The Long Road

Archives: November 2003

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Guest Column by some anonymous person who wishes to remain so by keeping his/her identity secret to stay hidden from all those who might know him/her.

Got something to say? Email me and I'll put it up next Sunday.

Go on, read [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 03:44 PM EST [Link] [11 comments]

Saturday, November 29, 2003

Cons
2 more terms without home cooked meals
No access to a vehicle on a work term
Far from the Ottawa friends and family
No late night SoCal2 and Risk games
Won't be able to enjoy a newly painted room
No monthly visits to the Nepean Sportsplex
Less spending money
Poor public transit
potentially living in a small room

Pros
Easier to bug Christine
New experience
More Bomber/Rev/Phil's
Access to the PAC
Can take an extra course
Live with new people
Closer to Toronto

Posted by Rayne @ 09:46 PM EST [Link] [11 comments]

Friday, November 28, 2003

Here're some random thoughts on this week's editions of Enterprise, 24, Smallville, and Survivor. Many spoilers. [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 07:47 AM EST [Link] [4 comments]

Thursday, November 27, 2003

Some of the people whom I live with have lives which seem to revolve around music. Wait…this sounds familiar. Starting Over.

I think I have a very different appreciation for music than most people do. Like I’ve mentioned before, I have no real preference for specific genres or artists; I tend to simply like individual songs. One thing I’ve noticed about the music I like is that I’m attracted to the marriage of words and rhythm – the way a voice fluctuates as the words are sung. (I don’t think I’m saying what I’m trying to say, anyways.) A lot of techno, noise, and dance is meaningless to me because there are no vocals. The odd thing is I could never tell you the meaning behind any of the songs I listen to. I hear the lyrics and the music but most of the time I never pay any attention of what the words are saying. This is, of course, not counting over-produced POP where the entire meaning of the song can be summarized in the title. Even when I can recite a song’s lyrics as it’s playing, the meaning eludes me until I sit down to actually read what the words are saying. (Maybe this is all because I’m a visual learner?) I think this is a big part of the reason why I can enjoy Japanese and Chinese music without understanding a single thing that is being sung – I wouldn’t get it even if it were in English!

Posted by Rayne @ 07:17 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

I think you should buy the X-Men 2 DVD. It was undoubtedly the best movie of the summer and the DVD is a Special Edition to boot!!

Why are DVDs advertised as "available in a special edition" when that edition is the only one available? "Special" is a relative term and really shouldn't be applied to a movie when you can't get that movie any other way. Honestly. Do the movie people really think that consumers are dumb enough to not realize something like this? hmmm... I can totally see some dumb U.S.ians walking into their local Wal-Mart and thinking "OMG! Tomb Raider 2 is available as a special edition DVD!", a definite must buy.

To summarize: Joe, buy X-Men 2 on DVD. It's special.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:24 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

100(1 - ((price you pay)/(full price))) = % saved

100(1 - (((US exchange rate)(sale price)(tax from customs))/((canadian sticker price)(15% tax)))) = % saved

100(1 - ((1.3)(0.6)(1.07))/(1.5)(1.15))) = % saved

100(1 - ((0.8346)/(1.72))) = % saved

100(1 - 0.48) = 52%

52% = Rayne spends hundreds of dollars!!!

Posted by Rayne @ 05:11 PM EST [Link] [4 comments]

Sunday, November 23, 2003

The Internet is an addiction. I have no doubts about that. It happens so often that I'll want to get something done only to get sidetracked for hours on end reading up on stuff online or chatting to various people. For CS assignments, I'll be away from my PC doing the written sections and as soon as I'm on my computer to do the coding parts I'll waste mountains of time not coding. There always seems to be something to look at on the Internet, whether checking email, comments, or my inumerable list of sites that I check everyday. Sure, to our society computers are the biggest productivity tools to emerge in the last couple of decades but for me the complete opposite is true.

It's happened very often that I'll be at the library "studying" and have an uncontrollable urge to find the nearest PC and check my email or newsarama. When I was once studying in DC, everything was going fine until my friend pulled out her laptop to check something and I was so tempted to borrow it to turn on msn or something. I swear I was close to having the shakes.

The problem is choice. It's always easier to choose to not do something productive. So take away that choice and we don't have a problem anymore!

