Quick note here.
Had a very nice Christmas, hope all you people did too. Was relaxing, and I got to eat ham and turkey too =D
I'm staying at my uncle's at the moment, stole one of my cousin's rooms, and yeah, doing Toronto-like stuff.
Went to Niagara Falls on Boxing day, which are very large, and kinda impressive. Unfortunately it was a little foggy, but it cleared up enough for me to get some decent shots. Can't be bothered putting photos up at the moment, so I guess you'll all see then when I get back home. (or when I put photos up later).
Today (the 27th) I went into downtown Toronto, to look at stuff. I went to the Eaton Centre, which is a big shopping centre in the middle of city, and I wanted to go to CN Tower too, but I stood at the bottom, and couldn't see the top for all the fog. I figured I therefore wouldn't be able to see much of the bottom from the top, so I saved myself the $35 admission and didn't bother.
I did go to the Hockey Hall of Fame (ice hockey unfortunately), which was rather big, and had a bunch of jerseys, and skates, and lots of other stuff. They had a couple of cool little games, which I didn't bother doing. They involved being a goalie and shooting, with real stuff mixed with animations. In the end, they didn't really work too well anyway.
I saw a movie about the Stanley Cup (NHL trophy), which was very poorly narrated, and had little to no structure. They also said that the Stanley Cup was the toughest and most sought-after trophy in all of team sport.... pffft.. Americans.
And that's about it. Not sure how much I'll be posting from now on... I'll try to do at least one more before I go. Seeya later =)
Friday, December 28, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas..
And I'm getting one too =D .. I think
That's the frozen waterfall I saw on the train =) I think it's pretty cool =P
It's Christmas where most people reading this blog are, so Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a wonderful time, however you spend it, and hope you have a Happy New Year too.. if I don't get to post again before that.
The Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery) is undergoing a reconstruction, thus currently, there is a temporary Art Gallery is located in a few rooms of an office building (admittedly quite a large office building).
In the art gallery there is an exhibit called "The Fun House." It is a collection of perhaps a dozen contemporary pieces which they say are an attempt to create the mindset that the pieces of art aren't actually pieces of art at all, but real-world objects.
The artists attempt to encourage interaction with their pieces, in order to encourage this mindset. Instead of having pieces of art scattered around the walls of the room, with a implied "Don't Cross" line just inside the walls, the Fun House includes pieces of art such as chairs made out of styrofoam, which you are meant to sit on; a little doorway to the 'next' art piece which you must get on your hands and knees to pass through; a ladder which you must climb to view whatever it is on top of that ledge.
Some sort of physical interaction is required to completely view these pieces. Unfortunately, all they have created, to me, are pieces which would have had the same meaning had they been created without these 'special traits.'
They simply have simply been dressed up to appeal to more people. I guess it's what we, as a human race, do a lot of. We try to superficially change ourselves, our sports, our sales goods, so that they appeal to the greater public, but in the end there's nothing different about them.
But then again, maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong angle. When I look at twenty20 cricket, I see a game which is completely different to Test Cricket, or even One-Day cricket. However, someone who has never known or understood the 'standard' forms of cricket (or the standard forms in the last 30 years or so), may see twenty20 cricket as Cricket - the definition of the sport. As such, either cricket is pretending to be something that it is not, or it itself has changed its definition, to suit other people.
Perhaps this is the same as with these art pieces, or people. Maybe, if I were more aware of the artistic world, I would have seen something new and exciting in these pieces. Seen a change that, would make me unsure that this is really 'art' ... or something
Anyhow, I'm bored of that train of thought now - too much thinking.
I fly to Toronto today, so again, I'm not sure how much internet access I'm going to get from now on. Edmonton has been fun. There's not a lot to do, but I've spent the last couple of days (Saturday night and most of Sunday) with Edythe's friends, doing things.
Friday I went to the Art Gallery and saw not much. Due to the temporary location, there were only really two and a half displays. The main one was about Valley - some Canadian artist who was most reknown for his portraits - which managed to catch the personality of his subject in the picture.. or something. There was also the Fun House, and then a few pieces from the main collection (maybe 10 or so), and then a little display with something to do with Ford, or cars in general. Not a heap to look at, but whatever.
Friday night we went out for dinner - had the most awesome steak ever - and then watched Ratatouille, which was actually quite a good movie. I definitely enjoyed it, probably one of the better movie's I've seen in a while. Disney and Pixar win once again =P
Saturday we went to the West Edmonton Mall, which is the biggest mall in terms of ground space I think. It's a pretty awesome place. It has an ice-skating rink, a water park (which some very large slides, and a wave pool), and even a decently-size theme park inside it. As well as, of course, a lot of shops. It was very cool =P
Saturday night I went to a party at Edythe's friend's house, met a lot of people, and did the walk along some road with a lot of Christmas lights. Every house along the road had lights - even the ones that were for sale. I got very, very cold, my feet were numb, and it was absolutely freezing. Quite nice though. I also made my first snow angel =D
Sunday was church. Edythe was playing the piano, so we had to get there an hour and 45 minutes early. I sat around a lot, but the service was quite good, as was the church. It was all very friendly, great sense of community about the place, and the pastor was really friendly too.
Had lunch, tried to go ice skating in the afternoon (on a pond, which would've been ultimate cliche), but the ice was too thin, and the pond was closed =( Had a fairly lazy afternoon, and then Edythe's friends were over for dinner and an evening full of chatting and piano playing/listening.
Anyhow, that's it for now, I've got to get ready for my taxi which will be here very soon. Hope everyone's enjoying their Christmas, and yeah, shall post again soon hopefully.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
COLD
Edmonton is a very cold place. A very, very cold place. Yesterday we had a maximum of -9 degrees Celcius. Very, very cold place.
I've been having lots of weird dreams lately. Really not sure why, but I woke up this morning dreaming that I was back home and we had suddenly aquired a lot of pets. Including a giant komodo dragon that was furry and liked to hug (reminds me of Snugglepuff off Sesame St now that I think about it).
He could climb fences too, so I couldn't escape.
Yeah, maybe I'm slightly disturbed at the moment (or always am).
So, since I last told you anything, which would've been last Sunday. Monday I went shopping in Vancouver. 'twas quite pleasant, walked into some posh store somehow, tried to buy something, and walked into the ladies' clothes department (it was right next to the table with all the gift goodies, I swear!).
The saleslady looked and me and was like "err... can I help you?" and yeah, I wanted to buy something. She also said "you just want to get out of here don't you?" and I said yes =P And then some other saleslady came over and asked if I wanted to join some kind of members club - to which the original saleslady said no =P I said I wouldn't be shopping there again. (And then, I did clarify that that was because I was from Australia. After which the original saleslady said that I should check out the men's department downstairs... I was a little confused).
After all of them, I managed to walk out with a nice bright pink bag to carry around town for the rest of the day.
Monday night I got a shirt signed by lots of people in the house. 'tis quite nice, although I managed to spoil the surprise by walking in when they were signing it, but oh well, a very nice shirt, something I will treasure forever, etc, etc.
[And despite that sounding unsincere, it wasn't =P]
Tuesday was the day I left, which it turned out I had a lot less time than I thought I did. After getting 5 hours sleep, I was running around the place, trying to get things organised, and trying to cram everything into my bags. I then had to rush to get out to catch the bus to get to the train station.
As I was on the bus, I realised I didn't know exactly where the train station was, which made it a little hard. I did have a general idea though, and it worked out well enough in the end.
The train was quite nice, a lot of legroom, and plenty of space. I managed to get my backpack on the train (without having to check it in), by separating it into two piece, thus making the larger one just smaller than the allowable hand luggage size (although technically it was just larger, but they let me on with it).
The train journey was quite comfortable. Some guy who had gone through a lot of jobs, and had a doctorate in Forrestry sat next to me, he had travelled lots, and lived in Brisbane fairly recently.
It took forever to get comfortable to sleep though, with all of the adjustable footrests and sliding chairs and stuff. But it was alright in the end. I slept a lot on the train ride - there wasn't a lot else to do. We were travelling through the moutains which were quite pretty - covered in snow and what not.
