Spent three hours today looking for a local computer supplier that carried female-to-female adapters for my 10base2 ethernet network. I thought I needed one in order to add a network "extension cable" to the pre-existing T-connector in my room so I could connect my laptop and drag it around the house. I finally located a place, went there, brought the adapter back home. After some simple testing, I soon realized I could have used both ends of a regular T-connector instead! Doh! Jeesh...nobody tells me these things...

Well everything is copasetic now--I can now drag my laptop around the house while it is still connected to the Internet. Basically that means I can access the Internet in the kitchen, living room and the bathroom (if I wanted to).

Well its been a little crazy this past week. As the great master, Keanu Reeves would say: "Woah..." Doesn't look like I will be able to do any relaxing this weekend either--I have to finish up research and study for some midterms and prepare for a presentation. I don't really have anything to report other than that I've been stressing a little the past week. I guess it's just time to take some Midol™.

Have lots of time and bandwidth to spare? Procrastinating from work? Then may I suggest Adcritic.com. This site has Quicktime movies of all the latest and greatest TV commercials. I have downloaded five of my favourites, and they are now on my webpage for your downloading pleasure. These are all actual advertisements, except the Dodge 88 one:

1. Breast Cancer Society of Canada -- Cam Exam

2. Dodge 88 -- Commercial Spoof

3. Sony -- Tekkan 3 Therapy

4. Pacific Bell -- ADSL Commercial

5. Viagra -- Ladies Night

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Chinatown, Vancouver, B.C.

Today I did some research in the library in the morning. In the afternoon caught up with some classmates in my Chinese history class, to go visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown, Vancouver. This garden was the first authentic classical Chinese garden to be built outside of China. Completed in 1986, it is modeled after the gardens "developed in the City of Suzhou during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)". It was overcast so couldn't get that many good shots. Nice relaxing place though. Was $4 each for a group of ten.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Chinatown, Vancouver, B.C.

Also stopped by the "China: 50 Years" photo exhibit at the Chinese Cultural Center (its right around the corner from the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden) with Erin and Richard. Lots of interesting photos! Worth going...$4 for students, $5 for adults.

Last night, after school finished at 9pm I came to home to find that my Internet connection was down. Argh--not again! So having nothing better to do, I went down to to the video store to see what I haven't seen. I ended up renting U-571 and High Fidelity. When U-571 was out in theatres my niece had told me not to go see it--unless I liked "that kind of stuff". I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, but I just trusted her. Anyhoo, since it is now out on video I thought it would be worthwhile to watch.

Hey! It wasn't that bad--I actually liked it.

Hmmm...next time I see her, I better ask her what she means by "that kind of stuff". I wonder why she didn't like it--I would think she would be smitten by Matthew McConaughey. Don't all girls love him? Once, my friend Meg touched him, and I'm guessing she still hasn't washed her hand...

Hah!

Okie dokie. So I would probably give U-571 a 7.5 and High Fidelity a solid 7 out of ten. So what else did I do today besides finishing the movies? Hmmmm. Nothing! Nada. Zip. Buckus. Just kicked back had a Bud. True. True. This was partly because I was procrastinating ALL day and also because I had to stay in the house in order to house-sit while my parents go camping. They left me all alone...sniff, sniff. You're probably asking: don't I have real work to do? Yeah, but those projects aren't due until next week...they can wait. When it comes to next Monday, I'll start worrying. Meanwhile I'll continue watching TV...

Oh, look! Now the shopping channel is selling those scooters/kickboards. What is up with those damn things? Every kid seems to be foot-paddling around on those stupid things. They look pretty dumb to me. Am I just out of the orbit of the hip generation or something? Am I already becoming an old, senile twenty-something? Maybe I should just sit on my porch all day and yell at the neighbour's kids and tell them to stay off my lawn. Or maybe...I'm just biased against those things because a girl riding one, hit me when I was shopping back in Seoul. It was apparently an accident--I didn't know her, so I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to provoke her (yet). I should have got her to buy me coffee in compensation. Hmmm....nah! Damn kids. Get off my lawn!

