hwan.com

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?