We stopped in Jasper, where I managed to withdraw some cash (stupid idea to get on the train without any), and had the most wonderful dinner on the train on Wednesday night (it was quite possibly the best meal I've had on this trip). It was a really nice roast, which almost melted in my mouth.
As a side note, I found that they've got tax included in the price on the train, and in that posh store I went to before. Interesting, no?
As it turned out, despite leaving on time, we got to Edmonton 4 hours late. Not only that, but the train driver managed to shoot straight past the station. Noone noticed, until we started going backwards. That was a little weird.
Anyhow, got to Edythe's place, and yesterday went to the city for a bit. Today I'm doing the same, probably look at the art museum.
Hmm... pretty hefty post. I've got internet here as you can see =P I'll try
[PS The rest of my pictures decided to disappear. I'll try to fix that up later... sometime...]
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Fin...
And I leave my room. Very sad =(
Not much time, so that's it =P Not sure how much internet access I'm going to get while traveling, but I'll do my best to try to post at least once in a while, although no laptop, so probably no photos and things.
Onto the next chapter in my trip. I'm going to miss UBC, and all the people here, but yeah, it's been great. Thanks to all involved =)
Shall try to talk to you all soon. Miss everyone. Seeya =)
Not much time, so that's it =P Not sure how much internet access I'm going to get while traveling, but I'll do my best to try to post at least once in a while, although no laptop, so probably no photos and things.
Onto the next chapter in my trip. I'm going to miss UBC, and all the people here, but yeah, it's been great. Thanks to all involved =)
Shall try to talk to you all soon. Miss everyone. Seeya =)
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sneaky Sneaky
And it's growing extra closer. It's kinda like how I felt when I left Adelaide - it's snuck up on me, and I'm kinda still ignoring it, but I guess it'll hit me properly when I leave.
I'm definitely ready to leave though. I've enjoyed my time here, it's been unbelievable, but I'm ready to head back home.
Unfortunately for me though, I'm not going home, I'm going traveling. Sure, all of you are saying you'd love to swap places with me, and yeah, I wouldn't give it up =P Would be nice to go home for a couple of days first though.
The plan is that I'll train to Edmonton on Tuesday. It's a 23 hour train ride, which will give me time to unwind, and relax, which will definitely be good. In Edmonton, I'll be staying with Edythe (Pastor Tham's Daughter). After Edmonton I'll be flying to Toronto on Christmas Eve, and get there fairly late at night.
Spend a few days staying at my Uncle's place in Toronto, and then bus down to New York on the night of the 30th, to get there on the 31st. I'll meet Ying there, and we'll spend the day and the evening in New York before training back to New Haven at some obscene hour of the morning.
Stay in New Haven for probably another night after that one, and then do something for a few days before meeting up with Yu Heng and Anna to travel the West Coast (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and stuff). Should be good.
It's only been 24 hours since my last post, and since then, I've decided once again that I shouldn't consume any amount of alcohol. I've also been to church this morning - which was the Christmas concert-like thing, which was very impressive. Involved (as far as I could tell) hired musicians, and a very large choir.
They played some jazz, which made me happy, and they had 2 trumpets, which made me even happier. Unfortunately, the choir weren't quite up the same standard as the musicians, and the trumpets were often drowned out.
They also had a trombone a 6 or 7 strings as well.
Not a heap of congregational involvement though, and I thought it was a little weird that they did it more than a week before Christmas. Oh well....
This afternoon I've spent trying to sort out what to take with me on my trip, and I met up with Cooper (guy who I met during the first few days on the tour) for coffee. I managed to use the free voucher that I got for them screwing up my order on the first few days I was here, on one of the last days I'm here. There's a little bit of symmetry for you. =P
It's weird though, everyone is leaving college, which means I'm saying goodbye to so many people. I'm coming back though, so although I make an effort to say goodbye each time, I know I'm most probably going to see most of them again anyways. In fact, the 20th of January is the day which I'll probably organise a dinner for everyone I've met.
Anyways, on another note, I'd like to wish Brendan a Happy Birthday. He's 19 today =) Hope you're having a good day (although I've talked to you a couple of times already). I enjoyed traveling with you, and it would've been great to travel the US with you too. I guess we'll have to travel some other place.
I'll talk to you soon (=
I'm definitely ready to leave though. I've enjoyed my time here, it's been unbelievable, but I'm ready to head back home.
Unfortunately for me though, I'm not going home, I'm going traveling. Sure, all of you are saying you'd love to swap places with me, and yeah, I wouldn't give it up =P Would be nice to go home for a couple of days first though.
The plan is that I'll train to Edmonton on Tuesday. It's a 23 hour train ride, which will give me time to unwind, and relax, which will definitely be good. In Edmonton, I'll be staying with Edythe (Pastor Tham's Daughter). After Edmonton I'll be flying to Toronto on Christmas Eve, and get there fairly late at night.
Spend a few days staying at my Uncle's place in Toronto, and then bus down to New York on the night of the 30th, to get there on the 31st. I'll meet Ying there, and we'll spend the day and the evening in New York before training back to New Haven at some obscene hour of the morning.
Stay in New Haven for probably another night after that one, and then do something for a few days before meeting up with Yu Heng and Anna to travel the West Coast (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and stuff). Should be good.
It's only been 24 hours since my last post, and since then, I've decided once again that I shouldn't consume any amount of alcohol. I've also been to church this morning - which was the Christmas concert-like thing, which was very impressive. Involved (as far as I could tell) hired musicians, and a very large choir.
They played some jazz, which made me happy, and they had 2 trumpets, which made me even happier. Unfortunately, the choir weren't quite up the same standard as the musicians, and the trumpets were often drowned out.
They also had a trombone a 6 or 7 strings as well.
Not a heap of congregational involvement though, and I thought it was a little weird that they did it more than a week before Christmas. Oh well....
This afternoon I've spent trying to sort out what to take with me on my trip, and I met up with Cooper (guy who I met during the first few days on the tour) for coffee. I managed to use the free voucher that I got for them screwing up my order on the first few days I was here, on one of the last days I'm here. There's a little bit of symmetry for you. =P
It's weird though, everyone is leaving college, which means I'm saying goodbye to so many people. I'm coming back though, so although I make an effort to say goodbye each time, I know I'm most probably going to see most of them again anyways. In fact, the 20th of January is the day which I'll probably organise a dinner for everyone I've met.
Anyways, on another note, I'd like to wish Brendan a Happy Birthday. He's 19 today =) Hope you're having a good day (although I've talked to you a couple of times already). I enjoyed traveling with you, and it would've been great to travel the US with you too. I guess we'll have to travel some other place.
I'll talk to you soon (=
Friday, December 14, 2007
It's OVAR!!!
=)
Exams are done. Woo hoo. A bit disappointing though, my last exam was 32 multiple choice.. in a 2 and a half hour time-slot. It was more than a little unsatisfying...
Probably a good thing though, considering I'd hardly studied.
For the first time since I've been here, I've felt I've really missed out on something back home. Last night James had his 21st party, and I really regret not being there. I really, really wish I could've made it. Really sorry I couldn't make James.
Anyways, I'm done for the semester. Last exam is written, and I'm leaving for Edmonton in 3 days (on the 18th). Until then, I'm gonna hafta sort out a few things, buy a few things, and pack a few things up. Going to go to Church tomorrow (which, unfortunately, I haven't been to in a while). Then I might do some Christmas shopping, try to pick a couple of things up. We'll see what happens.
Since my last post, not a lot has happened. I've played way too much Super Smash Brothers and that's about it. Not enough study (although I would've kicked myself had I sat this exam having studied a lot).
There were a group of people in today's exam who got stuck in the elevator, just before the exam. They messaged the lecturer, and he said "Likely story, but given that there are fire trucks outside, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." Although it was partly their fault, they did try to bounce it =P (well, one of them did anyways).
So yeah, that's the end of my studying here at UBC. Feels a little bit weird, I guess I haven't come to full realisation yet (either that, or I've hardly worked all this semester, and therefore finishing really isn't that big a deal). I'm home in a month and a half from now. =) I wish I could come home for a week, and then go traveling, but I can't so this will do.