Okay so its my second week into my annual "get-in-shape-for-ski-season" workout regiment. Progress is slow, but my leg endurance has improved quite noticeably. Anyway I came back home today to find that my mom had just come back from Costco with a big bag of Dino-sour chewies, and those jumbo Halloween-sized Reese's Peanut-butter cups and Oh Henry bars. Her defense is that it's for Halloween...but come on! Who's she trying to kid? Our house is not even visible from the street! In the past ten years we have lived at this house, no kid has EVER come trick-or-treatin' to our house. EVIL MOMMY! Sigh.

Lately I've become addicted to the latest Clearnet (a local Digital PCS provider) TV commercial which features a disco dancing duck. Disco...disco duck! Quack quack! I LOVE IT!

Well I've just installed a new CGI script called Newspro which should allow me to make updates, easily and quickly. Changes can be made from any computer with web access--I don't need direct physical access to my files! Ultra cool! Ok this is really old technology, but still, it's still cool nonetheless. I upgraded all the previous articles so they use the new format.

Anyway, today was pretty much uneventful, I just had to try this CGI script out. I worked on some of my upcoming papers, did some reading, tried to catch up on my readings. Oh, I almost ran over a dog today while I was driving back home from UBC Library. Crazy owner darts out from the right, onto the street...I see, slow down and swerve slightly to the right. No probs. Then owner's dog darts onto the street from the right. Crap, @#$%! Assuming crazy owner has now run to the other side of the road, I swerved to the left to avoid dog.

Crazy owner, stupid dog (grumble, grumble)...

People! Spay and neuter your pets, and while walking your dog, keep him on a leash for goodness sakes!

Picture courtesy of Alta Ski Area

Wow! Winter is already upon us--and we all know what that means. Time to ski!

Funny thing about sport and males. If we suck at a sport, we like to explain that it is because our equipment is outdated, inferior, broken or plain "just don't feel right". You see, we never say it is about our lack of skill. Case in point: golfers who claim that they can't get a decent shot because their $1200 titanium golf driver is not "right".

That being said I should explain that I suck at skiing--of course, it can't be my skill. I have been skiing for over eight years now and because of my irregular skiing schedule, I have only seen marginal improvements in my ability. What is holding me back MUST be my old equipment. Hehehe.

Mike Nick shows off a pole slide trick on some Line skiboards. Picture courtesy of © 1999 Line Skiboards

My ski equipment
I bought my 188cm Rossignol 4XS skis about six years ago, and they have certainly served me well. When I bought them, these skis were were considered to be a fine pair--it even had groovy technology such as a kevlar strip built into the ski for suspension and torsion control (Rossignol's VAS system).

Today, skis have become extremely more complicated (than from what I remember). Of course you have different skis made for each level of skiing: beginner, intermediate, advanced. You also have different skis for different types of downhill conditions: skis for powder, skis for carving, skis for freeriding...the list goes on. Heck, even the riding population and skiing technique is divided between those of the "old school" and the "new school". Sigh. All the while, some of my friends have been suggesting that I convert to the dark side and try snowboarding because it is more "cool". I say: "Hell no!" After learning how to ski for eight years, you think I'm going to start again at the bunny hills with the snowboard? No thank you! I don't have that much patience.

Snowblades? Skiboards?
So after cruising webpages for a decently priced, decent ski replacement, I came across Salomon's snowblade site. Basically Salomon were marketing some short skis (less than 100cm or so) that they claimed were a balance between skiing and snowboarding. While offering the freedom of skis, they claimed their snowblades also offered the snowboard's traditional advantage of short length that allows for groovin' air tricks. Hmmm....interesting.

