Jan 30, 2006

this land flows with milk

i should really start sleeping earlier even when i don't have to work. it can't be healthy.

sitting in service this morning, though i was barely awake, i realized how grateful i am that we finally have a pastor again. sure, he may be a bit of a nerd, and kind of likes to draw out those sermon points, but you can tell he cares. and that's more important than all that other stuff put together.

i hope as a church we don't take him for granted, and we should each make him feel appreciated every chance we get. it's the little things that count not just in being a pastor, but in keeping one.

ironically, i suppose that could be said of all relationships. my heads been a mess.

actually, that's not true. my head's in the right place. it's more my heart that won't listen.

completely unrelated, but that whole china rising special on cbc creeps me out. maybe it's just me, but am i the only chinese dude who like, isn't eager to fawn all over china? wow look at how developed they are! look at the difficult struggle of a nation as it tries to balance modern civilization with thousands of years of culture and history! oh the growing pains!

yes yes, it's all very interesting. does it bother no one that china is evolving not like a normal industrialized country, but more like a cyborg developed in a lab to crush it's opponents? it's just not natural.

if china were a boxer, it'd be Ivan Drago. and despite all his fancy shmancy adjustable tread mill running montage scenes and punch-o-meter off the chart recordings, we all know what happened to Ivan Drago.

no HEART!

adriaaaaaaannnnee! yo addriaaaanneeee!

Jan 27, 2006

loop duplicate my heart

i've always wondered -- is it more efficient to slowly climb stairs two at a time, or at a more moderate pace but one stair at a time? in my personal experimentation, it seems slowly two at a time appears marginally faster, although i'm not sure which technique is more tiring. they seem about the same. do any of you doctors or pt students study this kind of stuff? write a paper on it, i'll read it.

speaking of simple excercise, is working out cumulative? meaning would i get the same results doing one pushup an hour for 10 hours as i would for doing 10 pushups in a row? i read somewhere that it's the same, but i am skeptical. the internet is full of lies. like that time i read that one of the worlds most notorious terrorist groups won a democratically elected majority in palestine.

what? that's true? oh. well, ain't life a bitch.

i'm sure the irony of the situation is not lost on our friends to the south. you couldn't have written a better story for the West Wing.

way to go jimmy carter. way to go.

not to beat a dead horse, but can you imagine what's going on in isreal right now? they must be wetting themselves left and right. i'd like to be a fly on the wall in one of those defence meetings.

"is sharon still sleeping?"
"i think he blinked yesterdy. it was on CNN"
"what're we going to do? we officially have a nation of walking time bombs now"
"lets just stop all our public transit services, and close all open street markets. then they won't know what to bomb"
"won't they just target other public places?"
"no, i bet they're too cheap to bomb places that aren't cheap or free to access. i mean, we bulldozed their houses. they can't have too much expendible income saved up"

"....wanna go to starbucks?"
"yea, it's the only place i feel safe nowadays...."

Jan 24, 2006

recommendation

CBC - Canada Votes 2006

i suppose i would be remiss if i did not say something about our new prime minister, mr. stephen harper.

he is creepy looking.

that's about all i got. to be honest, i think most people saw a conservative minority coming with the last few polls before the election, and things played out pretty much as expected, albeit with the distribution of seats taken a little bit surprising (quebec angry. quebec smash!)

personally, i always had said this would be the ideal result. i predict this government will last roughly 19 months, at which point we will have yet another election, resulting in on overwhelming liberal majority government.

after all. history is cyclical.

i think it's funny that alberta is as dedicated to the tories as immigrants are to the liberals. i may not be an expert, but i'm willing to bet most people in alberta hate ontario. i also am going to wager that if asked why, the vast majority would have no answer asides from "ottawa likes ontario more".

which -- in actuallity, is like saying you believe in God because your parents told you to.

Jan 23, 2006

hello rain

ESPN.com - NBA - Recap - Raptors at Lakers

when kobe outscored the mavs solo through three quarters a few weeks back, i think everyone had that little tingle in the back of their minds. what if he hadn't sat the fourth? he was on pace for 80 for god's sake, would that have been possible? would he have made it?

alas, it simply became more fodder and speculation for the talk radio shows.

now there's nothing to wonder about.

81 points.

against the raps last night, kobe dropped 81 in 42 minutes, tallying the second highest total in NBA history. yes, really -- since dr. naismith invented basketball using peach baskets in a Canadian Heritage commercial.

if the stats themselves don't floor you (81 points on 28-46 shots, with 7 treys while going 18-20 from the line) then watch this game again on ESPN classic -- they could replay it tomorrow and it would be fitting -- and notice the manner in which kobe performed during his record breaking 42 minutes.

this was not just a perfect storm of circumstances. sure, the raptors aren't a great team, but they aren't exactly pylons either. it's not as if kobe was just throwing it up, sinking them, then laughing and shrugging his shoulders as if in some sort of magically annointed trance. no, he did this conciously, and the scary part is that he did it with relative ease.

the dallas game and his league leading scoring average only further the evidence that this performance confirms what that mavs game had us wondering but not truly considering -- could it be that.....this isn't simply the case of a player getting ridiculously hot? are we finally just seeing what he knew all along but we refused to believe? are we simply just witnessing kobe in his prime?

watching last nights game, you got the impression that number 8 could go out and do this every single night if he wanted. it was no fluke that he scored 81, every point was earned. and that's frightening.

not long ago, kobe was in the same league as OJ and Michael Jackson -- crazy ecentric rich black guy.