Hopefully talk to you all properly, sometime soon.
Seeya =)
Monday, December 10, 2007
One Week to Go!
Happy Birthday to James =) Hope your 21st has been an awesome (although I suspect you may be more than a little tired). It's been awesome knowing you and calling you my friend for the past 7 or 8 years, and I hope it'll remain that way for many, many more =)
(Sorry I can't make it to your party though)
And I now enter my last week at UBC, in this room. It's kinda sad =( I like my room. It may not be as big as my room back home, but it's nice, simple, has everything I need (which, let's face it, is really just my laptop), and is actually more often tidy than my room at home. Go figure.
Had my second-last exam today, it was ok, pretty much the same as normal. Since Thursday I've done not a lot - except get addicted to Tetris. Friday I really didn't do much. Slept in, and messed around until about 4, when I went to Metrotown with Andrew.
We spent 3 hours looking for a sheep, all over this massive shopping centre. It was big enough for me to walk past the same store three or four times, and yet still have no idea where I was. So we walked into many, many stores, looking for anything relating at all to a sheep, and eventually found a little toy sheep at Toys R Us.
I managed to buy nothing but a few lollies, which have already been consumed =(
The shopping centre did have a giant rocking horse though, that actually rocked. It was a bit weird...
Saturday I didn't do much, Sunday I studied a fair amount, and played a fair bit of Tetris. Stupidly addicting game. My problem is, if I do badly, it doesn't count, and if I do well, I need to have another go at it to do even better. It's a vicious, never-ending cycle.
Today was my exam, I slept in, and studied a fair bit (although I did manage to double my previous high score in Tetris an hour or so before the exam).
Had the exam, which was fairly easy. I thought I was running out of time, rushed through it, and then finished half an hour early. It did mean I could waste time checking things stupidly though...
Went to the Village (just outside uni) for a crappy Malaysian meal (tasted like salt...almost), and then went to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy a backpack for travelling. Picked up a nice, rather large bag for $140, which has a detachable backpack which I can use during the day. Handy =)
And came back, played Super Smash Brothers for an hour or so, and then wasted time. It's been a fairly good couple of days.
I'm gonna spend the next few days tidying up a few things, and perhaps even studying for my last exam on Saturday, and generally sorting things out for my trip.
I've booked my train to Edmonton ($160) on the 18th, and then my flight to Toronto on Christmas Eve ($480 -_-), so yeah, at least I've got plans for a little while.
Anyhow, I think that's it for now. Hopefully post again soon. Not sure if my laptop will be travelling with me (I keep changing my mind), but if it doesn't I'll be sure to at least drop in occasionally via an internet cafe or something.
(Sorry I can't make it to your party though)
And I now enter my last week at UBC, in this room. It's kinda sad =( I like my room. It may not be as big as my room back home, but it's nice, simple, has everything I need (which, let's face it, is really just my laptop), and is actually more often tidy than my room at home. Go figure.
Had my second-last exam today, it was ok, pretty much the same as normal. Since Thursday I've done not a lot - except get addicted to Tetris. Friday I really didn't do much. Slept in, and messed around until about 4, when I went to Metrotown with Andrew.
We spent 3 hours looking for a sheep, all over this massive shopping centre. It was big enough for me to walk past the same store three or four times, and yet still have no idea where I was. So we walked into many, many stores, looking for anything relating at all to a sheep, and eventually found a little toy sheep at Toys R Us.
I managed to buy nothing but a few lollies, which have already been consumed =(
The shopping centre did have a giant rocking horse though, that actually rocked. It was a bit weird...
Saturday I didn't do much, Sunday I studied a fair amount, and played a fair bit of Tetris. Stupidly addicting game. My problem is, if I do badly, it doesn't count, and if I do well, I need to have another go at it to do even better. It's a vicious, never-ending cycle.
Today was my exam, I slept in, and studied a fair bit (although I did manage to double my previous high score in Tetris an hour or so before the exam).
Had the exam, which was fairly easy. I thought I was running out of time, rushed through it, and then finished half an hour early. It did mean I could waste time checking things stupidly though...
Went to the Village (just outside uni) for a crappy Malaysian meal (tasted like salt...almost), and then went to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy a backpack for travelling. Picked up a nice, rather large bag for $140, which has a detachable backpack which I can use during the day. Handy =)
And came back, played Super Smash Brothers for an hour or so, and then wasted time. It's been a fairly good couple of days.
I'm gonna spend the next few days tidying up a few things, and perhaps even studying for my last exam on Saturday, and generally sorting things out for my trip.
I've booked my train to Edmonton ($160) on the 18th, and then my flight to Toronto on Christmas Eve ($480 -_-), so yeah, at least I've got plans for a little while.
Anyhow, I think that's it for now. Hopefully post again soon. Not sure if my laptop will be travelling with me (I keep changing my mind), but if it doesn't I'll be sure to at least drop in occasionally via an internet cafe or something.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Let it SNOW!!!
Two down, two to go, and it turns out that my study patterns don't change no matter what side of the globe I'm on.
So Tania told me that I say the same thing in every post, and she's mostly right. I'm beginning to get the feeling I've spent too much time thinking about what's to come, and not about what's happening right now, but oh well, I am enjoying myself, and it is most awesome.
So I've spent the last week or so being very busy. Spent all weekend and half of Monday doing my group project for Software Engineering. It's a project that forced me to use an IDE, and I guess it works ok. Very bloated, and my computer hates it, but oh well.
My Project GroupFriday night I wandered into the Computer Science Beer Garden. As it turns out, the computer science geek stereotype has merit. A bunch of them sat down and started playing Mao. You know, the game where you can't talk. So there's a bunch of cheap beer, the last day of classes, and you start playing the most antisocial game you can think of?
But that wasn't the worst of it. The game got so serious, they were standing up and arguing over what card was put down first, in what order, and what the rules are (which is kinda stupid, because you're not allowed to tell people the rules). It got to the point where they called someone else over who was apparently the "Guru" and got him to clarify the rules.
Who says computer science people aren't nerds?
But on Saturday, it snowed. Like, it really snowed. Snow everywhere. Absolutely beautiful.
Photo:
And Photo:
Unfortunately I spent the whole day indoors doing that project, although we did go out for sushi for dinner, which was nice.
Sunday it snowed more. It really really snowed. Again it was awesome. I got to throw snowballs, but unfortunately I still had to do that project. The snow was deeper and pretty awesome still. I love the snow. It was rather cold though =P
And one ugly Snowman (I didn't make it... in fact, I don't know who did)
Monday the snow had washed away, and it got quite warm. We did our presentation, which was pretty good and then I did a fair bit of study.
Monday night I went to Stanley Park to see the Christmas lights. Apparently there are more than a million, and although I was a little skeptical to start with, when I got there I believed it. =P
On the way to the lights
Tuesday was study once more.
Exam at 8:30 on Wednesday morning. It's amazing how much less formal it is here. We had the exam in a lecture hall, walked in, sat down and talked until the exams were handed out. Did the exam, left as we felt, I even forgot to turn off my phone.
Much less threatening. It was even better today (Thursday) when we were at first kept out of the room while they set out the exams. They set it out in alphabetical order for some reason, and we were told we could start "When we found our exam."
I almost missed the "Please note the emergency exits" and "Has anyone not handed in their exam *lots of noise here*" routine of the exam.
We've also managed to set a record here. My Wednesday exam was marked and results put up on WebCT (kinda like MyUni for Adelaide people) less than 10 hours after the exam had finished. That's efficiency right there.
As it turns out, I blew my chance to get more than 100% for the course, but still did pretty well. Especially given the amount of study I did.
Today's exam could've been much, much worse, and couldn't have been any better given the amount of study I did. Not sure how I did, but I'm pretty sure I didn't fail =D
And now I've got a few days until my next exam. Should probably do a fair bit of study for it, but It gives me a little while to wind up my time in UBC, buy some stuff, and things like that. The worst is hopefully over.
Still haven't sorted out what I'm going to be doing post-UBC, but I'll get that done in the next day or two.
