Convocation
19 June 2004, early evening
I have graduated—officially. I guess that’s all I have to say really.
Summerfest 2004
13 June 2004, evening time
I went to Waterloo this weekend to attend Summerfest. Summerfest is the big party the Federation of Students throws every summer at Fed Hall, Waterloo’s on-campus night club. Since Fed is closed during the summer, it is usually a very busy night.
I went with Shima and Gary, and met up with Victor in line. He was there with Wendy and Jen, who I hadn’t seen in ages. Patrick showed up shortly after, and we had a few drinks as we discussed the fact Fed was so empty. Last year there was a sea of people everywhere—if you were out on the patio, you couldn’t get back inside, the line up was so ridiculous. This year the patio was empty, as was most of the dance floor. It eventually filled up a little bit, but still no where near the number of people I was expecting.
update: I should also note that I saw so many random people I would never expect to see out. I saw my friend Nadia for starters. I met Nadia when she was in grade 9, and I was in grade 12, at some computer conference all the Scarborough schools with SGI computers were allowed to attend. Nadia works at Music World, so I see her once in a blue moon. I was surprised to see her at Summerfest; I wasn’t sure it was her at first. I try to make it a point not to talk to people I think I know, because more often then not, I don’t know them. However, this time, she saw me looking her way and nodded or something. In all honesty, I was pretty drunk about an hour into the night, so I don’t really recall. I also saw Casandra, who was the super tall girl that played Gitz at Metro square. (You know, one of the many women Mike used to hang out with.) I also don’t remember what I said to her, but I introduced her to everyone we were with. She’s still super tall. Finally I saw Ahilan’s friend Nadia, one of the prettier girls at Waterloo. She was there with another of Ahilan’s friends, Seema. I for the life of me can’t remember what I said to her at all. I just remember grabbing her arm to get her attention, and talking for a few minutes.
The rest of the weekend was probably more entertaining. I had lunch with Gary, Michelle and Shima at Shandiz, which was excellent as usual. Shandiz is my favourite restaurant in Waterloo.
We loitered at the mall after, where I bought an Astrud Gilberto album, which I am listening to now.
Shima and I went to Jeff’s for dinner, and we got to see Liz’s new bunny rabbit. Matt joined us there as well. We tired unsucessfully to get Matt to come out with us, but apparently he is overwhelmed with school. He probably made the right choice staying in, since Summerfest was really unexceptional. While at Jeff’s, Shima also discovered presidents choice green apple soda, which tastes like candy. Shima has a serious sweet tooth.
Today I’ve managed to do nothing, though I have an overdue video due at blockbuster I should probably return.
Time to Vote
8 June 2004, late evening
I went downtown today to have lunch with my Father and my Cousin. We went to this little Italian deli in the lobby of my Dad’s office tower. They make excellent sandwiches. The three of us at lunch and discussed the up coming election.
The Canadian federal elections are coming up soon, and everyone should really go out and vote. At the very least, voting gives you license to bitch about the government. I can’t stand people who bitch about how the government is screwing them over, meanwhile they don’t take the time out of their day to vote.
Today, I learnt that Dr. Raymond Cho was not a NDP candidate, but was running in my riding as in independent. I thought his sign looked a bit off, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I have no strong feelings for Dr. Cho, but up until today, he was who I thought I would be voting for.
I’ll probably still end up voting NDP, since they are the party whose platform I most agree with. I wish they had a proper candidate in my riding, but since I am almost 100% certain that the candidate in my riding won’t win, I don’t mind voting for this mystery person. As I understand it, the amount of popular support the party gets will be translated into more funding for the party, so it isn’t quite a wasted vote.
Apparently several polls are showing that the Conservatives are gaining some ground. What’s up with that? This election will be quite interesting I am sure.
More Opinions on Quicksilver
7 June 2004, terribly early in the morning
I loiter all day, every day. You may have noticed as much if you follow this blog closely, as all I post now are my not-quite-reviews of movies. Some people get frustrated with the lack of something to do—i.e Steph. I am quite the opposite, I enjoy having absolutely nothing to do, it is very relaxing.
I don’t do absolutely nothing of course. Besides all my movie watching, I have been reading Quicksilver, Neal Stephensons new book. I can’t say I like Quicksilver as much as Cryptonomicon, which I highly recommend, but I can say that Quicksilver is still quite good. The novel itself is split into three books. The second of the books has been quite funny so far, and a lot more enjoyable to read then the first book, though it features a lot less of the geekary Stephenson is famous for.
