That was me?

Damn.

I spent the better part of my day today going through the forbidden closet. It's been sealed off to outsiders, nay everyone since I've lived here. Contained in this sacred domain was MY LIFE before adulthood. It was quite disturbing going through everything. Not only did I find all my old high school student cards, I also found a lifetime supply of greeting cards, letters, and other stuff.

This expedition was prompted by the idea that I had WAY to much useless crap sitting around. My closet isn't a tomb. Anything that was in there was just collecting dust, must, and mould. I figured that it was time to shed off the excess fat, and hold a garage sale. The disheartening thing is that after all that digging, I really don't have all that much in the way of sellable goods. I went through a lot of boxes and drawers (yes, I had a dresser in my closet), but yet there wasn't much there.
I don't think I'm done with the shedding of the fat though. I think I'm also going to go through all my books and more modern junk and give that a toss, too. Donate it, offer it to others, perhaps burn it. Who knows. All I know is, I have a lot of junk that doesn't do anything, and really don't mean all that much to me. I'm not saying I'm trying to become a minimalist, I'm just saying that it's just time to get rid of the shit I don't need.

A pop-culture quickie.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, so I'm going to today. The reason? Because it was thrown in my face for the umpteenth time.
Hong Kong actors got it made. I doubt many of you have paid much attention to Hong Kong cinema. If you have, then you'll notice something-- it's always the same freakin' actors. What's more, these actors also dominate the TV scene as well.
There's this one actress whose name I'll likely never know, that I've seen in at least FOUR shows in the past year. And it's not that she's all that pretty or anything. She's way too thin, although she does have the heavily sought after high cheek bones and pale skin. I've had the TVB channels for not even a year, which also makes this rather shocking. There's even this same blond white guy that seems to make a cameo appearance in every contemporary program. It's weird.
To counter my point (always have to be fair), HK TV works a little differently than North American. A show basically has a set number of episodes, and then it's done. It's rare that a show goes beyond that. There's one called Healing Hands which I know has gone to an unlikely third series.
Secondly, most shows don't run weekly, the run M-F or throughout the weekend, and thus end very quickly. This fact also contributes the frequency of need for popular actors.

The moral of this story is.. my cats take big poops.

At the half-point.

Two sleeps until I find myself back at the office. How drôle.

It's a good thing Ottawa took the series TODAY against Buffalo, as Cloudie and Grindy are probably somewhere over the Atlantic right now, on the way to France. They'll likely only miss one game of the Stanley Cup Final. That rolls off the tongue quite nicely, really.
I'll be happy once Stanley gets nestled into the bosom of the Sens.. the stress of it all is killing me-- however, it's worth it.

I came really close to posting on my LJ today, which is something I haven't done for 21 weeks apparently. I did manage to comment on a Joey Michaels post though. Baby steps. I guess having my own blog again kind of removes the necessities of updating the LJ.

I got nothing else juicy to go on, so I'll leave you with this instead. It's pretty funny.

What is it, really.

Sometimes I think I'm smart. Let's examine this idea a little more closely.

I'll be honest and say there I times when I sit in my overused heap of a chair, waiting for my girth to eventually crush it's tired legs. While I sit, I stare blankly at my internet browser of choice (currently sitting with firefox, but it changes every now and then). The internet, and this whole idea of Web 2.0 and what it is bounces back and forth around my noodle. So much in fact, that I Google it.

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes. -Google

So now I know.

Continuing with this honesty trend, I had a whole direction I wanted this to go in. This was going to be a smart post. Really. There were some actual though bubbles I wanted to explore. Then a pan of lasagne came up to me and forced it's flesh into mouth, disturbing my thought paths. It's self sacrifice allowed me to avoid the use of the noodle, and drove me towards a wanton desire to sleep. So regarding Web 2.0, I'm going to sleep on it, and I won't post about it again until a much later time when Web 2.0 was a mere stepping stone towards the Interweb™ 2000.

What's my motivation Mr. Deville?

No need to talk hockey. Ottawa is awsome. 'nuff said.

Writing lengthy emails is non-conducive to my blogging lifestyle. I've been writing a series of novellas to a couple of friends of mine over the past couple of weeks, which I have found has overused my blogging voice. It's all going to my personal correspondences.