So here's the point of this entry. I'm not exactly where I want to be in terms of marks and Internet-procrastination is high on the list of causes. With Finals and The Last Assignements fast approaching its time to get serious. Ergo, I'm challenging myself to limit my time on my computer. There is very little work I do that actually requires my pc to be on so for all those things my pc will be off. And for things like Coding, I will leave MSN Messenger off so that I'm not distracted by the temptation to talk to you people. This isn't cold turkey though, I'm giving myself two hours at the end of everyday to screw around on the 'net. So yes, during exams I plan for my computer to be off 22 out of 24 hours a day.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It definately helps though, I think, to have this plan written out for everyone to see, makes it more 'official' and harder for me to break out of it. The Challenge starts tomorrow. Let's see how long I can keep this up before I go insane.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:34 PM EST [Link] [9 comments]

Friday, November 21, 2003

Here's what I thought of this week's editions of the shows I regularly watch on TV.
Enterprise, 24, Smallville, Survivor. Many spoilers. [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 12:10 AM EST [Link] [12 comments]

Thursday, November 20, 2003

We all dislike getting our personal space violated right? Some people just don't realise this. I used to be pretty bad with others' personal space but I have never EVER been as bad as this guy.

He sat beside me in class last night and man was it annoying! Whenever he wanted to get my attention for something, he woulnd't just tap my arm once, but at least twice and KEEP HIS ARM HELD AGAINST MINE! To talk to me he leaned his entire body towards mine and at one point rested his arm on my shoulder and leaned against me. I had to physically remove him. But that's not the worst part! When he wanted to leave the class for a smoke he asked me to hold on to his notes and so he decided to lift my clipboard off of my lap to insert his notes between my lap and my board. NoW just imagine if you were to lift a clipboard off of someone's lap, you would reach for the end facing away from the person, or perhaps even the side of their legs. BUT NO!! This guy had to reach for my clipboard by the end that was facing towards me. WHILE IT WAS ON MY LAP. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM?!?!

Posted by Rayne @ 09:18 PM EST [Link]

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Every group has one person who has the role of storyteller. Like shaman in old native tribes ...haha, no wait, that's a really stupid way of starting this. So anyways, there's always one person who goes around telling stories, about how his day went, all the stupid little things that he's done and what not. And he could be talking about the most inane things but this person is all about Delivery. He can make stupid things sound Fun and Interesting.

I am most certainly not one of these storyteller types. For one thing, I usually remember so very little about what happens over the course of a day that I actually have to try hard to tell of some event. There's also the fact that I'm not of the type that can tell about something silly and make it sound interesting; if I talk about something inane, I'll come off inane. Guaranteed. Conversations with me, I think, tend to be more in-the-moment and observational. I'm much less interested in divulging my past than I am in making fun of the goofy looking guy over there or noting how implausibly flawed someone's writing is.

It fascinates me when someone can sit in front of me and pretty much retell their whole life story without skipping a beat and without thinking for an instant that I have no interest in it. Some days, I wish I had that same kind of conviction in how interesting my life is and some days I wish these people realised how boring their lives truly are.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:04 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Here is Amy with this week's guest column! It fits in very nicely with what I wrote on Friday.

For those interested in posting something, email me and i'll put it up next Sunday.

read [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 06:34 PM EST [Link] [11 comments]

Friday, November 14, 2003

I think I need a new major. Not because CS is a lot of work (which it is) but because CS majors come preloaded with a whole bunch of stereotypes. We’re thought to be unwashed, unkempt, unsociable, dorky, and are poorly read and written. All the others I can take, but the poorly read and written part? That hurts. I need to be in a Sexier major.

When you introduce yourself to someone (read: a girl) and that well-used icebreaker comes around and you tell her you’re in CS, you can quickly see the expression on her face of “oh, you’re one of THOSE guys”. So right off the bat you’re fighting an uphill battle against all these stereotypes associated with CS guys. It’s happened quite a few times now that a girl (an arts girl) has commented that my English is much better than what they would expect from a CS student. That’s such a frustrating comment to hear since pretty much all the CS students I know are much better writers than people in other programs. In any case, all (most?) of these stereotypes eventually melt away after a decent conversation but the fact that they have to be debunked at all bugs me.

In talking to math girl Amy about this, she mentioned that Mech Eng was a sexy major because it’s a given that you’re smart (like in CS =D ) but you also work with your hands. I don’t know how well I could pass for a Mech Eng though, the majors that I had thought to pose under were either Poly Sci, Economics, just plain Math or a combination of those, I’m certain I could pretend to be in those majors pretty successfully for a while.

Posted by Rayne @ 08:18 PM EST [Link] [9 comments]

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Yesterday was Stefan’s birthday. He was a friend of mine from way back in grade 3. Stefan died three years ago in a tragic car accident. It was an event that, understandably, affected a lot of people in my immediate circle of friends, some more than others.

It’s somewhat become tradition since, that on Stefan’s birthday we get as many people that knew him together as we can and go out for dinner at Buffalo Charlie’s. It’s a pretty nice affair to see and talk to lots of people you’ve lost touch with over the years as well as sharing memories of Stefan and the good ol’ days.