One thing that pisses me off is the vocabulary of the book. I won’t pretend to have a stellar vocabulary, but I can honestly say Stephenson is pulling words out of his ass. I’ve never had to look up words in a dictionary so often in all my life. I feel like he is just showing off his command of a thesaurus. The other problem I have with the book is that it is quite hard to keep track of the characters in the story, and what they have done so far. The story in Cryptonomicom jumped around a lot as well, but it was quite easy to keep track of who was who. In Quicksilver, characters may go by many different names, and several characters go by the same name. It makes for a lot of Confusion. Quicksilver is definitely a very challenging book to read.
I’m typing this up at 3:30 in the morning, because I feel like I need to insert a post that isn’t a movie review in between what will probably be another string of movie review posts.
Comment [2] Life | Comics and Books
I Feel Violated
3 June 2004, late evening
I’m aware that some people like this layout. Apparently some people like it a lot. Here is a site that has totally copied my site. The site is based out of Brazil, so my only hope is that it is made by one of the models from the Bavaria commercials. Those chicks are hot. I can dream anyway.
Comment [19] Life | Web Design
Wine and Cheese
30 May 2004, late afternoon
I went to a Wine and Cheese party last night. I drank lots of wine, and ate a little cheese.
The day basically began with my arguing with Ahilan about my dinner. I wanted 6 chicken McNuggets; no more, no less. He was convinced this was a waste of money, since for a few dollars more you could get fries and a drink. Mind you, I didn’t want fries or a drink. We argued about this till he pulled up to the drive-thru window. I decided, why bother arguing, he gave me two bucks, and I gave him money to get a 6 chicken McNugget combo.
“I don’t want the drink,” he tells me.
“I don’t want it either,” I reply.
“Well just leave it outside.”
“That’s a waste of a drink.”
“There aren’t any cup holders, I’m not going to hold it while I drive.”
We discuss what to do with the drink for a few minutes, but finally I end up leaving it in the parking lot. I ate a few fries, and then put the rest of them in this little nook on the dash board. Ahilan asks me to put them on his chair; I do so. We pull out of the parking lot and the fries all fall on the floor—every last one.
“They’re still good!” I tell him. He doesn’t seem convinced. I start to scoop them back into the package they come in, and put them all on the nook in the dashboard. “I’ll eat one if you eat the rest.”
“No, that’s gross.”
“They’re still good—”
It was at this point that the fries fell off the dashboard, and back on to the floor.
So, I ended up eating the 6 chicken McNuggets, and bitching at Ahilan for making us buy the stupid combo.
We arrived at Shima’s house, just in time to receive a call from her letting us know her buzzer number. I thanked Ahilan for the ride and ran off to her apartment.
The door to her apartment was being held open by a little kid. So I just walked in. Shima’s buzzer number was 4 digits. I just assumed that the first two digits were the floor number, and that the second two digits were the room number. I was wrong. I headed back to the lobby, and buzzed for Shima. Her mom told me what their apartment number actually was and I headed back up.
Shima met me at the elevator. The apartment we walked to wasn’t the one I heard her mom tell me, so it was a good thing she was outside waiting for me. We left for Riadhs’s.
Final Fantasy
28 May 2004, early evening
Krishna’s computer sits on the same desk as my iBook. Krishna’s computer is my old iMac. He’s playing music from the old Final Fantasy games as I type this. I feel like playing FF3 now. And FF1 for that matter. Those games are so good. I am hoping that they will port them all to the GBA. This is my dream.
Clark, You Fool!
28 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
I have begun my quest to get caught up in Smallville. I missed all of season 3, which sucks. I spent the past couple hours watching the first 4 episodes of the season, and have to say they were all pretty good. I love the show, it’s the best thing on television. Smallville has all the guilty pleasure of a soap opera, but with better looking people and Superman. What’s not to love?
One thing I remembered after watching the show again is how likeable Lex Luthor is. The audience knows he is Superman’s future nemesis, but by the way he is presented to us in Smallville you can’t help but like him. He is a sort of tragic hero, trying to escape the darker side of his character, but generally failing to do so. Now, if George Lucas wasn’t such an omega-hack, he would have been able to accomplish something similar with Darth Vadar / Anakin Skywalker. After watching Star Wars II, Anakin comes off as a goober-weirdo-pervert. You don’t feel sorry for him or the path he is being led down. The prequels to Star Wars could have been great, but so far have managed to be pretty mediocre—Episode I was downright bad. It is a real shame.
