hwan.com

I finally got a working version of my new RSS feed up and running. I changed it so that it follows a (slightly) more chronological approach to feeding links. The order will now be in the order in which news items (links, songs, journal entries, comments and twitters) occur, rather than my previously forced and much simpler hard-coded method. Truthfully, it was Facebook that pointed out the trouble with my old approach, as it caused readers to have problems recognizing what was actually new items. Am home now, having begun to feel the pain of being with the parental units for more than 24 hours. I also got a cramped neck sleeping on the new mattress they put in my old room, which bothers me still. Ok, I'll drop a line later.

Am at the parent's place, doing some work (hwan.com work) and checking for Boxing Day sales, of which I did not see any that fit my fancy. I've been thinking of really reducing my consumer footprint of late, and not merely because I am cheap. I just hate gathering things I never use, and I feel like I already have plenty of junk. Simplify, simplify. I am however happy that for Christmas I received a pair of Grado SR125 headphones , which I first experienced at my friend's condo where they pretty much blew me away, giving a depth to music I had not known previously possible. Indeed, a blind man seeing the world anew. If you listen to music on any type of regular basis, I wholeheartedly suggest investing in some good headphones. What's the use of delicious food if you have not the palate to enjoy every aspect of its taste? My sister brought her copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and while it was indeed "darker" than what I had previously s...

Ugh, am zonked. I did a silly thing by booking a DriveClean appointment for early this morning, this morning being the morning after our office party. That party I was a little late for, as I had gone shopping having been late for my doctor's appointment. It seems every year this happens wherein I forget to compensate for the insanity that is Toronto commuter traffic. I've actually been contemplating, in the early stages of contemplating, selling my car and being car-free. I am not particularly sentimentally attached to it, apart from it being my first car. Anyway, zonked as I fell asleep around 5 and woke up around 8. Zonked on red wine and sleep deprivation. Christmas shopping mostly done, doing my best to avoid thinking about the crowds, the shuffling, asphyxiating crowds. I know I am tired but cannot seem to fall asleep like I want to. I do not have plans for the holidays, not really anyway. Play some games, write some code, do some work.

Blast those greedy bums... I was going through my list of charities that I've been thinking of donating to and when I got to "Ontario food bank" via google, it sent me to CanadaHelps.org , "Canada's only donation portal". A bit of reading and one discovers that they pocket 3% of donations as a transaction fee . Right, they charge more than those 3rd party ATM machines. Makes me sick it does. Snow is here. I kind of like it, as it gives me an excuse not to do anything which I am GREAT AT.

December 6, 2007 Dear Sir, I am a constituent who lives in the Toronto Parkdale/High Park area and cares about Canada's cultural policies. I am writing in regard to recent legislative proposals for "copyright reform". Bill C-60 provided some very sensible approaches to this complicated topic but it also left much room for improvement. It is my hope that you will work to ensure that any new legislation does not invalidate the sensible policies set out in Bill C-60. Specifically, I do not believe that "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies should stop the public from making lawful uses of their legitimately acquired media. Publishers use DRM to disregard the delicate balance between copyright and the rights of the public - a balance set according to an assessment of the public interest by legislators - and replace it with one-sided rules that reflect publishers' private interests. The artists themselves disagree with publishers' anti-consumer use o...

I started and finished Portal tonight. Wow. That was just.. wonderful! Fun, fun.. addictive. I'm willing to bet that most people that tried it ended up spending hours (as I did) saying "Just one more level..." until finding that they'd finished the game. I loved the atmosphere. Most reviews you read talk about the dark humor, which certainly was entertaining, but what got me was the gloom of being a test subject in a capricious, arbitrary experiment. It reminded me a lot of Cube , which, again, I'll emphasize I liked for its setting, for which I was willing to endure a contrived plot and logic holes. Anyway, yeah, that feeling of being taken out of one's life and thinking of nothing but survival, escape and, eventually, revenge. Of course, the Valve/Half-Life 2 engine makes the game SUPER pretty and pretty damn realistic (it helps that there is almost none biological life in this world). While short at about 2-4 hours of play time, it's an intense couple ...

Blurgh. Another Sunday spent indoors. It's a bit cold outside. Whenever I stay in I can't help but feel kind of sickly. Perhaps it's the air? Oh, and something super gross -- in my bathroom there's some kind of leak going on. It's actually inside the wall, creating a bulge using the paint as a skin, like a growth. I haven't bothered trying to determine what's inside. I'm hoping it's related to the slightly warm weather, and isn't sewage or the like. That would be gross. Friday night I was NOT able to go to White Orchid. Thanks to those who tried. Saturday I went shopping with QYV at Dufferin Mall, which wasn't so bad even with the insane crowds. I guess it wasn't so bad because I didn't do much shopping for myself, and I wasn't driving. Watched Lars and the Real Girl at the Varsity. Pretty good film, sweet, quiet, not at all nasty. Certainly capable of teasing a few tears here and there, both of mirth and of sadness. Surprisingly...

Holy ship-shop, they're thinking of introducing a Canadian version of the DMCA , those lousy bastards taking advantage of the Christmas season! Curse their scaly hides! This will, however, give me a chance, well, perhaps excuse/reason to write a letter and/or hopefully cast some influence on the matter. I'm going to copy from Michael Geist's " Fair Copyright for Canada " Facebook group and post their links here: Web-Based Resources on Canadian Copyright Michael Geist: http://www.michaelgeist.ca Digital-Copyright.ca: http://www.digital-copyright.ca Fair Copyright: http://www.faircopyright.ca CIPPIC: http://www.cippic.ca Online Rights Canada: http://www.onlinerights.ca Excess Copyright: http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/ Michael Geist's The Canadian DMCA: What You Can Do http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/vie w/2431/125/ Michael Geist's Copyright Choices and Voices http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/vie w/2419/125/ BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow on Canadia...

I love that youtube has finally FINALLY implemented some comment moderation to their videos. However, I wish that it would actually remove them from view, rather than simply replace them with the commenter's username, like slashdot and other rational websites do. That is all, I've been watching Eddie Izzard + Lego videos. Also, been reading up on Steve Jackson's Ogre microgame. Hmmm.. Christmas ideas forming....

Hey.. yeah, just been out of sorts lately, you know, the same old chestnut -- women, and the role they play in society. You should try googling or wikipedia'ing them, the results are hilarious and somewhat informative, but ultimately unsatisfying, much like the creatures themselves! Anyway, I was moved to write about iTunes YET AGAIN with a minor rant. Actually not a rant so much as a ... well, whatever. What's up with iTunes random play? iTunes calls it "shuffle" which seems to give an order number to each track. The crux of the problem is that this is only done ONCE per session -- so every time you play a certain track, you always hear the same one immediately afterwards. I mean really, finding a random song is SURELY not that difficult. I've stopped buying tracks on iTunes. Too much hassle! Actually it just didn't seem to make sense, since I could buy used CDs for about the same price. Hmm, but maybe I'll give it another go, since I haven't bought ...