And that's about it for now. I shall post again hopefully fairly soon.
Take care =) (With a polar bear)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
One Last Time...
I finally post, even though I've got one more assignment, and one more lecture to go.
It's sad knowing that it's just about over. It hardly seems real, almost like when I got here. I've just about finished, I've got a week or two of hard work ahead of me, and then I'm outta here.
It's my life at the moment, even though at the back of my mind I always knew I was going home, it's still managed to creep up on me.
That's not to say that I wont be glad when I get home. In fact, I can't wait to get home. At the same time though, I still want to be here, with all the friends I've met.
Most of all, I don't want to forget the people I've met, and the good times I've had. Part of the reason why I'm keeping this blog, and part of the reason I'm so trigger happy with my camera.
I don't want to forget a single detail, a single person, but when I look back, I realise how many people I no longer can picture, or really remember, from Primary School, from High school, people that I've known fairly well, yet have faded away to the edges of my memory.
There are too many people in the world, all over the world. Far too many of which I'd like to remember, and see, and interact with regularly.
Anyhow. It's been a while since I've told you what I've been doing, so I'm going to have to go back a long way. Hmm...
So it's been very cold lately. We had snow (well, I called it snow, everyone else called it slush - but there was stuff falling from the sky that was falling slower than rain) for all of about 10 minutes a couple of nights ago, that was cool.
It's also very, very cold in the mornings. The other day there was ice on the pavement, and many people on bicycles slipped as they were going around corners. I almost stacked it walking up a hill. Since then, they've brought in this cool little tractor thing that spreads salt all over the footpaths in the morning, to melt the ice. Clever =)
Incidentally, that photo at the start of the post was taken at 10am. It's still very cold then too =P
I've been doing a lot of work lately unfortunately. My ambitions for my ray tracer weren't quite met, but here's what I produced:
With no reflections:
With reflections and shading and stuff:
My version of that original picture I showed you:
And refraction, which didn't quite work too well:
And here's one which is very wrong, but looks kinda cool =P
It would've been cool to do some other stuff, but I didn't have time (refraction took me a very long time - it just didn't want to work for me).
I've also had a bunch of other assignments to do, and now I've got to study for exams.
So, last Friday night (a week ago today), I went out for all you can eat Sushi with a bunch of people from class. We went after 9:30, so we had all you can eat for $15.95 (excluding tax and tip).
Our first order was 9 serves of Tuna and Salmon Sashimi, which the manager asked us to confirm, twice, before only giving us 5 of each. We had about 5 or 6 rounds, and we walked away definitely getting our money's worth (but still not falling-over-and-dying-full).
Saturday we had a house laser tag game. We went to Richmond (read: Asian Centre) for it, which took us more than an hour by two busses and a bit of walking. It was a lot of fun though, very cool seeing the lasers shoot through the air and stuff. We split up into two team, and it was just a "shoot as many people as you can" game. The guy that won dominated unbelievably. In the first game he doubled the next person's score. In the second game, he quadrupled it.
That's an pwning if I ever saw one.
Why was he so good? His little brother had had his birthday there for the past 8 years.
Saturday night was the Winter formal. Quite honestly, a waste of time. Many people queued up for ages to get a ticket. They only gave away 50 each day for each session - there was a 4:30 session and a 6:30 session. Of course, everyone wanted the 6:30 tickets (who has a formal dinner at 4:30? =s). On the first day, I got there just before 5 (when they started giving them away), and there were more than 100 people infront of me. On the second day, I got there at 4:30, and just got a ticket (although we were originally about 10th in line, but there was a lot of pushing in and stuff going on).
Apparently later in the week, there were people lining up for 2 hours. The irony? On Saturday (the day of the formal) there were still tickets left.
As for the formal itself, it was a fairly sad affair. It was in our normal dining hall (which, admittedly is fairly nice), and it was probably nicer than usual. They'd dressed the place up, with decorations (we even had a tablecloth =o), and stuff. We waited outside for a while (of course), before getting inside, picking up a tray like we normally do (how classy), getting our food, sitting down, eating like normal, listened to about 10 minutes worth of speeches and awards, got up, and left.
Total time spent there was probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour at best. Totally not worth it, but we did get to get dressed up, so I got to wear my suit which I'd lugged all the way here.
Of course, being in Mack House, naturally, when in a suit, we play Super Smash Brothers:
Since Saturday, it's been all work, and little sleep. After I made my last post, I slept for 4 hours, the next two nights were 6 hours. I've got a bit lazy though, procrastinated a fair bit over the last couple of days, but it's all good.
Wednesday and Thursday night were the traditional Mack Serenades, which was quite funny to watch. It's a tradition that a bunch of Mack guys go around to all the other houses, and sing and dance in a "make the ladies swoon" sort of way. There were 7 guys in total (me not being one of them of course), but I did go and watch them 7 times (each show was about 20 minutes).
There was a lot of bad singing and acting going on, but it was lots of fun to watch. I've got the whole video if anyone is interested (but it probably won't be very exciting for anyone who doesn't actually know the performers).
Anyhow, that brings me to about now. Last day of classes, exams start on Wednesday, not sure what to think (much like it was when I got here). I'll be really sad to leave this place, but I'll be extremely happy once I get home too.
Ooops... and Happy Birthday to Calvin too. Even though his birthday is technically over by his time, it's still his birthday my time, so it's all good =P
Monday, November 26, 2007
*Peeks out from under things to do*
Hey everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I actually started a post a few days ago, but never finished it. I've just been drowned by work the last week or so, and it hasn't helped that I didn't do anything yesterday due to a couple of social commitments.
Shall hopefully do a rather large post soon. Maybe. Perhaps at the end of the week. We'll see how things pan out =P
But yeah, still alive... just.
Justin
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I actually started a post a few days ago, but never finished it. I've just been drowned by work the last week or so, and it hasn't helped that I didn't do anything yesterday due to a couple of social commitments.
Shall hopefully do a rather large post soon. Maybe. Perhaps at the end of the week. We'll see how things pan out =P
But yeah, still alive... just.
Justin
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Return of the Jedi - Asus Customer Service
Hmm... so I started with the Star Wars-themed titles to my posts, realised it didn't make any sense, and now I've managed to finish them off =P
I go my laptop back Friday. I've got to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the level of customer service from ASUS. I got my laptop back 3 days after I sent it, with the hinge repaired, the front and the back of the LCD cover replaced, the top of the body replaced (the part that you rest your hands on - and it didn't need to be), and the laptop cleaned out (the fan is working significantly less hard).
That and they only had the laptop for 24 hours anyway.
So I got it back with all my packing in tact, packed in the same way I sent it, with a bit of bubble wrap around my laptop. So I've now got free bubble wrap to pop when I get stressed out while studying =D It's a win win.
But yeah, I'm very impressed with the level of customer service, and I'm very glad I've purchased an ASUS product (use that in your ads!).
Other than that.... I realised the other day that I can't recount the national anthem with 100% certainty. I think I might be switching corresponding lines between the first and second verses. I guess it's been a while since I've heard the national anthem, and even longer since I've actually listened to the words.
Hmm... so what have I done since Tuesday? A lot of programming in the computer labs actually. A lack of a laptop meant that I had to be in the computer labs. Unfortunately I'd been too lazy to pick up an after-hours key, so I had to stay in the lab until I finished. On Wednesday I left my room at ten to 8 in the morning, and got back at about 10:30pm. That'd be the longest day I've had in a while.
Hmm... other than that, the latest craze to hit Mackenzie House is Water Pong. Apparently it's a based on a US-game. You put 6 cups in a triangle, each with approximately 1/3 of a can of water in them, on each end of a table (generally a Table Tennis Table, but there's been some improvising). You play in 2 teams of 2, and each pair takes turns in trying to throw a ping pong ball into the opposition's cups. (So each team get two shots, then the opposition gets two, etc).
Should you manage to land a ball in the opposition's cup, a member of the opposition team may or may not voluntarily or non-voluntarily drink from a separate cup of beer the equivalent of the amount of water in the cup that was landed into.