One thing I noticed was the shift they took with Chloe’s character. At the end of season two she joined the darkside, so to speak, but at the start of this season she seems to have had an unexplained change of heart. With the way he treats her in Metropolis, during the season premiere, it really doesn’t make any sense. Her character is more or less back to the way it was last season, and for no good reason.
I need to start downloading more episodes. Gary gave me the first 8 of the seasons, but I imagine I will be able to get through those fairly quickly. I want to get Season 2 on DVD so I can put it next to my Season 1 box. I think it will be one of the first things I buy when I get a damn job.
Comment [6] Life | Television
Unofficial Graduate
26 May 2004, early afternoon
I checked my unofficial transcript today, as I need to send it off to a company I am applying to work for. Nothing has changed, except at the top, it now says:
– - – Degrees Awarded – - –
Degree : Bachelor of Mathematics
Confer Date : 2004-06-19
Degree Honours: With Distinction
Plan : Combinatorics & Optimization, Honours, Co-operativ
Plan : Computer Science, Honours, Co-operative Program
Looks like I did get my double major. I was always worried I was counting courses wrong. I’ll get my degree on June 19th, then I’ll be an official graduate.
Sometimes, You Just Need to Eat A Lot of Beef
22 May 2004, evening time
Friday was a dull day, till about six in the evening, when Carvill and Mezan arrived at my house. Shortly after Rishi showed up and the three of us made our way to Midland and Finch to get some Korean BBQ. Gary was coming in from Waterloo so I expected an entertaining evening. Korean BBQ is excellent. Gary arrived at the restaurant a half hour or so after we did, with his roommate Janet, girlfriend Michelle, and friend Kerrianne.
After eating a lot of food, we all headed back to my place to loiter. Janet had a wager on last nights basketball game, so we all chatted while watching the game. She lost her bet. Prasanna showed up at some point in time, chatted with my parents about arranged marriages and India, and then left to go home. We spent a good amount of time at my place chatting, but eventually we decided that a change of scenery would be nice.
I suggested Barcode, a new bar that replaced what used to be a very infamous Just Deserts, at Kennedy and Sheppard. We walked in to the bar to find they were playing Jungle—not on a CD mind you—there was a DJ spinning the stuff. How perfect is that? The place can’t make a good dessert, but they definitely know how to make a Strawberry Daiquiri. We were all impressed with the Daiquiri Michelle ordered, it was made with fresh strawberries. I’ll definitely have to check out Barcode again. Any lounge you can call for a rewind in is ok with me.
I took plenty of pictures, with three sets of cameras. At some point in time I’ll need to grab them all.
Fuck You Too, Mail
21 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
I haven’t been receiving mail recently from a mailing list I’m on. In the past there have been issues with the list, so I didn’t think much of it. Shima mentioned a few days earlier she had forwarded me an email, which I also didin’t get. I didn’t think much of it at the time, and quickly forgot she had mentioned forwarding me anything. Tonight, for some reason, I thought I should send myself an email. I did so, and waited for it to arrive. It did not.
1and1 is pretty useless when it comes to any sort of support. I’m not paying for my space, or my email addresses, so who am I to bitch? I thought, if there was a problem, I should try and figure out as much as I can myself first. I logged onto their webmail client, and discovered a whole lot of mail that I had not seen. Apparently, Apple’s email application, Mail, suddenly stopped downloading email. Or was the fault on 1and1’s side? I had hoped for the later case, because I had a lot of faith in Mail. I opened up Entourage, Microsoft’s email client for the Mac, and tried to download my email with it. All my email messages arrived, one after another. So, for some strange reason, Mail has suddenly stopped downloading my email.
Has this happened to anyone else? Can anyone recommend any other nice Mac email clients? I may go back to Entourage if I can’t solve this problem.
Comment [7] Life | Apple Computers
Let's Go To Waterloo
20 May 2004, late at night
Steph has decided that driving up to Waterloo on a Wednesday is a good way to break the monotony that is a week of doing nothing—I’d have to agree with her. I drove up to Waterloo last night with Steph to go to the Bomber and to see Shima.
Steph and I arrived in Waterloo a bit after 7:00. This gave us time to go to the best (and only) Persian restaurant in the city, Shandiz. The menu on the wall at Shandiz had changed, but the food was still the same. I had a Chicken Kebab, and ordered the eggplant dish I always get for everyone to share. The food was great. I have become quite fond of Persian food. Though, when I say Persian food, I suppose I mean the eggplant dish and kebabs. Gary and Shima came to dinner with us as well, and when we were all done, I left for Shima’s place with the two of them.
