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A Late Night Episode

I'm having one of those night where I know I should be off but I don't. Instead, here I am listening to some Starfield and Tree63 and browsing the Xanga's of others - something I haven't done in a very long while. I've encountered about two dozen fickle entries, a dozen entries celebrating the end of exams, a few doom and gloom entries about next week's exams and a couple emotional ones. By the way, "Filled With Your Glory" by Starfield absolutely kicks, IMO.

I almost miss the feeling of not having to write exams. Note the stress on almost. I remember back in my Langara days where I wrote 6 exams in 4 days, or something nutty like that. Was it the thrill of hopelessness?

The Civic needs a good washing. Four months without sponge and soap is way too long. I've been ordering books on chapters.ca like mad. It's funny how I find it easy to buy a stack of hundred dollar textbooks but I rack my brain with reading descriptions, comments and reviews and then cross referencing those with the descriptions, comments and reviews on amazon.ca and its .com counterpart for books that cost no more than $45.

I've been getting my daily fill of Star Trek TNG for a couple of weeks now. Spike TV has a daily 3-hour stint at around lunch time, which is perfect because afternoon TV isn't really what I would call TV anyways. Regardless of what kind of stigma Star Trek has, it is the shiz. My favourite character you ask? None other but Picard. He's like a wittier and older version of James Bond in a red neoprene outfit. Runner up goes to Worf.

Holey perforations, it's 3am.

Haitus Understated

So my bank charged me $35 for an NSF cheque, which is retarded. It all started when I wanted to transfer money from my ING account to my chequing account, except I somehow did it the other way around. Needless to say, when it came time for the cheque to be drawn, there wasn't enough to go around. Having a cheque bounce is bad enough, but how about if it was for the church? That's right, my tithe bounced. I wonder what the church must be thinking. This poor brother's attitude is commendable but we should tell him that it's ok not to tithe if things are down and out financially.

With the weather warming up and the days slowly getting longer, the thought of convertibles has once again entered my mind. Could I picture myself driving one? Maybe. Is it worth the $34+k sticker? Maybe. Comparing it to quite possibly the sexiest-of-all-non-exotic-supercar-cabrios, would a BMW 3 Series convertible have better value? What about wow factor? I'd like to know your thoughts about the new Miata, dubbed the MX5. Sporty? Girly? Cutesy? What kinds of adjectives would you use? As you can probably tell, I'm not sure whether or not to include this ride among my hot list.

What's an update without talking about gas prices? At last glance, it was sitting at 114.9. No matter how many cents-off discounts you have, you're looking at paying over a buck a liter, and it's only going to go up from here. Sucks to have an SUV.

And now for some geek speak. I've been trying to get comfortable with GoLive CS2 for the last week. I think I'm savvy enough to finally move away from Frontpage and onto a more serious WYSIWYG application. So far, so good. There's a bunch of good features that will speed up my workflow. Next stop: Flash and blogging software integration.

116 Day, Hooray

It's that rare time of the year again when all those in the know celebrate the infamous 116 day.  In addition to a happy 116 day, happy 2006 and happy birthday to Jenny.

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of driving the new Acura CSX.  My sister took possession of it for the weekend as a courtesy car. First impressions: very cool; especially when compared to the Acura EL it replaces.  The dashboard is really something else.  While the double deck instrument cluster takes some time to get used to, it's a welcomed change from all the regular dashboards out there.  What else?  The very cool blue interior lighting.  At night, the whole dashboard and surrounding panels light up in a mysterious ambient blue background.  Leather chairs with butt warmers add the finishing touches.  While I was getting out of the car at a restaurant, a middle aged couple took note of the car and stopped for a few seconds to look at it.  "Is this an Acura?" the 40-something white male asked me, "Yep" I said, "and it's stolen."  Kidding.  But needless to say, Acura did a very good job styling the sheet metal.  

As far as the accolades are concerned, that's as far as I can go.  The drive itself was mundane.  Despite the 155 horsepower engine (identical to the K20A3 motor in the non-Type S RSX) it seemed like the car was sluggish during acceleration.  I later found out that the CSX weighs 308 pounds more than my Civic.  Either that or there was a really fat person hidden away in the trunk.  The paddle shift gearbox doesn't really enhance the sporting experience; it seems to merely mask the engine's deficiency.  Yeah, it was pretty fun to make the engine spin to 6,000 rpm and beyond but honestly, after an hour or so, I was bored of it and simply let the damn thing work on its own.  A point I must make: you can't operate the sport shift via the shifter -- you have to flip two paddles on the steering wheel.  This means that you need to have both hands on the wheel if you want to go gungho, which is simply ghey.  Other complaints: the engine drinks more fuel than what most people in this segment (me) are willing to take, the 6 speaker MP3/CD stereo sounds horrible and it's too easy to accidentally hit one of the buttons on the multifunction steering wheel while quickly turning the wheel from lock to lock.

I parked the car on the driveway and took a step back to reflect.  I didn't know what to feel.  The whole experience seemed like drinking warm Coke to me.  On the one hand, it has a top notch interior that really sets the bar for all compact sedans in the industry.  On the other hand, the mediocre drive and $30,000 sticker really makes you think twice or thrice about spending your hard earned money on it.  But looking at the rest of the industry, there really isn't anything quite like it.  A tough call indeed.

Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Year to everyone.  How was everyone's Christmas'?  Good gifts all around I hope.  There's wrapping paper lying all over the living room floor, but the best gift I got was probably doing ok in the Comm 365 exam.  I had that exam on the 9th and basically for the next two weeks, that was the only thing on my mind.  The repercussions of not doing well, (i.e. failing) would have been disastrous (i.e. not graduating).  I got an early Christmas present when I checked my marks on the 21st and since then, everything's been all good. 

Has anyone seen that Diet Coke commercial with a dude in a very good looking flat dancing and getting ready for a night out?  All I can say is, that's the best commercial I've seen in a long time, and that guy is one helluva dancer. 

There's a new hazard on the road, and no it's not bad drivers or alcohol or anything like that.  It's vehicles equipped with LCD screens.  Have you tried driving behind one of those? -- especially at night?  You inevitably become fixated on the brightly lid screen, trying to figure out what's playing and not paying much attention to anything else on the road. 

I got an accidental call from a super-long-time-no-see friend the other day.  It was accidental in that she mistakenly punched my number instead.  We talked for maybe a good half-hour over everything that has happened in the last 2-3 years.  It's odd how people just lose touch just like that, and yet we let it happen more often that we ought to. 

Been a Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled

Time flies.  Literally.  I remember cracking my books open for the first time in September, and suddenly, here I am cracking them open again for my exams.  What have I been up to?  Lots.  Projects and assignments, extra cirric activities and everything else in between has got me tied up.  Believe it or not, I've been so busy that I've really had no energy left to update this site until now. 

With sem one coming to an end, it's one more step closer to graduation.  Geez, 4th year.  What do to after?  So many people have been asking what my plans are and honestly, I don't have anything interesting to say.  For the record, I have plans in mind, but I'm not sure which to pursue and I'm not comfortable discussing them with others because I don't want to come off as sounding lofty.  Would that be called insecure?  I don't know.

I went to Tim's bday get-together tonight and it was good times.  A lot of familiar faces from my high school years were there and we spent the night just catching up on things.  Some things never change -- and that's a good thing.   

What would be a man-blog without any mention of cars or electronics?  First on the menu: Xbox 360.  Yeah I was there at the Best Buy in Vancouver for the grand release on Monday night.  To tell the truth, it was weak.  At 11:30pm, there were barely 30 people lined up at the doors.  There were a bunch of demo booths set up, The Beat 94.5 was on-location and the Best Buy mascot was there, so that was moderately cool.  The highlight of the night was trying Perfect Dark Zero and smoking anyone who tried to go against me on multiplayer.  Good times.  Second item on the menu: Apple PowerBook G4.  No, it's not because of the whole iPod thing that's got me hooked on Apple.  It's the most sophisticated machine out there, both performance-wise and aesthetics-wise.  At $2100, it's not cheap.

For those wondering, yes, the title of this blog is from the Zeppelin classic.

Premises for A Cayanne Revisited

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but my first 10 school days have come and gone without much drama.  Then again, it could be the fact that from now until I graduate in the spring, I'll be enjoying 4 day weekends, every week.  We all should be so lucky.  A bunch of people have left for their respective exchange schools this semester.  Some destinations include: Japan, Manchester, Toronto, Switzerland, and Azerbaijan -- kidding on the last one.  The more I think about it, the more I envy them having the opportunity of leaving home -- even if it's just for 5 months.  Lately, I've been having this incredible want desire to leave home and duke it out on my own.  Don't mistake me for some prodigal son or ingrate; I have good parents who support me and I'm thankful.  But it feels as though the more I stay at home, the more I feel suffocated.  I believe that time away from home gives you a new perspective on things; it makes you think and operate in different ways.  It cultivates growth and new ideas and is perfect for forging one's character.  The problem is, as with all Asian parents, they expect you to live with them until you hit 35.  My parents justify this as love towards their offspring and they often criticize White parents for booting their kids out of the house when they turn 20.  That to me is highly questionable.

But enough about that, and onto more appealing topics.  For long-time readers of my site, you all probably are aware of my inherent dislike of all SUVs infesting the automotive industry -- especially the Porsche Cayanne.  Porsche was one of the last manufacturers to enter the SUV scene, and I sincerely hoped they would refrain from the SUV temptation.  But they eventually buckled.  To me, the Cayanne simply represents Porsche's abandonment of its  racing heritage for higher contribution margins.  Shame on you.  And besides, since when in motorsport history were SUVs considered to be performance vehicles?  But it looks like they're not done tarnishing their reputation: Porsche is considering making a hybrid version of the Cayanne.  Not only is this the most retarded idea since the Cayanne itself, but it completely departs from the premise of buying a Porsche: You buy a Porsche as a status symbol and to out-vroom 90% of all vehicles on the road -- not to save gas.  If John Doe really wanted to save fuel, buy a Civic, not an SUV.  Of course, this is besides the fact that of all the lesser fuel consuming SUVs out there (and there's plenty of them), John decides on a Porsche.  But maybe John wanted the "Porsche driving experience" -- let me tell you, there's nothing a Cayanne Turbo could do that a base 911 Carerra couldn't but with less fuel and $20,000 in extra pocket change.  But maybe the hybrid engine will increase the Cayanne's performance as it did with the Lexus RX and Honda Accord -- that is possible, but why not take the $20,000 you would have spent on the Cayanne and unload it on a 911 Carrera S, run even more circles around a Cayanne Turbo and still sip less gas? 

Cewula Issuews.  Beewing.