It's not like my linking to it will generate him any traffic, but I will regardless. smallShift.com
From the website:

smallSHIFT is a blog built around the belief that technology in the hands of passionate users can inspire change, empower individuals and make a difference.

A noble effort. I've added it to my RSS feeds, so it can't be all that bad. I wish I had that kind of motivation to start a bold new project like that.

Segue.

I seem to be lacking in motivation lately. It's gone. Poof. I've lost the spark. Without spark, there can be no fire. Maybe I'm just dampened, and I'll try out soon. I hope so, because I hate feeling like this. I feel so.. useless.

Sick as a dog, but able to blog.

So yeah. Pretty sick. A veritable poopcano™ (I stole this from Kyle) out of the upper and lower major orifices. I think I'm finally on the mend, though. I haven't been this sick in a long time. It was similar to the second time I got food poisoning in Nanning. Not to regale you with my poop adventures, but today I find myself pooped out. There's nothing left. The mighty Mississippi ran dry. I'll be glad to get back to work tomorrow (as freaky as that sounds). I tired of sitting on the pot, not to mention there's a circle of pain that surfaces anytime my ass finds itself on the throne. Yes, I've been on it that much. 'nuff said.
I also miss being hungry.

I don't think it's much of a secret that I have the seeded desire to be re-educated. I've developed that thirst for knowledge, not so much to help further my career more-so for my own personal fulfillment. Something to help feed the whole pride and dignity. There are very few things more personally satisfying than to be able to say "I did that."
Grindy has decided to take a stab at Athebasca University, and one of their HR Programs. It's a cost of over $600 per 3 credit course. Let's do some basic math.

$600
x 30 (the amount of 3 credit course to achieve a BA)
$18,000 (or $6000/year for a 30 credit year)

Granted, you're not paying all this with one lump sum. In reality, you could be looking at a time period that could span over a decade. It all depends on how much time you can put into the courses. If you were to actually attend a university, you'd be looking at a yearly basic tuition of around $4250, but this doesn't cover any of your learning materials and other various University add-ons.
You have to question whether it's worth the expense. Some might say you can't really put a price on education.

Will I decide to go this route? It's tempting, but the cost does scare me a little. On top of that, I worry about how much this would interfere with my Mandarin language acquisition. Also, I ponder what actual program to take. Poli-Sci interests me, as well as their English program.
For now this is all talk and speculation. It is something that I am regularly contemplating though.

Just some breathing room.

As Grindy so kindly reminded me this evening, while we were watching a tough win for Ottawa at his place, I have been neglecting my blog for a week. Really, it's all a matter of priorities. During blogfest, my priority was to try and pull off a full 28 days of blogging. I met success, and so I was able to move on. In fact, I met success, plus a day. This past week my priorities were spending time with TheWife™, watching hockey, working, and sleeping. I also dabbled a little bit into Space Colony, and continued on with my ChinesePod studies. As such, the blog suffered. The blog came close be being an absolute ZERO priority for me in March. It's a nice thing to have waiting for me, but with the current schedule, it's far removed from the number one slot.

It was good to see Isabel again, after four years. If you don't remember, Isabel was my former roommate in Nanning. She was passing through Toronto on her way to BC to plant trees for three months in the middle of nowhere. Strange how things seem to pick up where they left off. As a roommate, she pretty decent. Wasn't uptight about anything, and wasn't a slob. Makes for a good living arrangements. We actually spent some time in Chinatown, and ate dinner at a local authentic eatery.. delish. I guess when you go through life events of this magnitude with someone, you become like extended family for life.

Just killing time.

I've decided to move my 38Gigs of mp3s from my external drive to my local drive. I'm still waiting. It's taking quite a while, really. I went through all my RSS feeds and even commented on a forum and yet I still find time to write this blog entry.
It's scary to think that a 30gig iPod wouldn't be sufficient for me MP3 needs.

I played Space Colony a little more last night. Well, actually, I think you could say quite a bit more. It's been a long time since a game completely killed my time senses. I got so involved that the world around me wasn't really there anymore. That kind of freaks me out.

