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Work has become increasingly busy of late. 'Tis the season, perhaps. In any case, I find myself wanting to spend more and more time doing work, actual work work. I was pondering the idea (though not really entertaining it) of what I would do if I were to find myself suddenly jobless. And I'm pretty sure I'd either go for a teaching degree or something much more humanitarian, you know, like volunteer teach or working abroad or the like. It'd be unlikely that I would be able to find another job in the computer industry that I liked as much as the one I have now, with the same type of freedom, atmosphere, and so on. I cycled for much of yesterday, it being an unseasonably lovely and mild day, the wind holding a small reminder of the weather to come. I caught a bit of the toronto zombie walk along Queen, of which I took a few pictures but my cellphone's digital photo quality is quite the suck. That's partially why I haven't bothered posting any of those pictures...

Continuing on the bicycle talk from yesterday, my co-worker got his front tire stolen from in front of our office this week. That's the second time someone has lost a tire -- last time was during the summer . We're on a very busy street (King Street West, just west of Spadina), and it happened right in the middle of the day. I know this because when I went to pick up my lunch it was gone when I returned. This is starting to really piss me off. Theft is annoying enough, but the sheer audacity of these drive-by bicycle thieves is just... oh man I'm just overcome with an ardent fervour to do SOMETHING. I've actually given thought to picking up a cheap used bike and plant a GPS or other homing device on the thing, a honeypot if you will. But I would need a posse to kick their t'iefing asses. I'm almost serious. Serious enough that I wished that I had witnessed the theft, so that I could at least see who it was and what vehicle they used. OOH! Toronto installs post a...

I got another flat tire on my bicycle! If you're tired of hearing me talk about it, well guess just how happy I was to discover it this morning. Actually it wasn't that bad, kind of one of those, "Oh well, dem's the breaks!" I probably should replace the tread -- the piece of metal was just a tiny sliver, a flechette, probably from a car accident, a part of a momentarily violent puzzle. Do I dare say that I'm getting good at fixing flat tires? No. It does seem rather.. hmm, coincidental, shall we say, that I've had THREE flats in the past couple weeks. Hmmm yes, very. On another thread of thought, I tried one of those instant Korean rice bowls my mom gave me the last time I was up at the parent's house. It's pretty neat, and the rice is actually quite good BUT when you open the sucker up it has this nasty naphtha mothball smell. It doesn't taste anything like that, and it goes away after a while but it does kind of turn your appetite. But apar...

So I've been having problems falling asleep. It's the age-old conundrum -- I want to get something done, but I should go to bed. A classic duel, surely. I don't think I mentioned this, but a few weeks ago I had a terrible time going to bed because of a constant bass-y hum, whose source I could not pinpoint. It drove me up the wall, leading to dreams of insanity and MURDER i.e. me beating up whoever or whatever was making the noise at that hour. Well. I get home late (after a few drinks, I will admit) and arrive to find that the construction going on at the adjacent public school is.. well, I do not really know what they are doing other than making a damned racket at 11 at night. Seriously folks, do not be surprised to see headlines of "Berserk bachelor goes on sleep-deprived rampage" or "Crazed Korean kills construction crew". I'm fairly certain that it would be the most fulfilling thing I'd ever done. Is it wrong for me to wish I had a gun right...

It's no secret; I'm not a very good Korean. I can recognize the language and understand a handful of phrases (as spoken by my parents) but outside of that, nada. I don't keep up with Korean events, I have but one Korean friend, I'm almost indifferent to Korean food. The weird thing probably is that I'm almost proud of how un-Korean I am. On the other hand, I am... hmm, a little ashamed, do once in a while think about picking up a course or the like. So whenever I get a Korean spam e-mail it's as if someone is trying to guilt me into getting to know my, uh, heritage. I spent much of the weekend asleep. I did manage to watch a couple episodes of Freaks and Geeks , which I'm quite warming up to. Sorry, I kind of lost my thread of thought there -- started Wikipedia'ing Korea, then Aegukga, then Yi Sun-sin, then Turtle Ship, then Horatio Nelson, then "England expects that every man will do his duty". And now I find myself contemplated my death. Agai...

