hwan.com

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...

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...