hwan.com

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...