Behold -- the 2006 Civic Coupe.  There's no official Honda press releases yet, but I do know that the 06's will have a choice of engines including a new 1.8-litre, 140+hp four banger, or the K20AZ3 Acura TSX engine.  I guess after witnessing a plethora of affordable pocket rockets in the last half decade (Nissan Sentra SE-R, Mazda 3, Neon SR-T, Golf GTI, Lancer Ralliart) Honda has finally decided to step it up performance-wise.  Pricing will be critical of course, but I'm anticipating that it shouldn't deviate too much from current Civic prices.  I must admit, the exterior styling requires some getting used to, but as with all Honda products, you'll learn to love it at the end.  More pictures here.

Last night, an end-of-summer BBQ was held at my place. The weather stinked but it was all good because AK and Dix were over to play some Halo 2. Nothing quite beats 4-person action, although I wish we had a bigger TV to play on. In any case, it was good times.

So school is on the brink of starting. Shoot. This must be the quickest summer I've experienced yet. Probably because everyone was either out of town or busy with school/work that not much hanging around was possible.  But honestly, a change of scenery is in order.  Wow.  Graduation year.  Makes me think of Grade 12 all over again and how I was totally nonchalant about it.  Who here thinks graduation is a tad overrated?  You get dressed up, your name gets called, you walk across the stage and shake some guy's hand whom you've never seen until that day.  But I know I'll probably still have a good time. 

I've been on the phone with Rogers Wireless quite often lately, sorting out some billing issues and I've got some beef to talk about.  No, it's not having to listen to elevator music while they put you on hold, nor is it me having to explain my situation to 5 different customer reps -- it's having to deal with their friggin' speech recognition system.  It's the worst evolution in automated telephone services yet.  Instead of pushing numbers that correspond to menu selections, you have to actually say the selection.  It makes you sound like a total retard, especially when there are others in the room.  "Celluar issues.  Billing.  Agent.  No, go back to last menu.  Agent.  A-GENT!"  It makes me wonder: what if you have a thick honger accent?  "Cewula issews.  Beewing.  Agend.  A-GEND la!"  And how does this system respond to profanity?  I wonder if you swear enough, will it automatically forward you to an operator?  Whoever implemented this bloody system should be shot.

No More Shox From Footlocker

Nothing quite signals the imminent end of summer than these four little words that all retail stores seem to advertise around this time of the year.  Anyways, I was down at the new Premium Outlet near Seattle last weekend when I snapped that picture.  It was just a day trip with Dana and Caroline.  I would have to rate the outlet mall a two thumbs up.  The variety of stores were good and the prices were really a lot cheaper.  A pair of R4 Shox sold for USD$79.99 versus $99.99+ at Bellis Fair.

The weather has been pretty good these past few days.  Today was freakin' hot -- it was so hot that I couldn't even nap in the afternoon.  I should probably say that my neighbors were to blame as well.  They've been building houses on the empty lot beside our house since July.  Every morning at 7:30, they crank the radio to 101.3FM.  By 8:00, the thwak of their hammers and nail guns begin to sound like a giant machine gun.  By 8:30, someone has recognized a familiar tune on the radio and starts bellowing along.  This goes all the way until late in the afternoon.  And to add to the fanfare, sometimes the bulldozer comes by.  As it approaches, it shakes my entire house and spews diesel exhaust into my room.  Good times.

Today's Cool Useless Gadget Award goes to the Das Keyboard.  Look closely and you'll see that the keys are absolutely blank -- how cool and useless is that?  Apparently, this peripheral helps decrease keystroke errors and improves typing speeds as blank keys prevent the user from looking down.  Go to www.daskeyboard.com for detailed product information.

Chasing Speeding Bikers

After a somewhat lengthy hiatus, the SBB is once again churning out superfluous information to the Internet about a twenty-something year old Asian male also known as K. Wang or Kim W.  FYI, I'm writing this entry from a different location because my room is being painted.  My dad says the room should be finished by tomorrow, so it'll be good to have all my furniture back where it belongs. 

Last week, I saw the funniest thing.  I was southbound on Cambie bridge and on the rightmost lane were two cops on bicycles.  At first I thought they were just retarded bicyclists bent annoying drivers for biking on the bridge and not the bike lane.  But then I saw in reflective material "POLICE" on their jackets.  It was already pretty late at night and these two cops were boosting it across the bridge.  As I passed them, I saw on my rearview miniature blue and red siren lights on the handlebar as well as a miniature computer screen and a shotgun sticking from the place where a water bottle would normally be.  Ok, just kidding about the computer and shotgun, but I was certain that they had their blue and red flashers on.  Maybe they were in pursuit of a speeding biker or a skater with a non-street legal skateboard.

I was at Chilliwack on Saturday and I think it's the first time I've driven my Civic on the highway for a prolonged time.  Here are some concerns I had.  When exceeding speeds of 140km/h, the car becomes floaty.  More steering input is required just to keep a straight track.  Wind sheer and crosswinds could be the culprits, however I think it's just the car generating too much front-end lift.  Concern #2 has to do with the brakes.  When applying the brakes from speeds of 140km/h, the brake pedal produces a lot of vibration.  Could this be from the ABS activating prematurely?  Or maybe it's the calipers reacting to rotor heat?  In any case, such vibration definitely does not instill confidence in the car.  I had to resort to using engine braking to alleviate the strain on the brakes.  Concern #3 has nothing to do with my car, but truckers driving big-rigs.  In all my road trips to the States, I've never encountered such dangerous driving exhibited by these Canadian truckers on the TC1.  I got cut off by one, tail gated by another, and witnessed another trucker perform some risky lane changing maneuvers - all in the span of 1 hour.  The good news is that I was able to achieve about 6L/100km.