As you can see, I've reworked the layout a little bit to compensate for ChinesePod's recent version change and how it effected posting their lessons other people's blogs. It went from a fairly unobtrusive oversized button to something the size of YouTube movie. That kind of annoyed me, but I guess we'll all have to deal.
Speaking of ChinesePod's recent version change (to V3).. I have to say that I've learned to rather like it-- or at the very least I like where it's headed. They've introduced a bunch of new tools for their premium subscribers (such as myself) that will allow for lesson scheduling, status of your lessons, as well as an awesome upgrade to the personalized vocabulary lists. Trying to figure out some of these new features, as well as trying to compensate for what it did with my old lesson lists was a bit of a challenge. I'm managed to work my way around them and have things set up the way I want them.

I thought I'd actually take the day off considering I just finished my blogfest but.. well.. you know. So I guess this makes 29.

And so it ends. (28 of 28)

28 Days later, and I still haven't been attacked by zombies. Despite what you might think, this completely sucks. I want to flex my zombie stomping skillz. I digress.

So it appears that my 28 days hasn't gone out with more than just being personally rewarding. If you didn't scope the comments from yesterday, a one Cassidy Summers, left his thoughts. Knowing that a complete stranger is regularly reading your blog does give you a certain warm and fuzzy feeling inside. A warm fuzzy I had completely forgotten about. I feel like I may be emasculating myself. I'll stop now.

What can $5 buy you? In Canada, it can buy you a few things. 4 Medium Coffee's from Tim Horton's. Maybe a Whopper Combo from Burger King. Some fresh veggies. So there are a lot of things you can do with $5. I'll get more to the point. Today, for $5, I made my first re-entry into the PC game market with a title called Space Colony. With a 4.5 rating from GamePro and a review line of "if you liked the Sims, you'll love Space Colony," I figured it was worth the bet. And so far, I think I'm winning.
You see, I was actually inspired by Grindy's purchase of Freedom Force Vs. The Third Reich. Having the ability to install Microshaft Winblows on my Mac, I figured I might as well make use of it.. so back to cheap PC gaming it is. So far the game is pretty good. Not too hard yet, although when I dived in head first I got way confused.
Now that I'm slowly making my way into the game, its a lot more manageable.
I must make sure this doesn't cause me to lose sight of my Language goals.

So, this wraps up my first blogfest. Perhaps I'll do another in a few months-- after summer is only a memory. And don't worry, I'll continue to blog. I might even try to keep it almost daily. The best way to keep the juices flowing is to keep writing, after all.

DaXiong Vs. Lakeshore (27 of 28)

I lost. You know I did. No one ever wins against traffic.
The City of Toronto misinformed it's citizens and visitors. The Gardener Expressway wasn't supposed to be closed until this evening, you lousy bunch of liars. As such, I spent an entire hour on Lakeshore Boulevard, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. It blows my mind how the City of Toronto was once considering doing away with the Gardener. It wrecks havoc on the city's traffic. It simply cannot be done, unless there's a ready alternative to go to.

It's hard to believe that I only have one post left for my blogfest. It means that a month has nearly passed buy, and all I have to show for it is (or what will be) twenty-eight posts on my blog. Has it done anything for my hits? Absolutely not. I'll be able to make a more accurate assessment in a couple of days. Like I said though, it looks pretty bleak. It's okay though, as this was more of test of my own ability to blog consistently (bad). Most importantly though, is that I didn't burn myself out.

One more thing. I just finished watching Curse of the Golden Flower, and other than it being filled with eye candy (in the forms of colour and every woman breasts looking like they're going to pop out of their garments), it really wasn't that good. Disappointing giving the cast. Proof again that a cast does not a movie make.

I need a bib (26 of 28)

I woke up this morning to find a gob of drool stuck in the corner of my mouth. You know you're old when...

As sad and depressed as this makes me, I think I've grown out of Nine Inch Nails. I was giving the album a short walk-through, but nothing caught my attention. Nothing made me think "hey, this is a great album." Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset to truly enjoy the album, but it's also my thinking that I never will be.
I downloaded the initial single "Survivalism" on March 13, and although it wasn't bad, it didn't grab my attention. Trent Reznor was a staple when I was in high school and college. It would appear that I have mellowed out considerably. What has happened to me? Arghhh!! I used to cool. Not really.