Oh man! It looks like the Ontario will keep the First-Past-Post system! Yeah, I voted for MMP. Ah well. What is really interesting about these results is the growing Green Party votes -- 8% is no small amount. Really rather surprising, and a little refreshing. For those interested, check out CBC.ca's Ontario Votes 2007 page and their regional results . Well, I find the numbers interesting.

I've been helping the tide of go wash over our office, mainly by getting people to watch Hikaru no Go and bringing a practice board in. It's funny how fun I find the game now, many, many years after my father attempted to teach me the fundamentals, a lesson that ended in much frustration on my part. It helps that in the office, we are all pretty much at the same level, and actively try to help each other, to improve each other's game. This could very well turn into a hobby. Oh, there's still the office StarCraft matches, though we are down to four players. Still, the teams are reasonably balanced and so the games are not that predictable. I suppose that my always playing as Random helps keep the game lively, and that we are not above trying out new strategies. I used to hate the Terrans, finding them requiring too much micro-management, with too many casting abilities. Turns out I was being too technology heavy with them, that you can get pretty far with just Siege T...

I went to see a friend's new apartment, and we tried out the Spring Rolls nearby, the one in the little Chinatown by Gerrald and Broadview. I should've walked out when I saw that the menu not only had the usual Thai fare, but also Chinese dishes AND Vietnamese ones. I ordered pad thai, thinking that it would be the safe one to have. What a disaster! It was a mound of overcooked noodles, the reddish-orange coloring belying the blandness of the sauce. And way WAY too much white onion. Oh man it was just gross! And the worst part is, well, I get these bumps on my mouth when I eat "questionable" food, shall we say, stuff that hasn't been cleaned or hasn't been fully cleaned. So I'm enjoying a couple nice bumps right now! I guess it must be a very new one, since it's not listed on their website . Still... pretty yucky! Hmmmm.. upon further reflection, I guess I can't necessarily place the blame on Spring Rolls, as I did buy a can of San Pellegrino Limon...

I got into an accident this morning while riding my bicycle. I was going to say, "I was hit by a car," but the way it happened I did most of the hitting. It was on Queen, just a few minutes from my apartment, as I was going east towards work. A car in the opposite lane was inching forward into my lane to make a left turn into a parking lot that was coming up on my right. I slowed down, but the car kept going right into me and I couldn't stop in time, and swerving to avoid was not an option at that point, in the sense that no matter what I did I still was going to make contact. I recall yelling something and looking down as I watched my front tire make strike the right front side of the car, a silver Toyota Echo. The car must've seen me at the last moment because luckily it swerved to its left, missing the parking lot entrance and ending up on the sidewalk, facing east, narrowly avoiding a parking meter, one of those printing ones with the solar panel on top. I didn...

So, there's this Ontario election and referendum , yeah? Only, I'm not sure I see the full story regarding the pros and cons of "Mixed Member proportional" over the older "First-Past-the-Post" system. Would people actually vote for one party locally, but a different party for the province? See, I'm just asking, does this make sense to do, or will it result in very little improvement/change, in which case why bother?

Nuit Blanche was fun and tiring and just.. wow. Fun because, well, it seemed like the entire city was alive and awake and it was neat to walk into welcoming galleries and just take in everything. Tiring because, well for me, my bicycle got a flat tire and I ended up walking for much of the night. Tiresome also were the throngs of drunken club and bar patrons as they mingled and mixed with the other denizens, slurring their way through the streets. Still, there was so much to see and do -- a buffet of events and screenings and mixed-media. You can get a taste of it from my Nuit Blanche flickr set . I suppose the highlight was the spontaneous dance party inside the Bloor United Church . Also cool: The dance of the knitting sisters . Mixed-media stuff in the Gladstone . String of Diamonds . Pandas giving manicures . Children singing [ myspace link ].