Speaking of gas, the Toyota Prius has been on the market since 2000 but last weekend was the first time I've ever seen a Prius filling up at a gas station.  I guess the driver was a smart consumer too because he filled up at 89.9.

Things A' Changin

Looking at my calendar, I realize that the kids in Grade 12 will be graduating from high school soon.  As I scroll down the nicknames of my MSN list, I see tags like: "Freedom!", "At last!", "Saying goodbye!", etc.  Nothing could be farther from the truth, actually.  My first year murdered me.  I guess I went into University thinking the worst was over and the main goal now was to just pass with a 60%.  Yeah, I was stupid.  University is where marks count the most, so for all the youngin's out there, you're about to lose your freedom, not gain it.  The next four years will be a struggle to get into the best programs and classes.  The worst is just beginning.  I guess the same can be said about a lot of thing.  Those already in their careers will look at what I wrote and say things get even tougher in the working world.  It really is a vicious cycle then. 

At least summer school is over for me, so I'm really glad about that.  Honestly, summer school is such a friggin' drag.  Even though the courses I'm taking are jokes, I can't afford to slip behind so having to keep up with readings is a constant nag in the back of my mind.  But it's all over now, so I'm finally enjoying my summer.

My older bro got married two weeks ago at Cecil Green Park.  It was a tearjerker for my parents. It's sorta weird not having my bro and his fianc?e around anymore but I guess it's about getting used to changes.  If all goes well for this household, my sister should be outta of this household in two years, then my turn sometime afterwards, followed by my younger bro.  Putting it cynically, that's the Wang assembly line at work.

River Road Drag

So I had my first ever flat tire a week ago.  Look at the picture closely and you'll see a wrench -- that's right, a wrench sticking out of the sidewall of my Bridgestone Potenza.  A penny has been included for you to judge the size of the wrench.  Being my first time fixing a flat, I would have to say it wasn't that daunting of a task.  Loosening the wheel nuts was the toughest part of the whole tire changing process.  Because the tire wrench that came with the car was only about 1 foot in length, I had to put my entire weight on the wrench just to get the damn things loose.  I was able to drive back home with the compact spare without further drama.  Upon closer inspection the next morning, I discovered two gashes, one where the wrench was sticking out and another at the tread.  Both measured about 2 inches long.  That's when I knew the tire was beyond repair.  It was good that Costco was able to find a replacement tire for me that same day.

There are sometimes when I wish I drove a Porsche 911 or BMW M3 or something with bags of power under the hood.  I was going eastbound on River Road this afternoon on my way to yum cha and minding my own business.  I approached an intersection and stopped before turning into it, as any normal driver would.  Suddenly, a Mazda 3 hatchback with some male FOB honger driver started honking impatiently.  I'm like -- WTF?  I absolutely have no tolerance for dumbass drivers rushing me.  And what's worse was that he started tail gating me too.  So it was on.  I slowed to a leisurely 45 km/h and observed how his composure quickly deteriorated even more.  In addition to upsetting Yours Truly, he decided to be an even bigger retard by deciding to overtake me on the broken solid.  So I kicked down a gear, punched the gas and gave the VTEC a little workout.  We were head to head for maybe 7 seconds, with him slowly pulling forward  when suddenly in the oncoming lane approached a Mack truck.  The honger in the Mazda 3 got desperate and started coming closer and got to a few inches of my front quarter panel.  Within that split second, I had to decide whether to a) risk him colliding into me and him possibly getting wasted by the truck or b) ease up on the gas and give him room.  Being the gracious fellow that I am, I eased up.

So all that commotion got me thinking.  The reason why he was able to pull away from me when we were head to head was because he was packing a 2.3-litre, 160 horsepower motor while I was seriously disadvantaged with only 127 horsepower.  I was already approaching 6000 rpm with the engine screaming but the Mazda was still able to gain on me.  Sadly, all Civics except the SiR, are all bark with no bite and I really stood no chance.  Had I been driving an 911 Carrera with 325 glorious sport-tuned ponies, I would have smoked that honger mofo with a mere tap of the right foot.  Even my Odyssey, despite it's weight, would had a better chance with 3.5-litres and 240 horsepower.  So was I infuriated?  Hell yeah.  I couldn't stand to have that cocky punk cut me off and flip his finger at me.  He probably got the satisfaction of owning me when I purposely slowed to prevent a sick accident from happening.  Ah well -- let bygones be bygones.

Attack of the Cessna

Woah.  Another entry 100 hours later?  Insane.  I guess all this summer weather is making me inspired.  By the way, for anyone looking for good tracks to download, I highly recommend the new self-titled Lifehouse album.  It's a mellow and pleasant change from all the hard mainstream stuff they play nowadays.  So I was walking to my Counseling Psyc class on Tuesday when I passed the walkway pictured above.  Without giving it much thought, I walked between the blue posts and continued on my way.  The way the walkway was situated, it is impossible to get to the other side without going through those posts.  Thank goodness for my 30" waist.  But what about those with 45" or larger?  Could UBC be guilty of a form of discrimination?  That's the question of the day.

