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So what has gone on in the last week? Why no e-mails from me, you ask?
Well, the most aggravating thing happened--my Eurocom laptop blew up. I'm not kidding...I was browsing the web when all of a sudden, my laptop blacked out and powered down. I could see a small plume of greyish-blue smoke emitting from the back of the unit. My nose instinctively shriveled as I could smell the unmistakable scent of burning plastic. I thought to myself: "Hmmm...young David, that can't be good..."
I clicked the power-on button. No response. I pressed it a few more times. No response. Repeatedly and rapidly ((like I was conducting machine C.P.R.). Still no response. Uh oh. My ever present brain was there to offer insightful commentary: "It won't boot up anymore..."
Gee...thanks, I can see that.
My laptop was a piece of junk and has been a source of constant problems for the past two years I have owned it. (Click on the link if you want the gory specifics). The laptop is out of warranty now and I will have to pay for any servicing.
My brain answered back: "Crap..."
Plus, to make matters worse, I still have all my e-mail on the machine's harddrive.
Brain: "Double crap..."
I called Eurocom and complained. They shot back: "Yeah it might cost $150 to repair," the techie paused, and then continued, "but it might also cost $850 to repair. We wouldn't know until we looked at it. But we want $75 before we look at it."
Uh...thanks, jerks.
I called Steve for some smart tech advice. I described the smoke and the smell of burning plastic. He snickered: "Must be all that hot porn you're downloading off the Internet..."
Ha. Ha. Very funny. My side. It hurts.
The conversation quickly deteriorated from there.
All I know is that I don't recommend anyone to buy a Eurocom notebook. I have created an anti-Eurocom campaign in hopes that the Internet masses may be informed.
As for the lost e-mail? Well, in the end, I only lost about a couple days worth. Luckily, I found a backup on the network that I had apparently updated recently.
In the meantime, my laptop still sits on my desktop. Broken. It's waiting for me to pay off my VISA bills before it is sent off for the (costly) repairs.
Just bought a film scanner. Expensive. Ugh.
But the quality of scans is quite awesome. Even a $3000 digital camera can't surpass the quality of these scans. A top of the line Nikon D1 digital camera captures at under 6 million pixels. At max quality, the scans on this film scanner captures over 11 million pixels. Ha! I am invincible!!!
Added a new photo gallery as a result. Take a look.
I'll slowly update the gallery as I finish organizing and scanning my photos...well until this scanner gets repo'ed by VISA...
Happy mother's day to all the mothers out there! Three cheers for them all! Yay!
I'm finally going through all my backlog of e-mail messages that I've received in the past few months. I'm always estatic about getting e-mails from strangers who have come by my website...they're like little mini-gifts in my Outlook Inbox. Sometimes they just drop a note to say 'hi' and other times they ask me for advice, like suggested places to travel in South Korea. However, I've been noticing that several e-mails have asked two similar questions. I've decided to share my answers to them:
Question 1: What is with this common theme of 'got-no-girlfriend' on the Internet? Why do you always complain and write about not having a girlfriend?
Answer: I'm not actually complaining, but I find that most people are most interested in my thoughts about life and relationships in general...at least that is what I've been hearing from most feedback from my site. We live in a competitive world and if I don't provide interesting content on this page, its very likely you'll hit some other webpage, or worse, go watch TV. I try to provide engaging content that is funny for me and my potential audience. I could talk about the audible differences within types of polyproplyene film capacitors, potentiometers and attenuators, but I doubt most people enjoy to read about that stuff. Besides, I think most people have a sick morbid sense of humour and they are reassured, nay, even amused by the records of my frantic antics...
Question 2: Aren't you afraid or concerned about writing and having so much of your private life listed and available online?
Answer: Well, that's the great thing about the Internet--it provides a sense of anonymity. Besides, only a slight number of people who read my webpage actually know me in the offline world. Chances most Internet browsers don't know if I'm telling the truth or a lie. Case in point, I've long introduced myself as a three foot albino dwarf...
For all purposes, I could be making all this stuff up and my real name could be Fredrick Salazar, a 34 year old living in Seville, Spain, with a wife and three kids.
Recently I got e-mail spam from a large Internet personals/dating service, which will remain un-named. Internet personals/dating has certainly become popular and has even started to become mainstream culture, ever since Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks starred together in the chick flick, You've Got Mail. Yeah, I've heard both the good and bad stories about meeting people online--in fact, I've experienced one REALLY bad case myself, but that's another story. Personally, I know several friends who've admitted that they've met their current boyfriend/girlfriend online. The anonymity of the Internet is great because it allowed them to build stable relationships based on intellectual compatibility, rather than on hormones and physical attraction. So, I decided to give this website a try...