Gary and I had to convince Shima to come to the bomber with us, but I’m glad she ended up coming. The bomber is one of those places you need to be drunk to enjoy. Suffice it to say, none of us were really enjoying the bomber last night. The music was good for a period of time mind you. They played a really good set of old school hip-hop.
The highlight of the evening would be Steph and her leather bodice. Now, Steph isn’t much of a Goth, but she does enjoys a good sale. So, seeing a real leather bodice on sale, she snatched it up. The bodice looks very Victorian, and looks like it fits about as well as something made during the Victorian era. Every so often Steph would come over after dancing, or standing around for that matter, her face flush, complaining how she couldn’t breathe. We’d laugh and make jokes. She’d reply, “no, I’m serious, I can’t breathe.” Steph has the best outfits.
Patrick is in Seattle
17 May 2004, early evening
Patrick is in Seattle, interviewing with Microsoft. Send him some good vibes.
Ram's Bench
15 May 2004, late at night
Sifting through the junk on my computer, in the middle of a very long text file I find:
Turning, he sees Mezan, still standing at the end of the hall. “What’s he planning? He knows I can’t break the vow I made, after attacking him with my orange suppressing stance, never to attack him again,” Ram thinks.
Resumes
12 May 2004, late afternoon
Thanks for everyone who gave my feedback on my resume. I have now applied to a job. I’ve taken the resume post down, since I don’t like leaving information like that on the internet for long. Mostly because I am paranoid.
Google Spam?
11 May 2004, late at night
I got my first peice of Spam at my Gmail account. More then that, I’m such an idiot because I clicked the stupid link in the spam. Thankfully, it seems to me that the address that the link points to is dead.
G-G-G-Mail
5 May 2004, early evening
Thanks to an invite from Ryan, I now have a gmail account. My email address is chungking@gmail.com. I actually didn’t want to use that, but I accidently pressed enter when I was checking for names that are free. I’m apparently not so good at picking names for online services.
Comment [7] Life | Technology
A Day Downtown
5 May 2004, mid-afternoon
Mezan, Carvill, Steph and I were standing on the corner of University and Richmond yesterday evening when a truck being escorted by cops started to make a very slow left turn. The truck was carrying a film crew, and another car on its back. Inside the other car was none other then Samuel L. Jackson. After realizing it was him, I stuck my hand up to wave. Jackson looked over, and waved back. So, I have concluded he isn’t a jerk-face. Eugene Levy was also in the car, in the passenger seat.
You would think one famous face downtown would be enough, but Janet Jackson was also at Much Music. Mind you, the crowd around the building was too big, and we didn’t even get a glimpse of her. Nevertheless, she was there.
We spent the whole day loitering downtown. Mezan and I were going to see Rishi that evening at IV lounge, so we thought we may as well go down early and wander downtown. The two of us haven’t been doing much with our time since school ended. Carvill was downtown already for work, and Steph was also in a killing-time sort of mood, so they both joined us downtown.
IV lounge was barren as usual. There was one other group besides ourselves. I like it there when it is so empty, it feels like you are in your own VIP room or some such thing. Rishi’s set was great. I had brough an MD player down to record it, but that didn’t work out so well. Anyone know if you can record music with an iPod?
IV Lounge
3 May 2004, evening time
Anyone in Toronto should check out IV lounge tomorrow, Rishi will be the guest DJ for the inner city/outer space night. Rishi will be spinning techno music. This weekly event is run by Transient Orange. My friend Matt spins downbeat music there every tuesday and has been trying to get other DJs or artists to come in and work alongside him. IV lounge is nice and small, like someone’s living room.
Man on Fire
3 May 2004, early morning
Man on Fire was a good movie. Mezan thought there was too much flash with the way it was filmed, but I would disagree. The story is great, and the acting is also quite good. As revenge films go, this one is top notch.
We watched the film at AMC. Steph’s car was broken into while we were in the theatre. The joys of living in Scarborough?
A Whole Other Kind of McDonald's
1 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
There was a crazy lady sitting in the McDonald’s near my house.
My friends and I arrived at McDonald’s, excited to get some Cappuccinos, Lattés and Coffees. I know, you’re thinking to yourself, “McDonald’s doesn’t sell Cappuccinos.” Well think again, because the McDonald’s near my house isn’t some run of the mill McDicks. No sir, the attached McCafé serves up a slew of McDonald’s styled coffee shop items. More then that, the McDonald’s is a hotspot, offering up 45 minutes of WiF access to anyone who spends more then three dollars at the restaurant. I had brought my iBook with me to try the net access out.