If, on your teams 'turn,' both of you manage to get it in the same cup (the cups are removed after the turn is complete), it counts as three cups (instead of 2). Also, if you bounce it off the table, it counts as 2 cups.
Of course, it would make more sense to have beer in the cups, and drink the cups that were landed into, but it turns out that all drinking games are banned in this state, so this is a nice little work around.
The game also causes beer to be consumed at a fairly fast rate. A bunch of guys went on a beer run on Friday, and came back with 160 beers. That's a lot of beers, quite a few of which were consumed on Friday night:
I should've got a better photo...
Anyways, also on Friday night, we had Brainopoly, which is basically a quiz night. So I got signed up a week or two ago, and Friday night rolls around and we realise that we don't have a uniform/costume. So we figure that we'll be lazy and just do white t-shirts and jeans. Then we decide that ties would be cool. Then suit jackets. Then sunglasses. The end result:
Unofficially the best dressed team in the competition. Although the judges gave it to another team dressed as Superheroes, but everyone knew we were better (and cheered louder for us - which was meant to be the deciding factor). One of the judges/hosts was actually our RA, so we've been giving him a hard time about that since =P
Now I'll jump back to Friday daytime, when I voted. =D Beat you all to it! =P So I went to the Consulate office, and requested the vote stuff. The scary thing is, they didn't even need ID. You just wrote down your name and address, they went to check which federate you were in, gave you the slips, you filled them out, gave it to them, and that was it. It was also on the 12th floor of some building, which was kinda cool. The elevator was fast =P
I also went to Science World after voting. It wasn't really that great. There were heaps of little display things, some of which were quite cool, but there were a number of school groups there, and unfortunately I've decided that I know how most of the things there work before I mess with them, which makes then significantly less fun =(
They did have a really big and cool ball-moving-around-thing-to-make-noise machine-like thing though. The balls played a couple of little tunes and things, which was cool.
I also watched Dinosaurs Alive on the big screen (inside that sphere at the top). That was kinda cool, they used more of the screen than I thought they would - so I sat a little bit too close to the front. The picture size was quite amazing though, as was the lack of distortion.
Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day. Slept in, didn't do much during the day (although I should really get my teeth stuck into that ray tracer), and played games at night - someone brought in a Wii, and Guitar Hero III, which will be purchased upon my return.
Today I went to church and bought a suitcase to replace the one which was trashed on the way over here. I'm getting ready to leave I guess. I'm out of here in a month's time.
It's been a while since I've posted, so sorry about that =P I think I've talked to most of the people who read this since I've got my laptop back. I started this post on Friday night, and didn't manage to get it done before now. Umm...yeah, that's it.
I go my laptop back Friday. I've got to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the level of customer service from ASUS. I got my laptop back 3 days after I sent it, with the hinge repaired, the front and the back of the LCD cover replaced, the top of the body replaced (the part that you rest your hands on - and it didn't need to be), and the laptop cleaned out (the fan is working significantly less hard).
That and they only had the laptop for 24 hours anyway.
So I got it back with all my packing in tact, packed in the same way I sent it, with a bit of bubble wrap around my laptop. So I've now got free bubble wrap to pop when I get stressed out while studying =D It's a win win.
But yeah, I'm very impressed with the level of customer service, and I'm very glad I've purchased an ASUS product (use that in your ads!).
Other than that.... I realised the other day that I can't recount the national anthem with 100% certainty. I think I might be switching corresponding lines between the first and second verses. I guess it's been a while since I've heard the national anthem, and even longer since I've actually listened to the words.
Hmm... so what have I done since Tuesday? A lot of programming in the computer labs actually. A lack of a laptop meant that I had to be in the computer labs. Unfortunately I'd been too lazy to pick up an after-hours key, so I had to stay in the lab until I finished. On Wednesday I left my room at ten to 8 in the morning, and got back at about 10:30pm. That'd be the longest day I've had in a while.
Hmm... other than that, the latest craze to hit Mackenzie House is Water Pong. Apparently it's a based on a US-game. You put 6 cups in a triangle, each with approximately 1/3 of a can of water in them, on each end of a table (generally a Table Tennis Table, but there's been some improvising). You play in 2 teams of 2, and each pair takes turns in trying to throw a ping pong ball into the opposition's cups. (So each team get two shots, then the opposition gets two, etc).
Should you manage to land a ball in the opposition's cup, a member of the opposition team may or may not voluntarily or non-voluntarily drink from a separate cup of beer the equivalent of the amount of water in the cup that was landed into.
If, on your teams 'turn,' both of you manage to get it in the same cup (the cups are removed after the turn is complete), it counts as three cups (instead of 2). Also, if you bounce it off the table, it counts as 2 cups.
Of course, it would make more sense to have beer in the cups, and drink the cups that were landed into, but it turns out that all drinking games are banned in this state, so this is a nice little work around.
The game also causes beer to be consumed at a fairly fast rate. A bunch of guys went on a beer run on Friday, and came back with 160 beers. That's a lot of beers, quite a few of which were consumed on Friday night:
I should've got a better photo...
Anyways, also on Friday night, we had Brainopoly, which is basically a quiz night. So I got signed up a week or two ago, and Friday night rolls around and we realise that we don't have a uniform/costume. So we figure that we'll be lazy and just do white t-shirts and jeans. Then we decide that ties would be cool. Then suit jackets. Then sunglasses. The end result:
Unofficially the best dressed team in the competition. Although the judges gave it to another team dressed as Superheroes, but everyone knew we were better (and cheered louder for us - which was meant to be the deciding factor). One of the judges/hosts was actually our RA, so we've been giving him a hard time about that since =P
Now I'll jump back to Friday daytime, when I voted. =D Beat you all to it! =P So I went to the Consulate office, and requested the vote stuff. The scary thing is, they didn't even need ID. You just wrote down your name and address, they went to check which federate you were in, gave you the slips, you filled them out, gave it to them, and that was it. It was also on the 12th floor of some building, which was kinda cool. The elevator was fast =P
I also went to Science World after voting. It wasn't really that great. There were heaps of little display things, some of which were quite cool, but there were a number of school groups there, and unfortunately I've decided that I know how most of the things there work before I mess with them, which makes then significantly less fun =(
They did have a really big and cool ball-moving-around-thing-to-make-noise machine-like thing though. The balls played a couple of little tunes and things, which was cool.
I also watched Dinosaurs Alive on the big screen (inside that sphere at the top). That was kinda cool, they used more of the screen than I thought they would - so I sat a little bit too close to the front. The picture size was quite amazing though, as was the lack of distortion.
Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day. Slept in, didn't do much during the day (although I should really get my teeth stuck into that ray tracer), and played games at night - someone brought in a Wii, and Guitar Hero III, which will be purchased upon my return.
Today I went to church and bought a suitcase to replace the one which was trashed on the way over here. I'm getting ready to leave I guess. I'm out of here in a month's time.
It's been a while since I've posted, so sorry about that =P I think I've talked to most of the people who read this since I've got my laptop back. I started this post on Friday night, and didn't manage to get it done before now. Umm...yeah, that's it.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Empire Strikes Back
So I still have my laptop for another...12 hours. So what better way to use it than write a blog post, and watch episodes of Heroes and Chuck? =P (alternatively I could be doing the programming I need to do, but I'm bored of that).
So I've padded up my extremely oversized box with 2 other boxes cut up and folded up, as well as a bit of tissue paper - left over from when the guys (I get to call them 'the guys' now =P) stuff the paper all over Cal's room. This is what my wonderful contraption looks like:
The laptop sits in the middle, so it doesn't touch any of the side, and the whole thing only moves a little bit when you shake it - maybe 5 mm or something. Hopefully it'll be pretty safe as it travels accross the country.
I was going to take in the laptop in this afternoon, but it turns out Fed Ex wasn't going to turn up to pick it up until tomorrow anyway, so I thought I'd hang onto it for another night.
Anyhow, I've had a whole long weekend since my last post, which I've wasted away. It was actually nice to do so, but not so good for my work.
Saturday I slept in, and then watch the end of Bioshock being played (which is an awesome game - the ending is a little abrupt, but most of the story is pretty awesome), and the start of Half-Life 2, which was also pretty good. The whole college was completely empty - everyone had gone home for the weekend. There were perhaps 6 or 7 people left per floor..