I logged onto the site and created a new profile. I described myself as an average Canadian three foot albino dwarf searching for the perfect girl. I clicked "register" and didn't give it much thought for several days until I got an e-mail from the website's administration:
From: *********.com
To: mail@davidchun.com
Subject: Your account
Dear Frederick Salazar,
We are sorry to inform you that your profile on our site has been denied approval. In all likelihood your profile has infringed one of our policies regarding profiles. Please read our policy online and re-submit your profile.
Regards,
*********.com
Now in my offline life I deal with enough rejection from women, so usually I'm pretty good at dealing with it. However, this particularly made me a little miffed. I went to read their policy online...basically it said that they would deny any profiles that contained profane or sexual language. My profile was clean as snow! Heck, my grandmother could read it! Of course, given the fact that she only speaks Korean, she wouldn't be able to understand it...but I digress.
This site must be discriminating against Canadians...errr...that's it! I decided to write them back on behalf of all my fellow Canadian buds:
From: mail@davidchun.com
To: *********.com
Subject: My account
Dear *********.com,
I was a little perplexed as to why you denied my profile, as it contained no profane, sexual or other "inappropriate" language as stated in your online policy. Please reply with an explanation as to why my profile was denied.
Regards,
Frederick Salazar.
I thought they wouldn't bother to respond, but several days later I got a response. The soap opera continued:
From: *********.com
To: mail@davidchun.com
Subject: Your account
Dear Frederick Salazar,
Your profile was denied approval for one of the following reasons:
1. An incomplete profile.
2. A "one-liner" profile.
3. E-mail, phone number or ICQ# in the profile.
4. Excessive HTML tags in the profile.
5. Inappropriate content.
6. There are some miscodes in your profile.
Regards,
*********.com
Hmm....Well the lawyer in me knew that they had me..."inappropriate content" is a pretty broad definition that is entirely subjective. However, I'm also certain any two-bit lawyer could convince a jury that what I wrote wasn't completely inappropriate. I admit I was lying about my profiles (as I gave no mention about my wife in Spain or my three kids). But so what? Bill Clinton lied under oath, didn't he? Furthermore, I had no idea what they meant by "miscodes". I decided to fight back:
From: mail@davidchun.com
To: *********.com
Subject: My account
Dear *********.com,
I still do not understood as to why you denied my profile, as it does not infringe any of your stated policies. It was not blank, nor was it a one-line introduction. It did not contain any private identification (such as e-mails or ICQ#s) nor excessive HTML codes and there was certainly no inappropriate content. Please reply with an exact explanation as to why my profile was denied.
Thank you,
Frederick Salazar.
I couple days later I got a response. I chuckled as I read the e-mail:
From: *********.com
To: mail@davidchun.com
Subject: Welcome to *********.com
Dear Frederick Salazar,
Congratulations, your profile has been approved.
Regards,
*********.com
Sigh. They give up too easily. Several days later I got another e-mail from them:
From: *********.com
To: mail@davidchun.com
Subject: Frederick, we've got a match for you!
Dear Frederick Salazar,
We have selected a number of recent profiles that would match your profile:
Match #1:
Handle: sweetlove19
Profile: http://*********.com/profiles/3124-5123.htm
Location: Inner Mongolia, China.
Gender: Woman.
Age: 19.
To see your other matches visit your personal page at *********.com.
Regards,
*********.com
Huh. What do you know. Of all places in the world, my number 1 match--my Internet soulmate--happens to live in Inner Mongolia, China. Sigh.
Well, I guess I'll be flying to China...
Hey...guess what I found at my local supermarket!
It sounds like real crap, but you can't believe it's not the real thing!
Still have time to waste? Well, listen to some of these more professional commercials. (Remember to turn on your speakers...)
Courtesy of Jellyvision
1. "Patrick L. Bender - Attorney at Law"
2. "Xenora - Warrior Princess I"
3. "St. Joseph's Boy Choir"
4. "Reasons Not to Order the Veal"
5. "Toilet Paper"
6. "Xenora - Warrior Princess II"
Courtesy of Sound America
1. "AOL"
2. "Yogurt"
3. "Intercom School"
4. "A&P Store"
Ahem. That is all. Carry on, Earthlings.
Why no updates these past months? Well, I was basically busy writing papers for school. I've been done for about three weeks but I've been so sick with writing, typing and computers in general that I vowed not to peck at the keyboard longer than to answer short urgent e-mails. It's only these past few days that I've dared to come back and sit at the computer for longer periods of time. I'm updating right now (at 2AM) because I know Alice will ask me later today if I updated the page or not...and if I don't update she'll probably continue prodding me to do so. So here goes.