As for the nutty news of the day, the air scare fiasco in Washington DC would have to be it.  On Wednesday, the entire city was in chaos when a flight instructor and his student accidentally flew over the 25 km no-fly zone around the nation's capital and got to within 5 km of it.  When I heard of this news I was laughing my ass off.  Call me insensitive but honestly, can America get anymore paranoid?  I absolutely have no sympathy for how the Americans seem to jump at anything, including their own shadows.  Is this a classic case of security protocol versus plain "unnecessaryism?"  When two F16's and a complimenting pair of Black Hawk choppers armed to the teeth need to be scrambled because of a single-propeller plane, you really have to question whether there is something innately wrong with the US of A.  The plane is a Cessna 150.  It has a maximum occupancy of 2, weighs considerably less than a Toyota Prius and its shell is made of thin aluminum.  Even at its top speed of 200 km/h, how much damage could this plane have caused to a large building?  Remember the Cessna that kamakazied into an office building in Tampa on January 2002?  So all this panic in Washington over a lost pilot and his little airplane that could.  I'm shaking my head.

Somehow as I was writing this, I was reminded of the lines of a Molson Canadian commercial:

I can proudly sew my country's flag on my back pack, I believe in peace keeping not policing, diversity not assimilation.

The commercial is an oldie but a goodie.  Click here to check it out and have a great Friday the 13th.

A Sea of Estrogen

Three days and 240-some kilometres later, I'm back from Chilliwack.  This weekend, Me, Dix and 5 other churches spent a few nights together at Charis Camp.  To make a long story short, it was good times.  The biggest disappointment would have to be taking too many wrong turns on the drive home and not being able to capitalize on cheap Chilliwack gas.  I've been going to ECBC for about 3 years now and I got to know more people from that church during the past weekend than for the entire time I've been in that church.  Weird.  The entire weekend was executed very nicely and it's surprising that I didn't doze off in any of the messages -- except for that workshop on Christianity and politics.  More importantly though, the Praise Team was simply fantastic, especially the guy on the bass and his funk-inspired riff during the bridge of "Holy Is The Lord" by Chris Tomlin.  It was the phattest thing I've heard in a long time.  My free time was spent climbing the rock wall and injuring myself in the process.  My tricepts hurt like a mother.  I was able to toss the frisbee around for a few hours while getting to know other church members, so that was cool.  The weekend had its moments of spiritual highs, such as the altar calls and the camp fire, as well as its moments of casual chillin.  As mentioned on Dix's blog, me and him met these two girls from ECBC whom we chilled and chatted with till the early morn.  Good times.  We talked for quite awhile, but I only remembered that we cracked a lot of stupid jokes and laughed even more.  Like I say, humor is the best asset a guy can have. 

In other news, summer school has started for me and I'm taking two courses this sem: Counseling Psyc 365 and German 433.  My Counseling Psyc class is 99% women.  Normally, I would have absolutely no qualms with a situation like that, but it turns out that most of the women are master of Arts candidates with a few social workers and teachers here and there.  But I must admit, having a class full of women makes the class dynamics a lot, shall we say, softer.  I feel like a buoy being gently tossed around in a sea of estrogen.  I think I'm beginning to feel the effects of all this femininity because whenever I step into that class, I feel like wearing pastel shirts and loafer shoes and waxing my legs.

But my experiences have been mostly good, surprisingly.  During one of the breaks, a much older women turned around and told me, "It's great to have a guy's perspective in a class like this.  I hope you're staying in this class."  Nutty.  If it was a class of all guys, no one would say anything as flowery as that because it would just be too homo.  No matter how hard I try to avoid it, I always get a smile or a cheery "Hello!" from at least three different women.  And everyone loves to talk.  It's not just talking to their neighbor too, I mean, getting up and going across the classroom to chat with another woman.  During class discussions, they like to make subtle potshot jokes on males in general.  It's kinda weird having to laugh with the class too because it's like giggling bashfully whenever penis is mentioned.  In any case, I'll be happy when this 6-week course is finished.

Fresh Like Uhhhh

Those who say generalizations aren't true, well, you're wrong.  Generalizations are made for a few reasons, and one of them is that on average, they are true.  There are a few generalizations that are always true, however, specifically, the ones that signal the arrival of summer: Chicks with J.Lo aviators rollin' with the sunroof open, arm slung out the window and blasting tracks by Fabolous; spaghetti tank tops, flip flops, tube and boob tops that show the mid rift, halters; booty shorts for chicks who like to show off their apple-bottom bums, pink mini skirts for those with freshly waxed legs; blazing sunshine with no clouds in sight; black, shiny and waxed up RSXs, A4s and S500s cruising around or parked on the street looking pretty; and of course, me releasing my Summer Mix CD to kick off the season.  Despite the serious deficiencies of The Beat 94.5, I still delivered a mix that's as hot as two Asian chicks in a red S2000.  What's the spotlight song for this mix? -- you guessed it: The Game feat. Fiddy "This Is How We Do."

It's times like when I'm stuck at a red light with cars all around me and the stereo playing a hot single like "This Is How We Do" that I wish I had one of these in my trunk.  You're looking at a 12" Rockford Fosgate "Punch" line of subwoofers that does 150W of sustained, chest pounding bass at a low 32Hz and can handle a peak output of 300W.  That's techno-speak for: one helluva sub.  A matching RoFo amp and enclosure box will cost $547 before taxes and installation.  The 10" version with a less powerful amp is only $467.  Insane.  But not quite as insane as the picture above taken at the auto show at few weeks ago.  It is a Ford Focus decked out with Sony Xplods and Sony LCD screens.  Maybe one of these days when I can afford it, but I'll stick to dreaming about it for now because it's free.

