't show up. We created a new account and submitted again and long story short, it took over a week before the video was accepted and went online. ...

So how about those Olympics?? Actually no, I haven't much to say. I've been proudly telling everyone how I've been using the CTV website to watch the games at my leisure, skipping and replaying as I see fit, how ALL television should be. I cheered for the Canadians and the South Koreans, happy to see both doing really well this year. There were plenty of hiccups (luge/bobsled course) and dramas (Ohno, Lysacek vs Plushenko) so one could hardly call it a flawless hosting but has there ever been a perfect games? I was originally going to write about all the minor nuisances and things that I'm having to endure with this condo -- leaky taps, the low humidity (causing havoc on my respiratory until I realized what was happening), the sounds from the street, the streetlamps outside my windows. That was until I encountered a MAJOR nuisance: water leaking from the unit above! Between that happening at 2AM last night and construction starting at a vigorous 7AM today, I did n...

Well, the move was a disaster -- I was ill-prepared for the moving day and severely underestimated the amount of work left to do. So much so that I pretty much moved on the Saturday, Sunday and a bit of the Monday. My lesson to take away? Never turn down help to move when it's offered because even if there are too many people you have yourself a gathering of friends at the very worst. I shudder at the nightmare that was the move, but am thankful for the Herculean efforts from a2chow and pops, whose patience in my dire time of need made the improbable possible. Kudos to qyv and his gf for making Sunday much more bearable. So yes, I am now more or less comfortably in my new place. Am I happy and excited? It appears.. not. The place is great, don't get me wrong. I am however dogged by the constant weight of financial concerns. Turbulent times at work and a recent, shocking iPhone bill from Rogers have proven to be a dizzying knockout combo. A far from ideal start to thi...

Is there nothing more disruptive yet appallingly belittled as the common cold? I speak of course as a current sufferer, and in fact have been suffering for nearly a week now. Seven days of coughing, sneezing and flipping between periods of chills and sweats; what a bother! But I do feel its end to be near, and thence to freedom! Freedom, yay, and more, for I shall be, as of January 29th, moving to the King East area of Toronto, known for its high end furniture stores, the St. Lawrence market and, uh, proximity to the Distillery district. I drove past my building Saturday to be met by the soul-crushing, jaw-dropping scene of a condo highrise being constructed across the street, perfectly set up to obstruct my view of the city's sunset. I do not condone senseless violence; which is why I entirely condone myself blasting that monstrosity to smithereens, weekly if need be. I haven't the technology, the skill, nor the materiel, but surely my cause is righteous. Until that tim...