I searched further and found that these short skis are becoming quite the rage these days. Because of Salomon's copyright on the term "snowblade", everyone else in the industry (such as Canon Industries, Line, Groove, Journey and Snowjam) calls them skiboards. Although skiboards have been around for several years, it has only been in the past year that people are starting to catch on to this hot new item. These skiboards come with non-releasable bindings that are compatible with regular ski boots. Unlike snowboards, you can just use your existing ski boots! Although you can use your poles when using skiboards, most people don't.

Online opinions (at eopinions.com and skireview.com) about skiboarding were 99% positive. Numerous skiers' stated that skiboarding was better than sex, and with that, I was convinced to buy some for myself. Most users seemed to recommend either boards from Line or Canon. After calling Line, I found out that they had a demo pair of their 1999/2000 Mike Nick Pros (a nice 98cm skiboard) that they were selling off. With my height at 6 feet, they recommended that I needed to get at least a 98cm board, so I snatched their demo pair up. Shipping takes about three weeks, and when I try them out, I'll post an update.

Preparing for the season.
Well even if the snow hasn't fallen on the mountains, that means I need to get prepared. I have always been busy to go up to the mountains to really ski, but this year I have promised myself that I will ski more! I will. I will.

I gotta get physically ready in order to fly higher, and ski faster this year. In Korea, with my late-night eating and beer drinking I actually lost weight! As soon as I came back home and started eating a more healthy diet and stopped drinking I just added the weight back. Ironic huh? Sigh.

Well one key element to being able to survive on the mountains (and steer away from those pesky trees) is to have good strong legs, so I'm starting an exercise regiment. During the summer I leg pressed about 230 kg / 507 lbs, so I know I had the strength...I just don't know if I still have it. Unfortunately I don't have a leg press downstairs, so I can't really find out. Well no matter, my emphasis will be have to be on endurance rather than brute force anyway.

So for the past week I have been started to jog everyday on the treadmill. Oh jeesh. I'm SO out of shape...after the first five minutes I'm huffing and puffing like a steam train. Currently I'm only doing 20 minutes each day, but I'm slowly working up to 30 minutes, and then 40 minutes, then 50 minutes, and then to the hour mark.

Well I'll tell you how it goes in a few weeks time...

Digital manipulation of images can be fun, but can also be a big pain in the ass. I have over a thousand photos taken with my Olympus digital camera...trying to sort them AND clean them up is really taking me a long time. Want to see the work involved?

Digital imaging:
Digital manipulation of images can be fun, but can also be a big pain in the ass. I have over a thousand photos that I have taken with my Olympus digital camera...trying to sort them AND clean them up is taking lots of time and patience. Most people just resize and crop their images and then post their pictures online. I tell you...you owe it to yourself to spend a little time to tweak your images.

Those of you who own digital cameras are probably asking "why bother?" Well...digital image manipulation isn't always about cutting your friend's face and sticking it onto a supermodel's body. Sometimes its about the subtle tweaks that are needed to make an image "sizzle". Take for instance this pretty standard picture that I took in the interior of BC with my Olympus D-360L Digital camera.

Ok big deal...nice photo, but the image isn't really "alive". It doesn't seem to have that sizzle I think I would have, if I had taken this same shot with Fuji Velvia film in my Nikon SLR. To take this picture further, I need to modify it with software such as Photoshop.

Ok much better. So what did I do here? Well I didn't do anything really drastic--just simple adjustments. First I had to bump up the saturation to make the colours jump out, and then I bumped up the contrast. Sharpened a little and now you have the final product.

Hmm that was fun. Lets do another one. Even pictures that seem pretty saturated in the beginning can almost always be improved. Take a look at this shot I took of a condo in Port Moody, BC.

I took this photo near sunset, and I was disappointed with the digital capture because the lightning isn't as dramatic as it was that night. Well lets run it through the software adjustments...

Ahh...much better. Well those were two sunny days, how about overcast days? Well, even overcast day photos can be tweaked for more punch.