So, the big question is how am I gonna kick off my first official day of summer?  Firstly, I already washed my car and tanned my arms so that they're no longer reflective white.  Viv and crew has a potluck tonight and I'm bringing the house down with, drumroll: Honey garlic chicken wings.  That's right.  Then tomorrow, it's off to the gym and a get together party, and maybe catch the San Marino Grand Prix.  And that's as far as my summer long term planning goes.  Oh yes, check back in a few days for new Polaroids.  I've got a ton to post.

The Final Stretch

Here's a sight that you don't see everyday, or more like, won't see again for a long time.  You can probably guess that this was taken a few weeks ago.  The last time I checked, gas was at a murderous 105.7.  Three cheers for frugal four cylinders.

After being MIA for over a month, I'm back to blogging.  Where did the last 5 weeks go?  It's all a blur, but I mostly remember attending about 3 meetings per week and completing 3 term projects and 2 cases all due within days of each other.  Before I knew it, it was April 8 -- the last day of classes -- and I haven't even started studying for my finals yet.  I brushed off two finals this week, and today is  a lull for the first time in my schedule.  I have 3 more exams with the last one ending on the 22nd.  Then it's time to par-tay.

Random burst of rage: Websites with background music or banner ads that have sound effects should destroyed and their respective authors be shot, hanged, disemboweled with shovel, shot again, dragged around in circles by a pickup truck, cut up into 1000 pieces, flame broiled and be fed to rabid dogs.

Anyways, with only one week to go, everyday I recite to myself: finish strong.  Last sem, I made the mistake of slacking off completely by exam time and looking back, I wish I could have slapped myself upside the head.  Grades-wise, meh, nothing exciting to report there.  A major reason of my lackluster performance this year is because of my damned electives.  I happened to pick all of the worst ones this year.  The list includes: Poli 367B: International Relations Theory, Germ 100: Beginners German and CENS 303: German Representations of the Holocaust.  While the course titles sound romantically intriguing, this year I learned that I'm just not artsy enough to ace these bloody courses -- especially Germ 100; it's like high school French all over again!  The problem with me is that I fall in love with the notion of actually learning something profound in these courses.  Then the day after the drop date, I realize that these courses were intended for Lit and Poli Sci majors and my vision fills with S-C-R-E-W-E-D in blood red font.  Next year, I'll stick to electives that are more appropriate for my level of artsness.

Dix came over last night to play some Halo 2 with me and Al.  As usual, it was good times because that game is just sick.  We started playing from 9:00 until 11:30 when we got a massive craving for pizza.  So I looked around for some coupons and found this "Any Size, Unlimited Toppings for $9.99" deal at Little Caesar's.  At first I thought it was too good to be true, so I called them to double check and it turned out to be legit.  So we ordered two pizzas: one with everything on it, and one with just meat and mushrooms and onions.  Sounds like a typical pizza ordering process so far, right?  Read on.  The girl on the phone asked for my name.  I said, "Kim" then she goes, "Jeremey?  What?"  I trying so hard not to crack up.  "No, Kim, it's K-I-M," I said, then she goes, "What?  Jimmy?"  Oh man.  How the hell can a single syllable name turn multi-syllable like that, especially after I spelt it out.  Dang.  Hilare to the max.  And the kicker was how confused she sounded.  I was trying so hard to keep from laughing but it was impossible.  It took me 30 seconds just to ask what the final price was because I was basically rolling on the ground  covering my mouth and Dix around the corner cracking up. 

The pizzas turned out to be quite unique.  The one with everything on it really had everything on it, including anchovies, spicy vegetable things and goat cheese.  It tasted weird and salty, and I definitely wouldn't buy it again.  The all meat one was a lot better.  Anyways, for those of you who've seen Dix before, guess who's in the pic above?  Not him, but some look-a-like dude at Liu's Restaurant a few weeks ago.

Some Beef On My Birthday

Is it just me or was the weather absotively, posilutely glorious this week?  Yesterday, I was able to pop open the sunroof for the first time this year.  One the way home, I was behind a silver Porsche Carerra cabrio with its top down.  It was literally sex appeal on 18" rims.  It's things like that that make you focus on the important things in life: Making mad money and blowing it off on something that more or less resembles the picture above.  Only $114,650 and not a pfennig less.

