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
Monday, November 26, 2007
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.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Probability is a Measure of your Ignorance
.... That'd be about right. I wonder if my ignorance of probability means anything.
Anyhow, so, a few weeks ago I put a new feature in, which allows me to find the traffic on this blog. It means I can spy on people =) I actually just wanted to see if anyone was reading it, and it turns out that at least some people are.
As it turns out, about six or seven different people visit my blog each day, even on the days which I don't update. (Having said that, one of those people each day is me, checking for comments).
The most visits have come from (unsurprisingly), "Vancouver" (that's me, and possibly other people on this network), Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. However, apparently I've also got a fairly frequent visitor from Perth, which kinda concerns me, because I didn't think I knew anyone from Perth.
So if you're that person from Perth, leave a comment and let me know who you are =P or just email me if you don't wanna do that.
I've also got a few visits from a person in Japan, whom I assume is Kaori, who is on my msn list and therefore knows of this blogs existance. So hi Kaori =) We should catch up when I'm in Japan at the end of January... if you're around then.
I've also got a few random visits from Surrey (suburb-like thing in Vancouver... and I don't know who that is, so hi whoever that is =P).
And yeah, hi to people in Adelaide who read this blog. Not sure who all of you are, but hi anyway...
Anyhow, now that's over, let's see what I did in the week since Friday. On Saturday I actually did play some Ultimate Frisbee. 'twas quite fun, and the first bit of exercise I'd done in a while, bit of a wake-up call (but probably not enough for me to actually do anything about my un-fit state at the moment).
Sunday I tried to study all day, and managed to fail miserably - didn't actually get started until 2. Monday I had my AI mid-term. That was an interesting one. Just before the exam started, the lecturer and his two TAs had a little conversion. Apparently they'd given us the wrong Part B, which made the exam really really thick. We got told not to look at Part B, and just do Part A, while the lecturer ran off and photocopied the right pages.
It kinda ruined how neat the exams were. Each exam was individually numbered on every page (mine was 00019), and when you have to rip out more than half those pages, and staple new ones to it... well, I was a little bit disappointed.
I also managed to get my exam results back today. 'twas quite funny. Part A was worth 60 marks, and was 10 questions, selected from a bank of 40 questions which were given to us before hand. The average for that part of the exam was 52. Part B (40 points) was not given to us before hand. The average for that was approximately 50%.
Anyways, I managed to study most of Monday, and I did pretty well in that exam - looking at the result. I actually didn't feel comfortable at all actually doing the exam, and I really didn't study enough for it.
Tuesday I had a lecture in the morning, a prac and then another midterm (Computer Graphics). A little bit more exciting than the previous one - if only because I opened the exam, and realised I hadn't studied the material for the first question, and hadn't studied enough for the 3rd and 4th questions - and there were 6 questions total.
I also went looking for the room for my Wednesday midterm after that. That was a bit of challenge. First I walked past the alley to the building (which was a library). Then I turned left at the entrance instead of right, and went into the main library. Then I searched all over the library before leaving it and eventually finding the room. Took about 20 minutes longer than it should've in the end. Luckily I did it before the exam itself.
Unfortunately, the room change was a little bit stupid. This is our normal lecture room, and where I had my midterm on Monday (taken about halfway up the rows of seats):
Here is the room which the lecturer moved to for the midterm:
Sure, it looks cool, but it's a crap place for an exam, the only advantage is that it's bigger than the normal room - but then he didn't take advantage of that because he placed people at every second seat anyway. Although to quote one of the guys who walked into the room with me on the day of the exam "This room is so seventies, I feel like I'm in Clockwork Orange."
So Wednesday morning was my final midterm. Which I had in that room. It was actually much easier than I expected. Being a Theoretical course (Theory of Computation), it could've been much, much worse than it was. As it turns out, there were a couple of questions which we had already seen, and it was only a 50 minute quiz, so he couldn't put too much in there.
The rest of Wednesday (yesterday) was pretty awesome. I wondered around the shops a bit, came back to my room, watched house, slept for a couple of hours, had lunch, chatted with a few guys around the dorm for a little while, watched Heroes (in 720p =D), went to my lecture, came back, played Puzzle Fighter, went to dinner, and finished Halloween with a game of poker (which I managed to go down pretty hard on the first hand, and never managed to get it back - even though I was in for a long time).
Anyways, today was a bit of a very lazy day. Had a lecture in the morning, and came back and slept for three hours because I went to bed stupidly late last night. Had another lecture and since then I've been in my room on my computer =P
So, the other thing which I haven't mentioned at all in this post, but has been happening since Monday is Sock Wars. Sock Wars is an awesome concept. Basically, every gets assigned a person to sock. Sock literally. As in, hit with a (clean) sock. Once you sock your target, they are out of the game, and your new target is their old target.
