Archives: March 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
What I most have problem with, it seems, is my ability to follow through on things to completion. There's just a whole litany of things I've started and dropped off somewhere. I'd like to know why I let so many things go undone. Maybe I get bored? Frustrated? Fear of failure?
Here's a sampling of the things lying around the house and elsewhere that I've at one point or another committed to doing but haven't finished.
DVD Covers to the GS series. (I've done 8 of 10 and have been stuck there for almost 3 years)
A dozen blog entries
My point-of-sale software (I think I've restarted this 4 times)
An offer for a house
A couple of books (not TOO bad of a number, but I doubt I'll ever finish Godel Escher Bach)
an HRSDC application
all the games I got bored of (MP3, C&C3, Tomb Raider: Legends, etc.)
Cantonese lessons (although this has more slowed down due to being too lazy to burn the CDs)
Then, there's also tha
Posted by Long @ 10:23 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Thursday, March 20, 2008
So they blocked neoGAF at work last Friday. Since then, I've been more productive than I've been in a long time! I may have actually spent 3 full days coding this week already. Who knew that the time wasting powers of GAF were so strong? There's just way too much to read on that forum, too many wonderful conversations and topics to keep up with. There've been times that I'd spend the whole morning just browsing through different threads, the ones on politics, intelligent design, and girls are always way more entertaining than code.
This does bring up one thorny issue though, did the content filter block neoGAF on its own, or did someone do it? And if someone did do it, did they see how many times a day I actually hit that page? Cuz if they did...
Posted by Long @ 09:05 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Of all the superpowers I would want, number two on the list is Immortality. Two reasons. The first is that there is so much to do, see, and learn in the world and time is the limiting factor in accomplishing all that. I want to learn Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Japanese. I want to be able to play the piano, the guitar, the drums. Write my book! I'd like to live a year in all the major cities of the world! And there are SO many awesome video games to be experienced right now. And so many wonderful people to meat and know.
Of course, time isn't the only limiting reagent. All we have to decide, is what to do with the time that is given to us. And sometimes, I just decide to veg in front of the computer. Certainly there are people out there who can speak multiple languages, play a handful of instruments, and have travelled the world. Were I a productive individual even 8 hours a day, I'm sure I could achieve all that too. But I'm not. Yet.
If time is the fire in which we mortals burn, for an immortal, it'd be more of a slow roast. Can you imagine how easy you'd take things if you knew that you, literally, had all the time in the world? Potentially, I'd get nothing done decades at a time.
Reason number two for immortality: I want to see the future! It is the year 2008, where are the flying cars? I want my flying cars! I want to see us go to Mars, help colonize other planets, I want to be here for FIRST CONTACT. I want to be like Emperor Leto and have plans that would take generations to achieve.
Alas, everyday I look in the mirror and notice new creases in my skin, or deeper lines around my eyes and mouth. I wear more layers of clothing than I used to, get sick more often. All signs that I haven't stopped ageing.
But hope is not lost, my body may yet stop ageing and just has yet to achieve my point of no-more-ageing.
Posted by Long @ 08:29 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] [6 comments]
Thursday, March 6, 2008
So I went to a free seminar on real-estate investment that was advertised in the free local newspaper (I'm so cheap!). I didn't really expect to get TOO much out of it, with a fair understanding that they're not putting on a free seminar to teach you everything you need to know about investing. But still, I had nothing else planned on this Monday night. Attendance was surprisingly sparse, about 25 people from many different walks of life.
What struck me the most was how NEGATIVE the whole thing was. The first question asked was what does the Institute benefit from giving these free seminars. I dont remember the exact answer, but it was very condescending and very indirect. The purpose is to sell us on a 3-day 4000$ course; but that was never said outright. That very much set the tone for the rest of the 90 minutes. In fact, I think I would have appreciated the "seminar" more had the guy been more forthcoming right out of the bat and said "This is a 90 minute preview of the things you can learn if you sign up for our seminar". Instead, it was 90 minutes of the guy talking down to us, saying "you can't compete against professionals", "you're not taking care of your family if you don't sign up", "look at the cool toys you could have". The tactic of guilting us for not following his path in life left me quite unimpressed.
In the end, I didn't sign up for anything, it just wasn't for me. The speaker kept insisting that he would take the two most ambitious on the crowd under his wing personnally to ensure their success ("a couple of you" is what he kept saying). Most ambitious being those who would sign up then and there for the course. I didn't stick around to see if anyone was going to sign up, but man, I hope they didn't sign up out of guilt.
Posted by Long @ 01:57 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] [4 comments]
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
It has no survival instinct at all. When its battery is going low, instead of turning everything off and trying to stay alive as long as possible, it decides that it's going to start beeping every 10 seconds. Sure, it's a cry for help "feed me! feed me!" it says, but there's no way to shut it up when I'm not home and don't have anything to feed it with. I mean, at this point, it might as well start flashing its light, hook up with the nearest bluetooth device, and vibrate till enthropy and there wouldn't be much I could do for it.
I know you need to be charged, you dumb fuck, stop beeping at me!
Posted by Long @ 10:46 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] [5 comments]