My friend Matt ordered a ‘cheesecake’ which apparently had a homogenous taste to it. The gram cracker crust tasted like the chocolate layer tasted like the vanilla layer tasted like the fudge icing. That’s the science of McDonald’s for you. I ordered a McCoffee. I don’t usually drink coffee, so I haven’t a clue if it was good or bad.
Now, as I was saying, there was a crazy lady sitting in the McDonald’s. Well, it’s not nice to call people crazy. She probably wasn’t crazy, just really angry. Very, very, Angry. We picked the spot next to her to sit, not realizing she wasn’t pleasant till after we had dropped our stuff there. Now, it would be rude to get up and leave, so we stuck it out. However, in between dropping our stuff down and ordering our food and drinks she got up and left to sit at the other side of the restaurant. She was belligerent for a good while before finally being forced to leave. She didn’t leave quietly.
I opened up my iBook, and tried to connect to Google. I was redirected to some sort of authentication page. I was excited, ready to write about my adventures at the WiFi-McDonald’s. I typed my assigned user name and password and waited patiently while it sent my information off.
Compassion
26 April 2004, the wee hours
I saw the Dalai Lama speak today. He began by mocking himself and his age, when he explained his need for a translator stems from the fact that the older he gets, the worse his english gets. (That said, almost all of the talk was given in english.) There are two qualities about the man I was most impressed with. First, he is quite humble. Second, he is quite funny. The self-mockery illustrates this point I suppose. He joked about his inability to learn quantum physics as well, something he is apparently interested in. The Dali Lama is probably the only religious leader who doesn’t strike me as a hypocrite at all.
The day was centered around the Dalai Lama’s talk. I had lunch with Riadh and Shima at Kama, and Indian buffet restaurant downtown. I’m not a big fan of buffets, but the food at Kama was pretty tasty. I think perhaps the fact they had good naan bread left me biased.
After lunch we walked through the rain to the Sky Dome, where the Dalai Lama would be speaking. The line to get in was huge. We must have been standing in the cold for a little under an hour. Poor Shima had left her shoes in Waterloo, so she was standing in the cold in a pair of white flip flops.
After the talk, I saw Shima off at the bus station. Shima had gotten a locker to store her laptop and backpack while we were downtown. She managed to put money in the one broken locker in Dundas station. A friendly attendant helped her get her money back. I saw the same attendant when I went back to get her stuff, and once more at Dundas station. Shima caught the seven o’clock train back to Waterloo. I grabbed the TTC back to Scarborough. I got home the same time she did.
Tomorrow I begin looking for a job. I bought the shoes I was going to get if I got into grad school. They’re more like motivational shoes now.
Fuck You Too, Waterloo
19 April 2004, early morning
Well, it took them a while, but Waterloo finally told me to piss off. I applied to do graduate studies here back in December, and have been waiting to here from them all this time. My dad called this evening to say that they got a letter saying I didn’t get in.
Am I surprised? A little bit. I’ve done quite well in the computer science program here. Though, in all honesty, that isn’t much of a feat. Perhaps the faculty here knows that as well.
Now I wait to see what U of T has to say. I think I’m going to be looking for a job quite soon.
Comment [9] Life | Computer Science
And So I Say Goodbye to My Exams
15 April 2004, mid-afternoon
I have now written my last exam as an undergraduate. My last exam was STAT 231. Seems like a good way to go out, writing an exam for the class I managed to put off for 3 years.
I was worried about this exam. I’ve written lots of exams where I didn’t really know everything we were supposed to know. I mean, this was the case with the last two exams I wrote. I was really worried about stats though. Every time I did a confidence interval question I got the wrong answer. And confidence intervals are easy, how the hell was I supposed to do the rest of the exam?
True to form, I opted to sleep more last night instead of staying up late and study. My plan to wake up early was foiled by my laziness. I got up with enough time to skim through an old final, and headed off to the PAC.
The PAC was where I wrote all my exams first and second year. I haven’t had to write there in ages, but this term I wrote both my Compilers exam and my Stats exam in the PAC. I hate writing in the PAC.
I had told Shima the previous night that I could probably get through the whole exam in an hour. That would give me 2 hours to try and figure out all the stuff I didn’t know. I made a pretty good prediction. I got through the exam in about an hour, and was left with two odd hours to figure out how likelihood functions worked. I’m still not sure if what I wrote was right or wrong, but it was something.
I’m done now. I hope I didn’t fail. I certainly don’t think I did. Everyone cross your fingers for the next couple weeks. Now I need to write two more essays and I can official end my career as an undergraduate student.