Saturday night I tried to do some work, and failed miserably. Sunday I went to a memorial service, given that it was Remembrance Day and all. The service was a little less polished than I expected it. They had the whole marching people in and stuff, but they didn't really march in time, and the people doing the gun routine looked really awkward. Then one of the speakers (non-native), got everyone who had served the country to stand up so we could applaud them - quite honestly the most patronising and awful moments I've ever had in any service.
Then the trumpeter messed up the Last Post (missed a couple of notes that weren't even that high). He's doing his masters in music, and his tone was really nice, but I reckon he was hungover or something...
The placing of the wreaths was probably the only decent part of the service, in particular the older servicemen, who you could tell it really meant something to. The others, (a couple of boy scouts and girl guides included, as well as a couple of UBC people) all seemed to do it rather mechanically.
Since then, I haven't done a lot. Sunday night was even worse than Saturday night. Even more people had left, so I stayed in my room and did a little bit of work. Today I've pretty much just sat on my computer and looked up Zune 80 reviews (the new Zune). It looks pretty good, and I'll probably pick one up. You can even get free custom engraving if you want - although that's an online order thing.
And that's it. Pretty much the end of my postings for a week. I was hoping to get my laptop back on Friday, but I don't like my chances anymore. It's not going to get there until Wednesday, which means that they'll have about 24 hours to fix it and send it out again for me to get it back by Friday. Sad =(
So I'll talk to you people later. I might be online a little bit from the labs. We'll see.
Bye =)
So I've padded up my extremely oversized box with 2 other boxes cut up and folded up, as well as a bit of tissue paper - left over from when the guys (I get to call them 'the guys' now =P) stuff the paper all over Cal's room. This is what my wonderful contraption looks like:
The laptop sits in the middle, so it doesn't touch any of the side, and the whole thing only moves a little bit when you shake it - maybe 5 mm or something. Hopefully it'll be pretty safe as it travels accross the country.
I was going to take in the laptop in this afternoon, but it turns out Fed Ex wasn't going to turn up to pick it up until tomorrow anyway, so I thought I'd hang onto it for another night.
Anyhow, I've had a whole long weekend since my last post, which I've wasted away. It was actually nice to do so, but not so good for my work.
Saturday I slept in, and then watch the end of Bioshock being played (which is an awesome game - the ending is a little abrupt, but most of the story is pretty awesome), and the start of Half-Life 2, which was also pretty good. The whole college was completely empty - everyone had gone home for the weekend. There were perhaps 6 or 7 people left per floor..
Saturday night I tried to do some work, and failed miserably. Sunday I went to a memorial service, given that it was Remembrance Day and all. The service was a little less polished than I expected it. They had the whole marching people in and stuff, but they didn't really march in time, and the people doing the gun routine looked really awkward. Then one of the speakers (non-native), got everyone who had served the country to stand up so we could applaud them - quite honestly the most patronising and awful moments I've ever had in any service.
Then the trumpeter messed up the Last Post (missed a couple of notes that weren't even that high). He's doing his masters in music, and his tone was really nice, but I reckon he was hungover or something...
The placing of the wreaths was probably the only decent part of the service, in particular the older servicemen, who you could tell it really meant something to. The others, (a couple of boy scouts and girl guides included, as well as a couple of UBC people) all seemed to do it rather mechanically.
Since then, I haven't done a lot. Sunday night was even worse than Saturday night. Even more people had left, so I stayed in my room and did a little bit of work. Today I've pretty much just sat on my computer and looked up Zune 80 reviews (the new Zune). It looks pretty good, and I'll probably pick one up. You can even get free custom engraving if you want - although that's an online order thing.
And that's it. Pretty much the end of my postings for a week. I was hoping to get my laptop back on Friday, but I don't like my chances anymore. It's not going to get there until Wednesday, which means that they'll have about 24 hours to fix it and send it out again for me to get it back by Friday. Sad =(
So I'll talk to you people later. I might be online a little bit from the labs. We'll see.
Bye =)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
A New Hope
So my laptop is currently semi-broken. This is what happens when you try to close the lid:
...yeah, not so good for the screen. It was slightly separated when I was in Canberra (that was the first time I noticed it). After that, I ignored it, but its gradually been getting worse, to the point where I'm scared I'm going to break it every time I close it.
So I went into a shop on Monday night, to try to get it repaired. Apparently that shop didn't fix mechanical things, so I had to call Asus directly. The guy at the shop told me to find the toll free number, and call them.
So Tuesday morning I search for the toll free number, and can't find it. They really hide it well. So I give up and ring the long distance number listed on the web site. I pick up, press the appropriate numbers for the department I want, and get put on hold. The hold recording, just at the moment, had said "toll free" before moving on to something else. So I didn't hear the number at all. I did however, get the " Your call is important to us, please hold the line and an operator will be with you shortly" message a dozen or so times. The second time I went through the loop, I missed the toll free number entirely.
For those interested, the ASUS notebook customer service toll free line in Canada (perhaps North America) is 1-888-678-3688, extension 4. So I'm on the line for a little while, they guy's really nice. I explain that I bought my laptop in Australia, and that I was in Canada studying at the moment. He tells me that I could bring it in to the service centre, but it's a fair way away.... like the other side of the country.
However, the problem is apparently quite common on this model, and he even opens up an order, asking me the serial number of my laptop before my name... which I thought was a little weird. Very helpful.
As it turns out, the 20 minute phone call costs me $15, but oh well...
So they send me an email, telling me about all the stuff that I need to do, which says they're going to send me a box, and a FedEx (delivery company) Airway Bill, so I don't get charged for anything. The next day, I've received a package =D I go to the front desk, and the lady there hands me this:
She also notes how exciting it is to get an empty box. As you can see (or may not be able to see) that box is big enough to fit ten laptops into. So, at the moment I've got a box which I'm going to cut up and make some holders to hold the laptop in place, as well as a bunch of paper and newspaper so hopefully it doesn't get trashed in transit.
The delivery is an overnight express thing, which is good, and I'm guessing it's going to be overnight back to me. They've told me it'll take about a week, although I've read a story on the internet where it took 72 hours from the moment he called them, so I'm pretty optimistic at this point.
I haven't sent it yet because it's a long weekend this weekend, and I've got some work I need to do before I send it in. So I'll send it in on Monday, it'll get there Tuesday, and hopefully I'll be get it back by the end of the week. If not, at the start of next week. Should be all ok.
Hmm... so other than that, what's happened since Monday? Well.. not much. On Tuesday we had a power cut. Two of them in fact. Campus-wide ones. One of them in the afternoon, which meant that I almost missed lunch (it came back on just before I had to go), and the second one was at night.
Interestingly enough, in a house full of guys, there's not heaps to do when there's no power. Unfortunately I got socked when the power was out, which means I'm out of the game =( I did find my person though, so I know she does exist, but she was in her room so I couldn't sock her.
While the power was out, the internet was somehow still up for a little while, and the network stayed up throughout, which was interesting. So some of the guys played Starcraft, which is becoming something that a lot of people on the floor like to do. We also found out that the emergency lights in our house don't actually work - but they work on other houses for some reason. Interesting...
The best thing about the power cut was the little security system at the entrance of the house. It beep continuously, and had a little light which flashed, next to the world "Trouble." Awesome.
Hmm... Wednesday was a bit nothing, I've decided that I'm going to do a ray tracer for my final graphics project. A ray tracer produces something like this:
From scratch. Well, almost from scratch. I'll be modeling all of the spheres and stuff, and then calculating the colour of each pixel based on the reflection of the rays of light and stuff. After that, it can be expanded to produce some really realistic pictures. The ones that you can't decide whether they're photos or computer generated. All pretty cool.
Thursday was a bit meh, as was today. I was involved in a discussion which originated with what we would do in the event of a zombie attack. Blair (our House President) had actually put a lot of thought into it. We'd evacuate the bottom and 1st floors up to the second floor. We'd then barricade the stairs so they couldn't get up. We'd fill the bins up with water because that'd be likely to be shut off. The only problem would be the food...