The warm weather and the blazing sunshine has caused me to tune the dial to The Beat.  I must say, a lot has changed since last summer.  Honestly, it sucks.  It has degraded so much into pop and heart-wrenching-throat-straining slow jams and deviated so far from Urban/Hip Hop that it's got me always wishing for the old Beat where they played "only some of the hits" -- as in only the best hits.   Yeah, that was a major run-on sentence.  Why the hell is Gwen Stefani being aired so much?  "If I was a rich girl...my cashflow would never, ever end."  When wasn't she ever a rich girl? -- or is she just trying to sound educated by replacing "bling bling" with "cashflow"?  Moron.  And why is she trying to associate herself with a Harajuku girl?  Is it because of the effects of good 'ol neoliberalism or is she and Eve delusional at the fact that they share even the slightest cultural similarities with the people in Nippon?  Another thing: What's up with Will Smith's new single Snitch, not to be confused with his new movie Hitch.  Absolutely brilliant marketing there, idiot.  That song annoys the hell outta me not so much because of Will Smith, but because he's trying way too damn hard to fit in with the guys from the Bronx -- kinda like Jenny from the block.  What happens if you dress 50-Cent in Lou Bega's clothes (or vice versa)?  Out pops Will Smith.  His song annoys me, but not as much as K-Os' Man I Used to Be and songs from last summer like X-Quisite Sassy Thing, Usher Yeah, BEP Let's Get It Started and all SoulDecision singles that are brutally replayed all day, everyday.  It's like I've stepped into a time machine and viola! -- I'm partying like it's 2003/2004 again.  The Beat sucks, like Mariah Carey's new nickname.

So right now, I'm torn between the quality programming of CFox, and my quest to crank out my first hot summer jam mix of 2005.  Something needs to be done.  But in the meantime, y'all download Offspring Gone Away.  Have a great weekend.

Sunday, 20 February 2005, 21:58

Gabe Singing Nostradamus

How did everyone's reading break go?  I hope it went as well as mine, setting aside the time I spent studying for a midterm this Monday.  I should be doing more reviewing, but I'm all studied out.  Either that, or I'm just making excuses for myself.  Anyways, know what movie rocks?  Italian Job.  I saw it again on TV a few days ago and it never gets old.  Know what chocolate is most addictive?  Reese peanut butter cups.  Yummeh.

I woke up on Wednesday morning to find out that my dad was fixing up the bathroom upstairs.  That's the sign he put up to warn everyone.  Hilare, but that's not what I want to talk about.  The first thing I do is brush my teeth because morning breath feels so gross.  Because he was fixing the bathroom, he needed to shut off the water main, meaning there's no water anywhere but the toilet bowl, meaning I wasn't able to brush my teeth.  That sucked big time because the feeling of grossness just gets worse and worse.  I went back to the bathroom and found some Listerine.  I wasn't thinking straight so I poured out a cupful till it overflowed and gargled the entire thing.  I don't usually use Listerine and I nearly died at how powerful that stuff is.  Eventually, I stopped swooshing it back and forth in my mouth because the slightest movement caused such an intense burning sensation.  Want to know what it's like to pour salt over an open wound?  Try Listerine.  My eyes were watering so much after 10 seconds.  After 20 seconds, my eyes were squinting from the searing pain, tears were beginning to roll down my face and I was beginning to drool Listerine because I think I lost control over a portion of my mouth.  It was horrible.

Dix came over the other night with the intention to play Halo 2 but he forgot to borrow Ian's controller.  So we ended up watching this bizarre Discovery Channel show about Nostradamus and his prophecies.  The narrator was this dude in a blue suede burette who interpreted the 3rd Anti-Christ as being either Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden by switching the first and last letters of the word Mobius or something to a B and dropping the O for an A or something messed up like that.  Then Nostradamus said something about how WW2 fighter pilots were masked pigs.  Dang, it sucked how there was absolutely nothing on TV that night. 

Anyways, I hope everyone's rested up for back to school tomorrow.  The weather forecast is sunny from now until the 27th.  Fantastic.

Thursday, 10 February 2005, 22:54

Replacement for Ivana

Three midterms down, one to go.  But it's all good, because I have the entire reading break to study for that, so no worries.  I went to rent Need For Speed 2 when I got home on Wednesday and I've been playing non stop since.  What car do I use?  Honda Civic Si, dressed in Type-R white with gunmetal rims.  I also have an Escalade with 24" spinners, hydraulics and a stash of 10" subs in the trunk.  The best feature on the game would have to be the dyno testing with real number outputs. 

Who's been keeping up with Apprentice 3?  At first, I was choked that they failed to include an Asian representative this season.  But I got over it quickly, and here to replace Ivana is Erin.  Before you start giving me raspberries, you gotta admit, she's the best looking one there -- with the slight exception of Audrey.  But Erin is my new fave anyways.  I like how she dresses, and I also like how she sometimes lets her bangs go all the way down to her puppy eyes.  It's alluringly cute.

So what plans do everyone have for reading break?  Caroline's ditched us for T dot, but it's all good.  I've got an appointment with Ebei for some all you can eat tomorrow night.  Washing the car.  Catching up on readings.  Meetings here and there.  Lots of general R&R and maybe a DVD night or two at my crib.

Before I end, I have to vent my frustrations with MasterCard.  I signed up for their Petro-Points card that gets me 5.5 cents off each litre of gas at Petro-Can.  Even before I got the card, they were already giving me hassle.  I was initially denied unless I could provide proof of residency and education.  After a few photocopies and 4 weeks later, I finally got the card in the mail.  All good right? -- not quite.  They started me with a dinky $500 limit, but since I wasn't going to use the card for anything but gas, it wasn't too big of deal.  I was filling up one day and suddenly my card got denied.  I'm like, the hell?  So I went home and called MasterCard up to ask them what the dillyo.  They explained something about charging my card with $99 as an insurance policy against gassing and dashing.  The $99 charge usually disappears within a few business days -- or so they say.  So I went to fill up again the next week, and my card was denied again.  It turns out that all the $99 charges from my previous gas purchases hadn't cleared yet.  With a $500 limit, it doesn't take more of those $99 charges to wipe out my credit.  So instead of filling up at 80.4 cents, I had to pay full price at 85.9.  I know the price differential on 20 litres of gas is marginal, but I was still pretty peeved.  When I got home I was ready to put it through the shredder and defecate on it.  My experiences with Visa were never this retarded.