All players in this game are people who live in my house, or live in the girls house about 10 metres away. The game operates pretty much 24/7 (although they've just introduced a rule saying that you can't get people during quiet hours). Thus, you're constantly in a state of paranoia about being socked from behind.
You are, however, safe in your room (unless you invite your assassin in), in a stairwell, in the caff and in the bathrooms. So, on the way to getting something to eat, you walk particularly fast, and always look over your shoulder.
The person I've been assigned is called Susan, and she lives in room 114 in the other house. Unfortunately I still don't have any idea what she looks like. The girl that's after me, however, definitely knows what I look like. On Tuesday Night, I was coming down the stairs from the caff (safe zone, yay), and as I'm about to turn to go back to my house, I see someone peeking out from behind the pillar, and I stop on the stairs. They see me stop on the stairs, and so they know I've seen them. So I've had to go back up to the caff, and tried to leave through the side door. Unfortunately, they (she hunted in a pack of 3), were heading back to the house and saw me.
My friend sees this and yells at me to get back. They see me as he's yelling, and I run back to the caff, with them chasing me. I make it back to the stairwell. (Yay). So they come up to me, and do the whole "watch your back" thing, and the leave. I go out the other exit, loop right around, and get someone to open the back door of our house for me (because that's an exit-only door).
So yeah, they've seen me and I'm in trouble. It happened again last night actually. Except I was aware of it this time, so I finished my icecream on the steps, and get socked. But I'm safe so it's all good. (In the process of finishing my icecream, I see two other people get socked just off the steps - seems like a happy hunting ground. I again had to loop right around and get in the back entrance.
But yeah, Sock Wars is a great concept - a lot of fun, but I guess it doesn't work too well in many other contexts.
And the one other thing I want to talk about is another prank, which is kinda off the record. Basically, it may or may not have involved a lot of rope, tied between the room doors of one of the floors in another house, such that the doors are tied together and hence can't open. Very cool prank =P (but I can't say too much about it).
And, in the spirit of crazy marking things, I've got this on one of my midterms:
As far as I can tell, that's "not not nice" (the ! infront and the hat on top of the i). Considering he gave me full marks for the question, I don't think it's just "not nice." Either way though, they write some crazy things on papers while they're marking them here...
Anyhow, that's it for now. A while since my last post, and hence this post is stupidly long. I'll try to keep them more frequent and shorter in the future (although I don't really like my chances).
Happy Halloween everyone. Unfortunately the pumpkins which I was going to take photos of disappeared on the Saturday morning, so I didn't get a chance. Oh well...
Anyhow, so, a few weeks ago I put a new feature in, which allows me to find the traffic on this blog. It means I can spy on people =) I actually just wanted to see if anyone was reading it, and it turns out that at least some people are.
As it turns out, about six or seven different people visit my blog each day, even on the days which I don't update. (Having said that, one of those people each day is me, checking for comments).
The most visits have come from (unsurprisingly), "Vancouver" (that's me, and possibly other people on this network), Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. However, apparently I've also got a fairly frequent visitor from Perth, which kinda concerns me, because I didn't think I knew anyone from Perth.
So if you're that person from Perth, leave a comment and let me know who you are =P or just email me if you don't wanna do that.
I've also got a few visits from a person in Japan, whom I assume is Kaori, who is on my msn list and therefore knows of this blogs existance. So hi Kaori =) We should catch up when I'm in Japan at the end of January... if you're around then.
I've also got a few random visits from Surrey (suburb-like thing in Vancouver... and I don't know who that is, so hi whoever that is =P).
And yeah, hi to people in Adelaide who read this blog. Not sure who all of you are, but hi anyway...
Anyhow, now that's over, let's see what I did in the week since Friday. On Saturday I actually did play some Ultimate Frisbee. 'twas quite fun, and the first bit of exercise I'd done in a while, bit of a wake-up call (but probably not enough for me to actually do anything about my un-fit state at the moment).
Sunday I tried to study all day, and managed to fail miserably - didn't actually get started until 2. Monday I had my AI mid-term. That was an interesting one. Just before the exam started, the lecturer and his two TAs had a little conversion. Apparently they'd given us the wrong Part B, which made the exam really really thick. We got told not to look at Part B, and just do Part A, while the lecturer ran off and photocopied the right pages.
It kinda ruined how neat the exams were. Each exam was individually numbered on every page (mine was 00019), and when you have to rip out more than half those pages, and staple new ones to it... well, I was a little bit disappointed.
I also managed to get my exam results back today. 'twas quite funny. Part A was worth 60 marks, and was 10 questions, selected from a bank of 40 questions which were given to us before hand. The average for that part of the exam was 52. Part B (40 points) was not given to us before hand. The average for that was approximately 50%.
Anyways, I managed to study most of Monday, and I did pretty well in that exam - looking at the result. I actually didn't feel comfortable at all actually doing the exam, and I really didn't study enough for it.