So what have I been doing these few weeks? Well, I spent some time so experimenting with cooking... I tried to whip up a few different versions of phad thai to little satisfaction. I can never seem to get sufficient flavouring in my sauce. I guess the Achilles heel to my style of "cooking" is that I rarely go by recipes and measurements...I go by tasting and the what "looks good" method. A recipe for disaster you say? Well, this method has produced successful results, but I'll admit when it fails...it fails badly.
Really badly.
Like Titanic-and-the-musicians-are-still-playing-as-the-ship-goes-down badly. I once whipped up my version of simple spaghetti for a friend:
Her: "I never knew you liked to cook! You never told me you liked to cook..."
Me: "That's because you never told me you liked to eat dog food."
So why not go towards measurements and recipes? Well, that's because I'm a typical guy, and we men are totally impatient with any and all manuals. Have you seen any guy sit down and study instructions before trying to assemble something? No. We just go by male intuition. Case in point, get a typical man to assemble pre-fabbed furniture from Ikea. We first bring out the power tools and the band-saw and bang away for about an hour. If we get a bookshelf out of what was supposed to be a sofa, we *might* check the diagrams in the manual an hour later. That's if you're lucky.
Anyhoo, I think I will try using some tamarind and maybe a little of coconut milk in the next batch.
I spent some time shooting photos these past weeks and the results look fairly decent, but I still need to buy a film scanner before I can put them online. I think I'll purchase that in the next month or so. Stayed tuned for brand new picture updates (coming soon).
Funny episode several weeks ago... I met dream girl #147 at a friend's party. I approached her with my usual grace of stumbling over a chair...
Me: "Hi....blah, blah, blah..."
Several minutes later we're casually drifting towards the subject of age/school. I'm thinking she HAS to be in the 21-23 neighbourhood. I ask.
Her: "Yeah I'm younger than I look...I'm 17."
Uh oh. Jail bait.
Me: "But I'm SO hooked." *sigh*
Her: "Excuse me?"
Me: "Ummm....nothing..."
Apparently I'm not that bad at guessing ages as one of my friends. He has particular problems estimating ages of Asian girls. Fortunately, he tells me he hangs out with older girls who offer him sisterly advice:
Him: "What about her?"
Them: "Uh...she looks 16, hun..."
Him: "Oh."
I just created and uploaded a photography equipment buying guide for fellow photographers. The Opinionated Buying Guide for Photography Equipment: May 2001 Edition. Check it out. More updates to this site coming very shortly. Stayed tuned.
So what has gone on in the last week? Why no e-mails from me, you ask?
Well, the most aggravating thing happened--my Eurocom laptop blew up. I'm not kidding...I was browsing the web when all of a sudden, my laptop blacked out and powered down. I could see a small plume of greyish-blue smoke emitting from the back of the unit. My nose instinctively shriveled as I could smell the unmistakable scent of burning plastic. I thought to myself: "Hmmm...young David, that can't be good..."
I clicked the power-on button. No response. I pressed it a few more times.
No response. Repeatedly and rapidly ((like I was conducting machine C.P.R.).
Still no response.
Uh oh. My ever present brain was there to offer insightful commentary: "It won't boot up anymore..."
Thanks, I can see that. My laptop was a piece of junk and has been a source of constant problems for the past two years I have owned it. (Click on the link if you want the gory specifics). The laptop is out of warranty now and I will have to pay for any servicing.
My brain answered back: "Crap..."
Plus, to make matters worse, I still have all my e-mail on the machine's harddrive.
Brain: "Double crap..."
I called Eurocom and complained. They shot back: "Yeah it might cost $150 to repair," the techie paused, and then continued, "but it might also cost $850 to repair. We wouldn't know until we looked at it. But we want $75 before we look at it."
Uh...thanks, jerks.
I called a friend for some smart tech advice. I described the smoke and the smell of burning plastic. He snickered: "Must be all that hot porn you're downloading off the Internet..."
Ha. Ha. Very funny. My side. It hurts.
The conversation quickly deteriorated from there.
All I know is that I don't recommend anyone to buy a Eurocom notebook. I have created an anti-Eurocom campaign in hopes that the Internet masses may be informed.
As for the lost e-mail? Well, in the end, I only lost about a couple days worth. Luckily, I found a backup on the network that I had apparently updated recently.
In the meantime, my laptop still sits on my desktop. Broken. It's waiting for me to pay off my VISA bills before it is sent off for the (costly) repairs.