Over the Christmas break, I applied for a different MasterCard.  It's been close to 8 weeks and I'm still waiting for them to reply.  Application form - $0.  Postage to mail application form - $0.49.  Getting approved by MC - priceless? 

Wednesday, 2 February 2005, 22:32

Stream of Consciousness

I guess it would be unfair to say that school has been too burdensome; the fact that I'm able to sit down and whip up an entry shows how far school is from my mind.  I've got 3 midterms lined up next week, but after Wednesday, my reading break officially starts so hooray for that.  The graffiti of the moment below was taken at the fifth-level of Rose parkade. 

This announcement is for the ladies who are into low-rise jeans.  This is not to discourage girls from wearing them; in fact I highly endorse it.  However, please remember to yank your pants back up once in awhile, especially if Yours Truly is sitting behind you in class.  While in class today, Ron made a good point: There's nothing more distracting while listening to a lecture than having a half exposed ass occupy two-thirds of your peripheral vision. 

Asides from that, there really isn't much to talk about, so I'll resort to a little stream of consciousness: The daily grind of school ensues with the occasional sunny weather as the only break in this monotonous way of life.  Well actually, that's not entirely accurate; The Apprentice 3 and Star Trek Enterprise helps too.  The car is long overdue for a wash, so that's priority number one at the reading break.  There's a cocky punk in my German 100 class that's annoying me to death, but on the bright side, the cocky nerd in my Chinese conversation class has dropped out, so that's good.  I feel gross for being absent from the gym for two weeks.  Thanks to Constance for explaining the origins of stretch marks.  I haven't been downloading any new songs lately.  The latest one was a proper 44.1 kHz version of The Trews, Fleeting Trust.  I realized that 99.9% of the songs on The Fox are sung by males.  It's a subconscious dillyo, but after awhile, you get this feeling that something's off -- something like a psuedo-homo-Freudian-thing that's hard to describe.  I usually recover after only one or two female songs from The Beat.  Good luck on the midterms y'all.

Sunday, 16 January 2005, 00:44

Hey, Pass the Ferrio

How's everybody doin' lately?  First and foremost, happy 116 day.  Second of all, school's probably back in full swing for everyone by now and that only means homework, assignments and readings all the way until Reading Break in February.  If that sounds typical for you, raise your hand.  Also raise your hand if your subdivision has turned into a giant skating rink. I've used my ABS so much within the past week that it's weird when I actually brake normally.  And every time I try to get out of the subdivision, no matter how carefully I feather the gas, I always end up driving sideways.  The roads around my area are just plain murderous.  I guess it doesn't help that my Civic is a flyweight compared to other sedans and that it's shod with performance Bridgestone Potenzas.  Coming home from Jenny's place tonight wasn't too bad because of the rain.  On the highway, we saw an Imprezza speeding down the unplowed lane and I was like, damn, that's what all-wheel drive gets you.  So what were we doing at Benny's place, all the way at No. 9 Road?  Hand delivering her birthday gift that me, Als and Dix got her, that's what.  Her gift was pretty sweet.  It's a black 5'4" standing picture frame that holds five 5x7 pictures vertically. 

There's a scene in Fast and Furious where Hector and a group of Latino thugs visit Brian at Harry's shop looking to buy 3 sets of hop-up parts for their Civics.  Towards the end of the purchase, Hector says to his friend, "Hey, pass me the ferrio" or something like that.  The friend reaches into his pocket and fishes out a huge roll of cash.  Anyways, while lining up at London Drugs to get the pictures for Jenny's frame printed, me and Dix started joking around:

Salesperson: Can I help you?

Me: Hell yeah. We want one set of prints.

Salesperson: Ok sure, no problem.

Me: Come on, white folks work fast right?

Salesperson: (Nervous laughter) So you want just one set of prints right?

Me: Yeah that's right. (Turns to Dix) Hey man, pass the ferrio.

DIx: What do you mean ferrio?

Ok, that would sound totally lame now, but at the time, it was super hilare -- like piss-in-your-pants-and-eyes-watering kind of hilare.  Obviously we didn't talk like that to the person behind the counter, but an eldery white woman overheard us saying how "white folks work fast" and wasn't too pleased with that.  We're not even sure if ferrio is the right word -- that's what it sounds like the movie.  So if anyone knows what "money" is in Spanish or any similar colloquial equivalent, holla back.  I've tried searching ferrio and the closest I got was feria which means "fair", and f?rreo which means "iron."

After reading through various people's Xangas and blogs, it seemed like everyone had an ok holiday.  My break wasn't too exciting, but the whole family chipped in to get my younger bro an Xbox.  We decided to go all the way to Bellingham because it was a few dozen bucks cheaper over there.  We declared everything so we had to park at the border to pay the taxes.  While my older bro went inside to pay, I got out the car to stretch my legs.  A few moments later, a lowered, white Civic coupe with black custom rims, T-spoiler, bigass exhaust, tinted windows and BC plates pulled into the stall beside mine.  I was expecting an Asian gangsta to step out, but instead, 4 haawt Asian chicks, no older than 19 adorned in full TNA gear and fuzzy hooded jackets emerged.  Damn.  That's good times.