Tuesday I had a lecture in the morning, a prac and then another midterm (Computer Graphics). A little bit more exciting than the previous one - if only because I opened the exam, and realised I hadn't studied the material for the first question, and hadn't studied enough for the 3rd and 4th questions - and there were 6 questions total.
I also went looking for the room for my Wednesday midterm after that. That was a bit of challenge. First I walked past the alley to the building (which was a library). Then I turned left at the entrance instead of right, and went into the main library. Then I searched all over the library before leaving it and eventually finding the room. Took about 20 minutes longer than it should've in the end. Luckily I did it before the exam itself.
Unfortunately, the room change was a little bit stupid. This is our normal lecture room, and where I had my midterm on Monday (taken about halfway up the rows of seats):
Here is the room which the lecturer moved to for the midterm:
Sure, it looks cool, but it's a crap place for an exam, the only advantage is that it's bigger than the normal room - but then he didn't take advantage of that because he placed people at every second seat anyway. Although to quote one of the guys who walked into the room with me on the day of the exam "This room is so seventies, I feel like I'm in Clockwork Orange."
So Wednesday morning was my final midterm. Which I had in that room. It was actually much easier than I expected. Being a Theoretical course (Theory of Computation), it could've been much, much worse than it was. As it turns out, there were a couple of questions which we had already seen, and it was only a 50 minute quiz, so he couldn't put too much in there.
The rest of Wednesday (yesterday) was pretty awesome. I wondered around the shops a bit, came back to my room, watched house, slept for a couple of hours, had lunch, chatted with a few guys around the dorm for a little while, watched Heroes (in 720p =D), went to my lecture, came back, played Puzzle Fighter, went to dinner, and finished Halloween with a game of poker (which I managed to go down pretty hard on the first hand, and never managed to get it back - even though I was in for a long time).
Anyways, today was a bit of a very lazy day. Had a lecture in the morning, and came back and slept for three hours because I went to bed stupidly late last night. Had another lecture and since then I've been in my room on my computer =P
So, the other thing which I haven't mentioned at all in this post, but has been happening since Monday is Sock Wars. Sock Wars is an awesome concept. Basically, every gets assigned a person to sock. Sock literally. As in, hit with a (clean) sock. Once you sock your target, they are out of the game, and your new target is their old target.
All players in this game are people who live in my house, or live in the girls house about 10 metres away. The game operates pretty much 24/7 (although they've just introduced a rule saying that you can't get people during quiet hours). Thus, you're constantly in a state of paranoia about being socked from behind.
You are, however, safe in your room (unless you invite your assassin in), in a stairwell, in the caff and in the bathrooms. So, on the way to getting something to eat, you walk particularly fast, and always look over your shoulder.
The person I've been assigned is called Susan, and she lives in room 114 in the other house. Unfortunately I still don't have any idea what she looks like. The girl that's after me, however, definitely knows what I look like. On Tuesday Night, I was coming down the stairs from the caff (safe zone, yay), and as I'm about to turn to go back to my house, I see someone peeking out from behind the pillar, and I stop on the stairs. They see me stop on the stairs, and so they know I've seen them. So I've had to go back up to the caff, and tried to leave through the side door. Unfortunately, they (she hunted in a pack of 3), were heading back to the house and saw me.
My friend sees this and yells at me to get back. They see me as he's yelling, and I run back to the caff, with them chasing me. I make it back to the stairwell. (Yay). So they come up to me, and do the whole "watch your back" thing, and the leave. I go out the other exit, loop right around, and get someone to open the back door of our house for me (because that's an exit-only door).
So yeah, they've seen me and I'm in trouble. It happened again last night actually. Except I was aware of it this time, so I finished my icecream on the steps, and get socked. But I'm safe so it's all good. (In the process of finishing my icecream, I see two other people get socked just off the steps - seems like a happy hunting ground. I again had to loop right around and get in the back entrance.
But yeah, Sock Wars is a great concept - a lot of fun, but I guess it doesn't work too well in many other contexts.
And the one other thing I want to talk about is another prank, which is kinda off the record. Basically, it may or may not have involved a lot of rope, tied between the room doors of one of the floors in another house, such that the doors are tied together and hence can't open. Very cool prank =P (but I can't say too much about it).
And, in the spirit of crazy marking things, I've got this on one of my midterms:
As far as I can tell, that's "not not nice" (the ! infront and the hat on top of the i). Considering he gave me full marks for the question, I don't think it's just "not nice." Either way though, they write some crazy things on papers while they're marking them here...
Anyhow, that's it for now. A while since my last post, and hence this post is stupidly long. I'll try to keep them more frequent and shorter in the future (although I don't really like my chances).
Happy Halloween everyone. Unfortunately the pumpkins which I was going to take photos of disappeared on the Saturday morning, so I didn't get a chance. Oh well...
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