No comment. (25 of 28)

When the Lion King made it's way as a musical, I could understand the reason behind it's success. The movie was a musical after all. Easily adaptable with fancy costumes. It worked.
Later, with the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, something strange happened. Someone thought it would be a great idea to turn that into a musical as well. Mistake. It bombed. I originally thinking something along the lines of "what the hell is wrong with those people."
In the latest news, Spiderman is now going to join the ranks of musical. WTF? Sure, I enjoy Michael Bublé's rendition of the Spiderman theme song, but that doesn't mean that a musical would work. As a matter of fact, I believe that it won't. I think this surpasses the stupidity behind the Lord of the Rings musical. Come on, people. Think about how ridiculous this idea sounds. This just proves that we're running out of good ideas for entertainment.

It finally came back. (24 of 28)

The Sun. Yes. It's finally here.
Quick factoid. The average amount of actual sunshine at this point in the month of April is somewhere near the 130 hour figure. This year, try 33. Have you been kind of moody lately? I think you now may know why.

I worked from home today. A bolt wasn't tightened, and my belt came off almost as soon as I hit the 401. I lost power, and the engine temperature went through the roof. Amends were made on the part of my mechanic, as well as fixing some extra stuff that needed to be done with no charge. I bare no grudge against him. Honest mistake. So after working from home for two days, it's back to the office tomorrow with a very quiet sounding car.

The reason why I actually have a moment to type this is because someone else, namely Grindy, is having more than his share of car difficulties. His clutch blew up. Poor guy. He just can't win when it comes to automobiles.

A message to the Ottawa Senators. You must win tonight. If you play a game on Sunday, I will not be able to watch it from the comfort of my home or someone else's. I will be at work. This will not due. So you must win. Do it.. for me.

**UPDATE**

They heard my pleas. They wanted me to not miss a game. I feel loved.

Another Day at Home. (23 of 28)

I worked from home today. It was awesome. Funnily enough, I believe I'm more productive at home than I am while at work. I seem to get a lot more done without even trying. Going to work is just too distracting I guess.

No need to discuss hockey today. We all know how it's going to end. If you think it's with a Sens loss, you're sadly discombobulated.

I don't talk about television very much, if at all really. I might mention a show here and there, but I really don't get into it. I'm not going to get into it now either. I will discuss, however, the joys of watching television in high definition.
I downloaded last night's episode of House, as I was more interested in the hockey game. How strange it was to see it in 16:9 on a high definition screen (ie my computer). I can understand why people have spent countless millions on these new high def televisions.. televisions I will not buy until I have to. That what friends are for. So now the question to me is, do I watch House on Tuesdays, or do I download it the following day and enjoy it in a better quality. Quite the conundrum.

Time to rebuild. (22 of 28)

I'm not going to knock those who scrapbook. I think bloggers are scrapbooking in their own way. Especially when the start adding photos and other various media.

Today I decided to rebuild my .mac account. I really haven't done much with it since I came back from China, although I think much has happened. More photos were taken. Overall, I believe this to be a worthwhile project.
Also influencing this decision is the inclusion of iWeb that came with my shiny new iMac. It would be a shame not to utilize all this wonderful software that came with this machine. Time to put on my game face.
So I've re-collected most of my photos since 2002 and will likely begin work on my new photo collection during the week.. or the weekend. It's kind of hard with the Sens in the playoffs.

Segue.

Sens played like shit tonight. However, due to a fluky goal at the beginning of the game, that gave them enough to get their win and lead the series 3 -1 with their 2-1 victory tonight over the Pens. I can't take too many victories like this though. Don't know if my heart can take it.
A truth was revealed however. My wife must be suited up and watching the game for a victory to emerge. The only game Ottawa lost was when she decided not to watch the entire thing. Yes, the entire life of the Sens '07 playoffs lies with TheWife™. Now accepting donations.

