Ah. December 31st. 2001. It's over. And you know, what? I'm glad it's going to be over. 2001 sucked. Well....for the most part.

I'm really looking forward to 2002. A new year. A new hope. A new beginning.

I'm not a man of words...but in conclusion? 2001 = Sucky. 2002 = Let's hope it's better.

All the best to everyone in the coming New Year! Cheers!

EXT. Metrotown, Burnaby. Night.

Rich: Whoa...did you catch the girls checking you out?
Me: Huh?
Rich: Dude...two girls checked you out!
Me: Really? Where?
Rich: The two Asian hotties that just passed us!
Me: Oh? I didn't catch that...
Rich: Oh come on! Even I caught that!
Me: (embarrassed) Oh...

Sigh.

Went out to watch Monster's Inc today. Actually, I've been meaning to go see it for some time but I never got a chance to go watch it when the film first came out.

But there are so many good films out in theaters that I decided that I would just wait until Monster's Inc came out onto video. However, quite recently two friends claimed that Sulley (one of the characters in the movie) reminded them of me. That sparked my interest in the film again.

I was intrigued.

It's always interesting to see how/what people think of you. I was interested in how a 800 pound purple/blue furry monster reminds my friends of me.

Jeesh.

I don't think I'm THAT overweight. Hrumph.

So I went out with my sister to go watch it. I'm still not really convinced...but now my sister says that Sulley reminds her of me. Apparently the way I grin, looks like Sulley, and I have a "Sulley" aura. Whatever that means. Sigh.

I'm just a 800 pound monster.

Blah.

I should go on a diet.

Went to my church for service yesterday. The kids started to sing "Jingle Bells"...the "Batman smells" version. It was most precious thing I've ever heard/saw. Hah! They were so cute! With cute lines such as "Crashing into trees, ow, ow, ow!" how could you not be sold?

That more than anything...got me into the Christmas spirit this year.

Well I just wanted to wish a hearty Merry Christmas to all! All the best to everyone!

I hope everyone drinks responsibly and has a great time spending time either with friends or family...

Merry Christmas to you!

Hmm...just thought of another driving story from last week. I was up at my school studying...it had rained in the afternoon but by night the temperature had dropped to freezing. This had turned all the water on the pavement into ice. Yummy!

As you can imagine our entire outdoor parking lot had turned into a skating rink. Yay! On ice, you can start to have REAL driving fun. There is a section in our parking lot where there are no lamp posts so you have PLENTY of space. It was conveniently deserted by the time I was leaving school so I started pulling donuts/spins.

Usually you need a rear-wheel drive car to do real donuts. But on ice, a front-wheel drive car can have lots of fun too. I can't disable traction control on my car, so what I do is drive up to 30 km/h and pull on my hand-brake and turn my wheels. Pulling the hand-brake only locks the rear wheel tires, and you can floor the throttle. If you try this on dry pavement, this will only cause the car to oversteer (turn/slide)...but on ice this will induce the car into a spin.

Wheeee!!!

After a few attempts I was ready to leave. I could see another person waiting for me to leave so he could give it a try too.

Heh.

Must have been exam stress... Btw. Don't let Campus Security catch you doing this. You didn't hear this from me...

Had to hand in my take-home exam at my prof's house this morning. Took my dad's minivan and decided to have a little fun on the way...

Was pretty rainy today. Caution! Slippery when wet.

Saw an empty back street. *Grin*

Made the turn onto the back street early and a bit too fast. The family touring tires on the minivan are good enough for most, but when pushed hard on rainy days they quickly lose grip. I could feel the front wheels start to lose traction.

Rather than back off the throttle and let the tires do their thing, I decided to have a little more fun. I punched the throttle. The front tires lost complete traction and started to spin, inducing the minivan into a mild sideways drift.

Now boys and girls THAT is understeer.

To recover NEVER touch the brakes. You will just loose control and cause the car to spin. Most likely you'll end up spinning into a ditch or crashing your car into a lamp post...and there is nothing cool about that. Instead, ease off the throttle and let the tires recover. Don't try to steer too much into the turn because your wheels will gain traction faster if they are pointed straight.

For passengers it's pretty scary...but if you watch someone else do this from outside the car, it looks pretty cool. Too bad no one else was watching. Heh. Oh well. Who says you can't have fun in a minivan?

Hmm...I seemed to have gained a reputation for driving fast amongst one group of my friends. This is because after a party at my friend's house I was driving a student from Germany back home. It was 2 AM so I was driving a wee bit faster than usual. Now Mr. Autobahn-boy has started to claim I was driving double the speed limit. Jeesh.

I thought those Porsche/Mercedes-Benz/BMW drivers and their autobahns could take their speed. Obviously not. Wimp.

Anyway this was brought up as an issue, as I had promised to drive another friend out to the airport. He was worried and started to interrogate me on ICQ about this:

Him: "Rumors says that you drive quite fast..."
Me: "Who says that? *****?"
Him: "Yes, sir...he said you drive about 120 going up to SFU"
ME THINKING: Pffffft. That's NOTHING! Besides, people drive up at that speed during the day...
Me: "Really? I wasn't going that fast, was I? *grin*"
Him: "I don't know, you were the driver, not me...1 Q, you got airbags and seatbelts in your car?"

When he asked me about the airbags, I was going to respond and tell him: "No. But it does have bags of confetti that burst open on impact, and a little recording that plays a song and says 'Congratulations! You're a winner!' That good enough?"

I resisted.

Me: "Nah...don't worry. I drive the speed limit during the day...you'd think ***** would be used to this...coming from Autobahn Germany and all."
Him: "Yeah, that's true, with lots of no speed limits hwys.....but he just said you drive fast, that's all."

I tried to reassure him that my car was safe.

Me: "Don't worry. Just to reassure you. My car is constructed from dual corrugated cardboard, and has a seeing eye dog that barks when it gets too close to other vehicles. Plus it has a 1 star crash rating from the government..."

Heh.

Name of German student withheld. Wouldn't want his German citizenship to be revoked or anything.

Jealousy for a girl:
Boy: Yeah I'm going out with Sarah this afternoon.
Girl: WHAT again?
Boy: Yeah.
Girl: Sigh. (Aside) That must be nice...

Jealousy for a guy:
My dad: Noticed that you installed new wiper blades for your car.
Me: Yup.
My dad: Must be nice.
Me: Yup.
My dad: German ones?
Me: Yup. Bosch.
My dad: Sigh. That must be nice...

Heh...

Just wrote up a rant about shopping at Costsco on Vancouver Webloggers Unite. Go take a look.

Oh BTW, thanks go out to all the well wishers who sent me good luck wishes for my LSAT. Mucho gracias to you all! Both much needed and much appreciated! I'll know my results in a month or so. I'm keeping my fingers crossed... We'll see what happens.

Just one more week! Two more exams and then I'm fREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I can hardly wait!