I think it’s nice that all this effort is put forth to remember him but at the same time I’m disappointed when it’s the birthday of someone who’s alive and a much smaller deal is made of it. I think it would be a much grander thing if we all put the same amount of work to celebrate the birthdays of those still around to appreciate it as well. While it is noble to honour the dead, it is important to remember the living.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:30 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Hello Hot Chick,

I have been ogling you all year. I"m sure you've noticed. Well, I'm not psycho, you're just hot. I'd really like to touch you, so maybe we could get to know each other or something? I've heard that you go to Bomber sometimes on Wednesdays. Maybe we could get introduced there or something. I know some people that know people that could make it happen.

I think that you should stop sitting beside that guy in class. You're too good for him. I bet I can keep you entertained throughout the lecture much better than he can. Remember that one time I dropped an eraser and got you to pick it up for me? I touched your hand when you gave it back and haven't washed it since.

Well, maybe I am psycho after all. But I don't think that will come between us. After all, you're hot. Tell you what: I'll forget that you asked that ditzy question in class and you forget that I'm nuts. Deal?

Posted by Rayne @ 01:05 AM EST [Link] [6 comments]

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Huh.

Just found out there's a kind of unofficial "race" that's constantly on going between web-logers to see who can get on top of google's list when it comes to recent events. Not just ANY events tho, the more Internet-news kind of events - you know what I'm talking about. It's a little silly but who doesn't like getting tons of hits? I guess there's some kind of pride/joy in being well indexed on the Internet and seeing your own site being at or near the top of a search result. I know that I think its cool whenever I see this site in the results page when I search for something.

So here's my first attempt at this Google Snorfing.

free Paris Hilton tape download video Rick Solomon movie sex

Totally shameless, I know. I don't even discuss the Paris Hilton thing. Oh well!

Want to know what I'm talking about? Go here for the tape or here for the story or save yourself some sanity and don't visit either.

Posted by Rayne @ 04:33 AM EST [Link] [61 comments]

Monday, November 10, 2003

For some context, check out my review of Matrix Reloaded

Let’s not pretend for one second that Revolutions is a movie that it’s not. This movie is a straight up action movie that just happens to be more expensive than others and is the ending to one of the best movies ever made; gone are the subtle philosophical questions and the overbearing lectures on existence. Revolutions is just an action movie no matter how many excuses you may think you find for it not being one. Don’t pretend that it’s smart, subtle or deep – it isn’t. The three Matrix films stand on a sliding scale in terms of script/plot complexity. It’s like the writers just decided “ah screw it, lets just show ‘em some cool stuff”.

And yes, there is plenty of eye-candy in this movie; the last half of it is more CGI than any other two movies put together. Like Reloaded, Revolutions is centered around two large Effects pieces: Mechs vs Sentinels and Neo vs Smith. To finally see walking, shooting Mechs fighting giant robots is like a dream come true! I can’t believe the level of detail and work that has gone into the Docking Bay battle. This scene does get very repetitive as we just constantly see sentinels being shot at. I also had to wonder why they didn’t have better defences; they know that EMP blasts can disable all machinery but refuse to keep any around except on their ships. I think it would have been most prudent to keep EMPs around in Zion in case an army of sentinels decide to invade, but then they couldn’t have that last minute save by Niobe.

The Neo vs Smith fight at the end seemed like what Superman vs General Zod should have been in Superman 2, it also reminded me a lot of the way fights are done in DragonBall Z – I can definitely see where the Wachowski’s influences come from. The end battle is probably the most well executed superhuman fight ever committed to film – the upcoming Superman movie is going to have a very hard time living up to this.

While the CGI is excellent and plentiful, there are still many moments when it’s too obviously fake. The integration of the actors with their CG surroundings is seamless but when we’re switching from a CG character to a live actor in the same shot it becomes a little too obvious. Pay attention to some of the scenes where the camera slowly zooms in on a Mech pilot, the pilot looks CG for a while and then he’s swapped with a real actor, it’s a nice effect but still too transparent. Also of note is that there are no bullet-time rotation shots this time around. It was nice that they didn’t use (re: overuse) it but at the same time a Matrix movie just isn’t a Matrix movie…you know.

One thing that bugs me about this movie is that you’re supposed to be able to watch it right after Reloaded as if they made one big movie. I haven’t done so, but I can guarantee that if you watched the two films back-to-back you’d feel that they are very disjoint. The tone and pacing of the two movies seem completely different. Reloaded grinded to a halt every once in a while to give us some meaningless conversation and Revolutions is all about just moving the characters to the end of the story.

So this is where we discuss the ending, stop reading if you don’t want to know.

The biggest problem with the Matrix sequels is that the characters are all doing what “fate” has planned for them, everything they do and say seems to be dictated in advance to the point that there is no emotional investment from us to them. Honestly, how many people cared when Trinity died? Or when Neo died? I didn’t, and that’s the problem. For the story to mean anything you actually have to care about the people in the story. I think the writers lost the trees in their well-rendered forest.