It was a very detailed conversation, which turned into a conversation about buying a zeppelin and becoming air pirates, robbing high rise buildings by swinging down on ropes. As well as being detailed it was entertaining. Anyways, hopefully I'll go out this weekend and see some sights or something... and finish off those assignments so I can send my laptop in.
Anyways that's it today, I'll post before I send my laptop in probably...
Oh, and I need to choose 3 photos for the study abroad photo competition. I'll probably send in the one of the fog on top of Grouse Mountain, the one of the Space Needle from Seattle, but I can't really decide on another one, and it has to be done tomorrow... so any suggestions tonight would be appreciated =P
...yeah, not so good for the screen. It was slightly separated when I was in Canberra (that was the first time I noticed it). After that, I ignored it, but its gradually been getting worse, to the point where I'm scared I'm going to break it every time I close it.So I went into a shop on Monday night, to try to get it repaired. Apparently that shop didn't fix mechanical things, so I had to call Asus directly. The guy at the shop told me to find the toll free number, and call them.
So Tuesday morning I search for the toll free number, and can't find it. They really hide it well. So I give up and ring the long distance number listed on the web site. I pick up, press the appropriate numbers for the department I want, and get put on hold. The hold recording, just at the moment, had said "toll free" before moving on to something else. So I didn't hear the number at all. I did however, get the " Your call is important to us, please hold the line and an operator will be with you shortly" message a dozen or so times. The second time I went through the loop, I missed the toll free number entirely.
For those interested, the ASUS notebook customer service toll free line in Canada (perhaps North America) is 1-888-678-3688, extension 4. So I'm on the line for a little while, they guy's really nice. I explain that I bought my laptop in Australia, and that I was in Canada studying at the moment. He tells me that I could bring it in to the service centre, but it's a fair way away.... like the other side of the country.
However, the problem is apparently quite common on this model, and he even opens up an order, asking me the serial number of my laptop before my name... which I thought was a little weird. Very helpful.
As it turns out, the 20 minute phone call costs me $15, but oh well...
So they send me an email, telling me about all the stuff that I need to do, which says they're going to send me a box, and a FedEx (delivery company) Airway Bill, so I don't get charged for anything. The next day, I've received a package =D I go to the front desk, and the lady there hands me this:
She also notes how exciting it is to get an empty box. As you can see (or may not be able to see) that box is big enough to fit ten laptops into. So, at the moment I've got a box which I'm going to cut up and make some holders to hold the laptop in place, as well as a bunch of paper and newspaper so hopefully it doesn't get trashed in transit.The delivery is an overnight express thing, which is good, and I'm guessing it's going to be overnight back to me. They've told me it'll take about a week, although I've read a story on the internet where it took 72 hours from the moment he called them, so I'm pretty optimistic at this point.
I haven't sent it yet because it's a long weekend this weekend, and I've got some work I need to do before I send it in. So I'll send it in on Monday, it'll get there Tuesday, and hopefully I'll be get it back by the end of the week. If not, at the start of next week. Should be all ok.
Hmm... so other than that, what's happened since Monday? Well.. not much. On Tuesday we had a power cut. Two of them in fact. Campus-wide ones. One of them in the afternoon, which meant that I almost missed lunch (it came back on just before I had to go), and the second one was at night.
Interestingly enough, in a house full of guys, there's not heaps to do when there's no power. Unfortunately I got socked when the power was out, which means I'm out of the game =( I did find my person though, so I know she does exist, but she was in her room so I couldn't sock her.
While the power was out, the internet was somehow still up for a little while, and the network stayed up throughout, which was interesting. So some of the guys played Starcraft, which is becoming something that a lot of people on the floor like to do. We also found out that the emergency lights in our house don't actually work - but they work on other houses for some reason. Interesting...The best thing about the power cut was the little security system at the entrance of the house. It beep continuously, and had a little light which flashed, next to the world "Trouble." Awesome.
Hmm... Wednesday was a bit nothing, I've decided that I'm going to do a ray tracer for my final graphics project. A ray tracer produces something like this:
From scratch. Well, almost from scratch. I'll be modeling all of the spheres and stuff, and then calculating the colour of each pixel based on the reflection of the rays of light and stuff. After that, it can be expanded to produce some really realistic pictures. The ones that you can't decide whether they're photos or computer generated. All pretty cool.Thursday was a bit meh, as was today. I was involved in a discussion which originated with what we would do in the event of a zombie attack. Blair (our House President) had actually put a lot of thought into it. We'd evacuate the bottom and 1st floors up to the second floor. We'd then barricade the stairs so they couldn't get up. We'd fill the bins up with water because that'd be likely to be shut off. The only problem would be the food...
It was a very detailed conversation, which turned into a conversation about buying a zeppelin and becoming air pirates, robbing high rise buildings by swinging down on ropes. As well as being detailed it was entertaining. Anyways, hopefully I'll go out this weekend and see some sights or something... and finish off those assignments so I can send my laptop in.
Anyways that's it today, I'll post before I send my laptop in probably...
Oh, and I need to choose 3 photos for the study abroad photo competition. I'll probably send in the one of the fog on top of Grouse Mountain, the one of the Space Needle from Seattle, but I can't really decide on another one, and it has to be done tomorrow... so any suggestions tonight would be appreciated =P
Monday, November 5, 2007
Justin's Big Adventure
SMILE!!!!!
So while I was out on Friday, I saw a man walking towards me holding what appeared to be a blank piece of cardboard. As it turns out, it wasn't blank, but had the word "SMILE" written on it (in texta which was too thin to stand out).
And I smiled. Not because it told me to, but because it made me think of not all, but many of the things that I've been given, for which I should smile. All the things I was most grateful of I thought of, and that made me even happier.
It's amazing how something so simple made me so happy (= I wish I'd taken a picture to head this post with though =P So, tell people to smile, and maybe they'll be happier too.
A smile is a curve that sets things straight
(It sounds like a tool used to get out of trouble =P)
So at the conclusion of the last post, Justin had just finished his midterms, and was slacking off, and slacking off very well. Upon waking on Friday morning, he decided that, instead of spending the day sleeping in his room, he should go out and explore more of what Vancouver had to offer. And thus, he remembered at one point, being told of Gastown, a tourist destination for many whom had travelled to Vancouver, famous for its Steam Clock....
[And now I'm tired of speaking in third person]
... the other place under consideration was Chinatown, which, in a place full of Asian people, was said to be quite impressive. However, I decided that Gastown would be the place to go: Chiantown might be better at night.
So after my 8am lecture, I caught the number 4 bus. On sitting on the number 4 bus, something occurred to me - although I knew which bus to catch, I didn't know when to get off. I had two inklings, the first was that it was fairly close to the city, just a couple of stops past a stop I'd been to a couple of times. The second was that it was right near the end of the bus line. I was hoping that they'd coincide... they didn't.
So the bus drives past the "Gastown Mexican Restaurant." Me, not knowing how large Gastown is, figures that I'll stay on the bus a little while longer. So I did, the bus drives, and drives and drives.
So I start to figure I'd been on the bus too long when a lot of homeless people start getting on the bus. A LOT of homeless people. Like, more than half the passengers on the bus. So, long story short, I stay on the bus until the end of the line. In fact, now that I think about it, I stayed on the bus from the start of the route to the end =D I'd never done that before =P
I get off the bus when the driver stops and says goodbye to everyone. So I get off the bus, and walk around. Apparently I'm at the home of the Vancouver Giants (which are the Vancouver hockey team which isn't the Canucks. Everyone is crazy about the Canucks, the Giants play in a different league, which noone cares about =P). I find a rather cool playground, with a bunch of statues, and a cool water feature (which happened to be really mossy and a bit disgusting), and a skate park. I took a few photos there, and then ventured on.
I found a small Japanese Garden (where a couple of homeless people were sitting), and I took a few photos there too.
Eventually I find out I'm in Hastings, which I'd vaguely remembered was pretty dodgy place. Have a Starbucks (first one since the first week I was here =P), at a Starbucks with a drive-thru in it.