Last.Fm does it again (21 of 28)

When Section-9.ca was still operational, both TheRoss and I had a listing on our respective blogs for Last.Fm that showed what we had most recently listened to. Since we mutually decided to close it's doors, my Last.Fm account has remained pretty dormant. Despite my lack of usage, AudioScrobbler has continued running on my computers since that time. AudioScrobbler is what told Last.Fm what we were actually listening to.
Today I was curious, so after months of not clicking my over I finally made my way there. What I found was something new (for Last.Fm) which was also very welcomed by my part. It's result you can see above you. In the vain of MySpace, Last.Fm has gone one up and created a "radio" channel that you can embed into your blog. Instead of just one song, you can listen to many a track from right here. What's better is that it's absolutely free. Free is good. I'm curious how Last.Fm actually makes money, but at the same time, I don't really care. I'll just abuse it's service while it's there.

In completely unrelated news, I added Super Mario Bros. to my virtual console on my Wii. I remember that game being somewhat difficult the last time I played it. It seems so much easier now. I still like it though. It's so nostalgic. I'm going to look into other, more recent titles. By more recent, I mean N64 recent. StarFox 64 and Zelda: Orcana of Time are on that researching list. The Virtual Console really was a great idea on Nintendo's part.

One more week to go in the Blogfest. Damn, how time does fly.

They have the thirst (20 of 28)

There isn't a much better way to celebrate a birthday in April, then with a solid playoff victory. TheRoss is indeed the lucky birthday boy. I, am for the first time in a long time, am impressed with the grit and determination of a one Daniel Alfredsson. I've never seen him play his heart out before. Giving hits, taking hits, and scoring during the playoffs is certainly unusual for this team Captain. I think he finally realized that if he didn't step up this year, his days would be numbered. Also important to note is that Ottawa is blocking shots. Another sign of grit and determination. I love it. Playoff hockey really is the best hockey.
My eyes are burning. I believe I may have to step away from the computer, shortly. It's been a long week with too many early mornings and staying up later than I should. I'l be sleeping in tomorrow, and by sleeping in I mean anything past seven in the morning. I haven't been up this late since Wednesday, and I can feel it. How depressing. Bah well, only one more week of this and then I can stay up a little later again.
Let's see if I can stay awake long enough for The Apprentice.

Shh. He's sleeping. (19 of 28)

Grindy is passed out on my futon. My blogging rival sleeps as I blog away. How interesting.

So the Sens lost this afternoon. Wasn't a shocker. Quite the opposite really. I had a feeling they'd lose this one given the slaughter that was their first game. This time the Pens had something to prove. It was a close nail biting game. We'll get him tomorrow in Pittsburgh.

I had an odd feeling today driving to work. I determined that I miss being surrounded by mountains. How? Driving to work, there were clouds off into the distance, covering the horizon but up above there was nothing but clear sky. With the morning twilight, it appeared as though there were clouds in the distance, and I had the surreal feeling of familiarity of that type of scenery. There's something mystical about mountains that I grew to really enjoy when I was away from home. Now that I'm away from them, I miss them. méi bàn fă(没办法). Nothing you can do.

Ode de Traffic (18 of 28)

Tarnished by the automobile, people
Race up and down the lanes with no regard or
Attention to those around them.
F**K you I yell at them as I
Flip that trucker the bird.
Is it a wonder I come home grumpy when I get
Cut off no less than six times a day?

Stop and go. Stop and go. Going from the right lane into the merging lane to simple get a few cars further ahead in traffic--this is something else I see daily on the Gardiner. I know this is useless ranting. You've all seen it before, I'm sure. It just confounds me how people don't seem to care that this only compounds the problem instead of helping it.
Other things are annoying me, too. I won't get into it. I gotta learn how to rant in Chinese.

I don't know what's worse. (17 of 28)

I am completely bagged.. but for a good cause. The cause of watching the Crosby kids getting slapped around the Ottawa Senators. What a sweet, sweet sight that was. Woah. Too much brain power used to come up with the Crosby kids.

Does anyone still have Easter chocolate left? I have yet to polish it off. Slow and steady wins the race.

Nintendo released the full version of Opera 9 for the Wii, and it is much, much improved. I'd like to see it support more internet goodies for video. As it stands, I still can't watch CTV internet Video on Demand. Strangely enough, I can watch Global. Not sure what the differences are in their database of codecs and what you can find in a normal computer system, but it does limit it. Aside from that though, it's not a bad internet browser if you feel like being lazy on the couch.

Okay. Brain foggy. Must stop thinking now.