I think it a bit silly that this ancient war between man and machine ended because they found a common enemy – who was part of the machine in the first place. I don’t think the way Smith was gotten rid of really stands up either, what did the machine do to reclaim control of the Matrix and why did it HAVE to use Neo to do so? “because he’s Smith’s opposite” isn’t a good enough of a reason.

In the end, I find it hard to have an opinion about Matrix: Revolutions. It didn’t wow me, I didn’t love it, I didn’t really like it too much, but I didn’t dislike it either. The experience was pretty much akin to seeing any other generic action movie, see it and forget about it. Revolutions is like a dessert, while The Matrix is the main course.

Posted by Rayne @ 06:09 PM EST [Link] [29 comments]

Sunday, November 9, 2003

Here is dAN with my second guest column!

For those interested in posting something, email me and i'll put it up next Sunday.

Click on for [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 12:21 AM EST [Link] [8 comments]

Thursday, November 6, 2003

It has been conveyed to my consideration that one member of my groups is a unbearably horrendous writer. Residing in an abode filled with snobby, above-par writers it is unproblematic, indeed even elating and heart-warming, to ridicule such poor, flowery writing where all content is immersed under an immeasurable onslaught of impenetrable prose. If brevity is truly the soul of wit then this particular individual is about as witty as a retarded ox.

Though I may make many valiant efforts throughout my existence, I would never be able to conjure up golden phrases such as these:

“Our discourse for our Entrepreneurship project began with great expectations, motivation, and interpersonal synthesis to conjure up a tangible and lucrative idea.”

“Consequently, a pragmatic technique followed suit and now we were able to bring forth an innovation—this new invention—to the “void.” Time was not an issue, as brainstorming lead to interaction and enlightened participation.”

To even come close to his style, as I am faithfully attempting here, I have had to use the Thesaurus for approximately each and every word. It is not inconceivable to me that I am capable of rewriting the entire 851-word dissertation into two or three paragraphs. For more wonderful and fantastic examples of this prose contact me for the text in its complete and unadulterated beauty!

Posted by Rayne @ 06:55 PM EST [Link] [6 comments]

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

I don't know what it is but I've totally lost it since last night. I decided to skip my CnO assignment altogether and this morning I skipped all 3 of my classes. Like Osten last week, I feel like I've totally checked out and I'm ready to get the hell outta here. I don't feel like doing anything anymore, no midterms, no papers, no research, no programming, no co-op. Gimme Finals NOW and lets get this thing over with. I'm so very tired of this endless barage of impossible assignments that just keep on piling up. I'm tired of having weeks where there are 5 assignments to do. I'm tired of just sleepwalking to class daily. I think I really need a couple of nights straight of guilt free pleasure to release all this pent up pressure before I get an aneurysm (sp?) but looking at my schedule it doesn't look like it'll be happening any time soon at all.

Posted by Rayne @ 03:07 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Monday, November 3, 2003

The fact that one little mistake can ruin your life fascinates me. Just think, you could lose hundreds or thousands of dollars, your life, your freedom, or a loved one just from making one bad spur of the moment decision, whether that’s deciding to have just one more drink, driving a little longer, going a little further, or whatever. Our lives in this society are so precariously balanced that just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can make everything tumble to pieces. Sometimes we do things without thinking about the repercussions and other times we just don’t think anything bad will happen and then it all comes back to bite us in the ass. It's like Murphy's law is always waiting around for you to slip up. My dad once said that you could do a shoulder check a million times and there won't be anyone there but the one time you don't check, it's guaranteed that you'll hit something.

Anyways, what the heck am I talking about? So Neeta’s driving me home.
Neeta: “Maybe we should put your bike in my house?”
Me: “I’ll just leave it there; I’m sure its safe locked against that ‘no parking’ sign”

Sure enough, the bike disappeared the next day. Between Stephen, Joe, and I, that’s 4 bikes we’ve gone through since moving here.

Update!So I went back to Neeta's place to look around and ask some questions, mainly for peace of mind since I wasn't expecting my bike to ever come up again. I asked the people whose lawn my bike was locked on and they said "oh, you're the guy!". Turns out they had dug up the sign, taken my bike and stashed it away in their garage cuz they didn't feel like it was safe where it was. Nice enough of them, but if I had decided that it was a lost cause and never bothered to look around I would have never seen my bike again!

Posted by Rayne @ 12:01 AM EST [Link] [8 comments]

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Well, the response to this "Guest Column" thing has certainly been OVERWHELMING. Here, then, is the first such Guest Column by Dave; it's very...unexpected.

For those interested in posting something, email me and i'll put it up next Sunday.

click on [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 02:36 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]

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