Tweak the saturation and hue a little and presto you get richer greens. Sharpen it up a little and you got this baby. Now considering I have over 1000 pictures, doing this to each one(even the select few that I like) would take forever. It is time consuming, but certainly worth the effort.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all you Internet travellers! Special greets go out to all my friends in Korea! No I haven't forgotten about you all--I'm sorry for not e-mailing you! I've just been really busy lately! I miss you all very much! But considering how busy I am these days, I'm actually glad you're not here because I wouldn't get any work done!

My parents sold my 1999 Honda Civic (sniff, sniff)to buy a more practical mini-van--the Toyota Sienna. When I first heard that they would be selling my car, I was speechless! I was so overcome with grief, I thought I was going to cry! It was like breaking up with an old girlfriend! I mean that Civic knew my quirks, she caressed and held me on wet nights and let me push her to her engineered limits! To stop my endless blubbering, my parents told me to just drive the 1997 Infiniti I30 that they never drive.

Infiniti I30 Photo credit: Infiniti Motors

Well, its been about two weeks since my new relationship with the I30. I have SO forgotten about my old car. This was the equivalent of breaking up with an obese, grandmother of seven and marrying to a Revlon supermodel. I'm in love. To read more about my "new" toy...

1997 Infiniti I30 in Golden Olive

Engine "geek" talk...
Nissan has been well known and respected for their potent and efficient engines (like the legendary RB engine in their Skyline GT-R). This Infiniti I30 doesn't disappoint any expections--this car is powered by Nissan's VQ V6 engine (which also appear in Maximas and in the new Pathfinders). This healthy engine has been awarded accolades from "most reliable V6" to "best overall". It's not hard to tell why. This engine purrs and is silky smooth, but when pushed screams with orgasmic pleasure. Newer versions have been bumped to 227hp in the new Maximas/I30s and 250hp in new Pathfinders. Apparently a special 280hp version is also in the works. Speaking of Nissan engines, keep a look out for Nissan's ZH engine: this 4.5 litre V8 monster that will punt out 340hp to propel the upcoming Infiniti Q45s.

Although this car only has 190hp, but the acceleration is strong and smooth. You shouldn't have much problems in stop-light battles against previous generation Lexus ES300's/Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords, and most domestic mid-size cars. You should be able to take out any pesky teenagers driving Civics or Integras with mild modifications too... You'll probably have trouble winning against those pesky Volvo S70s though. These Swedish turbo-charged delights also generate 190hp but generate more torque at lower rpms.

The experience...
Nonetheless this car begs to be driven hard. If not careful, the strong engine will inspire very umm..."uncivilized/spirited" driving. One experienced car critic took the I30 out for a review and exclaimed: "Wow I haven't driven a car like that since high school!" Coming from driving amenic Honda Civics for all my life, this potent V6 is certainly spoiling me.

Is this car too luxurious for a student to drive? Yeah probably, but then again...at school I park this car next to new Volvo S70s, BMW 328is, Acura TLs, Lexus ES300s, and Audi A4s (all which cost more the than the relatively bargain priced I30).

The suspension makes for a very comfortable car ride, and the heated leather seat supports the thighs of even long legs. Handling at speed is comfortable with speed-sensitive steering. Engine and interior noise is very quiet which makes for a good listening environment but makes you underestimate the speed you are actually going. Makes you think you're going at 90 kph when you're actually hitting close to 120. Unfortunately it only comes with a 200 watts Bose system. Although the included Bose system is competant, it can be irritaingly sharp on the highs (a common problem with all Bose units).

Are you seeing double? Nope this is a Samsung SM525V. Photo credit: Samsung Motors.

The actual design of the car is fairly conservative...but one has to remember it is already 5 years old, and the new generation of I30s are now out. Actually as a side note, the Korean company Samsung (yeah the one that makes TVs) produced a line of cars before its automotive division went bankrupt. It is currently owned by the French automaker, Renault. If you look, the design of its SM525V is almost EXACTLY like the I30. Heck they even use the exact type of rims! Blatant copying! Unfortunately the largest engine that Samsung only offers is a 2.5L V6 which only generates 173hp. Hehehe...too bad.