Walk around the place a bit, and get bored, so I get on a bus. So I sit on the bus for a little while, before coming to an intersection where there's a lot of people. I figure this must be a pretty popular place so I get off. Unfortunately, once again I've found a place full of homeless people. Just about everyone on that street was a homeless person (perhaps 40-50 people), which made it a little awkward. A little further on, and I find out I'm in Chinatown.
I look in a couple of shops, but a hoodie, and poke around a bit. Turns out that the coffee had made it through my digestive system and I really needed to find a toilet. However, it also turns out that Chinatown is the one place in Vancouver which doesn't have a Starbucks and/or a MacDonalds on every block. So I'm walking around quite a few blocks trying to find a toilet. Eventually I find a memorial park-like place which happens to have toilets (kinda cool underground ones as well).
When I get out of the toilets, I realise I'm right next to that Mexican Gastown restaurant. It turns out that Gastown and Chinatown are right next to each other. So I make it down to Gastown, and look at the steam clock - which is a lot smaller than I'd imagined it.
It is quite cool though, little balls as weights inside, and tuned steam whistles go off at every quarter hour.
Gastown, as it turns out, isn't much of an exciting place. It's very small, and all the shops are tourist shops. No only that, but it's right outside the city centre, really close to...well... everything.
I did see a very cool building though:
And, after wandering around the city a bit more, I caught the Skytrain (really not that impressive =()and the bus home.
Friday night was pretty typical, as was Saturday - had a group meeting which lasted all of about 10 minutes, and played frisbee (and got very muddy). Saturday night was pretty good. Watched American Gangster, which is a really cool movie. Although I missed about the second quarter of the film, so I should probably watch it again. It was very cool though - highly recommended.
Sunday was church once again, and Banana Leaf for lunch - Char Kway Teow - awesome-tasting.
And I wasted most of Sunday night, doing laundry and messing around with my computer.
And now it's Monday, I still haven't done any work, and its almost lunch time.
Definitely happy times for Justin at the moment. Although I guess I should get around to doing some work.
And, I'll leave you with a link to one of the saddest pictures I've seen in a long time. Poor dog =(
Link
And before I forget, in response to Brendan's comment about the first picture on this post, I was around Halloween and I was doing 'ghosty' long exposures in my room, and then I took one out my window, and that's that one =P
EDIT: I may not be online for a while as my laptop is slightly broken and I want to try to get it repaired... Hopefully won't take long, or maybe it'll cost too much and I'll ignore it. Hopefully talk to you all soon.
UPDATE: I went to the shop, they said they couldn't fix it, so I called ASUS. 20 minutes and $15 later, I'm getting my laptop shipped to the support centre in Ontario, and I'll be losing it for about a week. I'll let you know when that will happen.
So while I was out on Friday, I saw a man walking towards me holding what appeared to be a blank piece of cardboard. As it turns out, it wasn't blank, but had the word "SMILE" written on it (in texta which was too thin to stand out).
And I smiled. Not because it told me to, but because it made me think of not all, but many of the things that I've been given, for which I should smile. All the things I was most grateful of I thought of, and that made me even happier.
It's amazing how something so simple made me so happy (= I wish I'd taken a picture to head this post with though =P So, tell people to smile, and maybe they'll be happier too.
A smile is a curve that sets things straight
(It sounds like a tool used to get out of trouble =P)
So at the conclusion of the last post, Justin had just finished his midterms, and was slacking off, and slacking off very well. Upon waking on Friday morning, he decided that, instead of spending the day sleeping in his room, he should go out and explore more of what Vancouver had to offer. And thus, he remembered at one point, being told of Gastown, a tourist destination for many whom had travelled to Vancouver, famous for its Steam Clock....
[And now I'm tired of speaking in third person]
... the other place under consideration was Chinatown, which, in a place full of Asian people, was said to be quite impressive. However, I decided that Gastown would be the place to go: Chiantown might be better at night.
So after my 8am lecture, I caught the number 4 bus. On sitting on the number 4 bus, something occurred to me - although I knew which bus to catch, I didn't know when to get off. I had two inklings, the first was that it was fairly close to the city, just a couple of stops past a stop I'd been to a couple of times. The second was that it was right near the end of the bus line. I was hoping that they'd coincide... they didn't.
So the bus drives past the "Gastown Mexican Restaurant." Me, not knowing how large Gastown is, figures that I'll stay on the bus a little while longer. So I did, the bus drives, and drives and drives.
So I start to figure I'd been on the bus too long when a lot of homeless people start getting on the bus. A LOT of homeless people. Like, more than half the passengers on the bus. So, long story short, I stay on the bus until the end of the line. In fact, now that I think about it, I stayed on the bus from the start of the route to the end =D I'd never done that before =P
I get off the bus when the driver stops and says goodbye to everyone. So I get off the bus, and walk around. Apparently I'm at the home of the Vancouver Giants (which are the Vancouver hockey team which isn't the Canucks. Everyone is crazy about the Canucks, the Giants play in a different league, which noone cares about =P). I find a rather cool playground, with a bunch of statues, and a cool water feature (which happened to be really mossy and a bit disgusting), and a skate park. I took a few photos there, and then ventured on.
I found a small Japanese Garden (where a couple of homeless people were sitting), and I took a few photos there too.
Eventually I find out I'm in Hastings, which I'd vaguely remembered was pretty dodgy place. Have a Starbucks (first one since the first week I was here =P), at a Starbucks with a drive-thru in it.
Walk around the place a bit, and get bored, so I get on a bus. So I sit on the bus for a little while, before coming to an intersection where there's a lot of people. I figure this must be a pretty popular place so I get off. Unfortunately, once again I've found a place full of homeless people. Just about everyone on that street was a homeless person (perhaps 40-50 people), which made it a little awkward. A little further on, and I find out I'm in Chinatown.
I look in a couple of shops, but a hoodie, and poke around a bit. Turns out that the coffee had made it through my digestive system and I really needed to find a toilet. However, it also turns out that Chinatown is the one place in Vancouver which doesn't have a Starbucks and/or a MacDonalds on every block. So I'm walking around quite a few blocks trying to find a toilet. Eventually I find a memorial park-like place which happens to have toilets (kinda cool underground ones as well).
When I get out of the toilets, I realise I'm right next to that Mexican Gastown restaurant. It turns out that Gastown and Chinatown are right next to each other. So I make it down to Gastown, and look at the steam clock - which is a lot smaller than I'd imagined it.
It is quite cool though, little balls as weights inside, and tuned steam whistles go off at every quarter hour.
Gastown, as it turns out, isn't much of an exciting place. It's very small, and all the shops are tourist shops. No only that, but it's right outside the city centre, really close to...well... everything.
I did see a very cool building though:
And, after wandering around the city a bit more, I caught the Skytrain (really not that impressive =()and the bus home.
Friday night was pretty typical, as was Saturday - had a group meeting which lasted all of about 10 minutes, and played frisbee (and got very muddy). Saturday night was pretty good. Watched American Gangster, which is a really cool movie. Although I missed about the second quarter of the film, so I should probably watch it again. It was very cool though - highly recommended.
Sunday was church once again, and Banana Leaf for lunch - Char Kway Teow - awesome-tasting.
And I wasted most of Sunday night, doing laundry and messing around with my computer.
And now it's Monday, I still haven't done any work, and its almost lunch time.
Definitely happy times for Justin at the moment. Although I guess I should get around to doing some work.
And, I'll leave you with a link to one of the saddest pictures I've seen in a long time. Poor dog =(
Link
And before I forget, in response to Brendan's comment about the first picture on this post, I was around Halloween and I was doing 'ghosty' long exposures in my room, and then I took one out my window, and that's that one =P
EDIT: I may not be online for a while as my laptop is slightly broken and I want to try to get it repaired... Hopefully won't take long, or maybe it'll cost too much and I'll ignore it. Hopefully talk to you all soon.
UPDATE: I went to the shop, they said they couldn't fix it, so I called ASUS. 20 minutes and $15 later, I'm getting my laptop shipped to the support centre in Ontario, and I'll be losing it for about a week. I'll let you know when that will happen.
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