but in 42 minutes, kobe managed to turn himself into a living legend. the way that people now talk about oscar robertson, jerry west, wilt, kareem, and yes -- michael jordan, is how people will now one day remember kobe.

tomorrow kids in playgrounds everywhere will be pretending they're kobe, fading away and raining jimmy's on their friends all over the world. when i'm old, i'll still be able to say to my grandkids "i remember watching that game kobe dropped 81 on our asses, back when toronto had a team".

and i'll tell them about how it looked like he was a video game with a cheat code on, driving at will, pulling up and hitting seemingly every shot he took from anywhere on the court. drawing fouls, breaking down double teams and shrugging off collapsing defenses as if they were school girls trying to tickle him.

do i like kobe? no. actually i hate him as a player. but what he did last night was nothing short of epic. and just in time for his new signature shoes to come out.

most will say that this won't be the last legend written in kobe's storybook career. but it was the first. and anytime you get to witness that unfold -- it transforms from just being a game, into something magical.

in other news, the sixers beat the timberwolves at the buzzer last night on a game winning shot by andre iguodala. the final score?

86-84.

Jan 19, 2006

die

sometimes the songs i'm listening to don't really fit the mood of what the hell i'm ranting about, but this time it kind of does......

very few things in life bother me as much as ignorance in people. go ahead and be wrong -- just don't be ignorant. can't stand it.

once again the star's "speak out" section has provided a buffet of stupidity served up by our fair cities very own. i can't believe people would post things like this for the world to see -- it's like painting a giant sign on yourself that labels you as a moron.

I don’t think representing Canada and being asked to carry the flag should be considered a burden. Not with all of the various sponsors some of these athletes have.
Rodney Inches, Brampton, Jan. 19

Disgusting! To turn down the honour of carrying the colours of Canada at the Olympic Games is an insult to our great nation.
Jonathan Lieberman, Markham, Jan. 19


i think these pretty much speak for themselves. when's the last time you personally supported an olympic athelete? when's the last time you made it to the olympics to perform at the highest level of athletics? ok then, so just shutup. no wonder the best canadians so often won't represent our country -- this kind of unappreciative, ungrateful attitude of entitlement. so..angry.....

sometimes i just want to track people down in real life and stab them with a spoon.....

Jan 16, 2006

Ageing Has Never Been His Friend

gotta love MLK day. nothing like an afternoon full of NBA games to help the work day pass easier. fantasy baketball at 3pm on a monday. the only that better would be if i was at home watching. maybe i can catch the end of the Nets game if i run from the subway.....

speaking of which, eddie griffin is like my borderline-vegetable state stepchild -- he's just taking up space, but every once in a while he does something that makes me want to hold him tight, and so even through the hard times (95% of the time infact) where he's a pile of uselessness, i just can't bear to throw him away.

i've been working in the office for just over a month and a bit now, and something i've grown quite fond of is the little games i've invented in order to keep myself amused. one particular game that i'm getting good at is "match the shoes". so everytime i'm in the washroom and someone is taking a dump, i like to notice what shoes they're wearing, then later when i'm walking around the office i like to find those shoes so i know who's given birth to some brown babies that morning.

is it stalking? sure, maybe, call it whatever you want. but man, i'll tell you, when you finally find the proud owner of those wine coloured penny loafers, it just makes you want to yell "bingo"!

or something like that anyways....

Jan 15, 2006

that thing you do

you know what? i find i'm strangely obsessed with cheesy movies.

i mean, i wouldn't say they're my favourite movies. but i just can't not watch them if they're on tv. or sports movies. i've never seen a sports movie i didn't enjoy. i even liked airbud -- although i haven't seen the sequels.

that thing you do is on the womens television network. i don't know why....but man, i love this movie. and don't even get me started about josie and the pussy cats.....

i wish i was a rock star.

Jan 11, 2006

blindfolds aside

NBC.com > Late Night with Conan O'Brien

heeeeey.....conan introduced a new character to the show this year. an evil puppy. which is just a cute little puppy on a throne of darkenss with carmina burana blaring.

you know what? IT'S BEEN DONE! BY JESUS AND FRIENDS PRODUCTIONS!

they stole our idea!! i have the tape to prove it still.....

badminton raquet of justice!

Jan 10, 2006

a fond farewell

my mp3 player magically works again! a very pleasant surprise, as its original magical unworking originally had me in commuter hell. the subway is a boring place, made all the more boring by a lack of tunes.

operation leave-phone-number-with-a-random-hot-girl-on-the-subway grows closer to fruition everytime i see a hot girl on the train. it really makes you think about how short life is, and i tell myself "man, what's one more restraining order....?"

anyhoo....

i'm looking forward to helping out karen and vick and them with their worship night thingy. i haven't done a praise night in over a year now and i miss playing and worshipping and just having a great time. i mean worship team is awesome and all but it's nice to worship communally without time restraints and worrying about what people are going to say to you afterwards if you embellish a bit too much. just......play.

still haven't named my baby. i was going to call her danielle, but that idea was shot down rather coarsely. you know what's a stupid name? anything that starts with a 'C' and rhymes with "hammie"

Jan 9, 2006

center

you simply said to me:

focus


and i knew i was in trouble.

making something out of nothing, losing ground that took so long to fight for. and in spite of it all, i have to concede the i need to be humble. who am i to argue?

i've felt such a disconnect the last few months. just, this overwhelming....numbness, to all that i wish i cared about, and know that i need to accomplish. all that i am being called to.

it's nice to have friends who really know what's best for you. it's a blessing afforded to me that i often take for granted.

Jan 7, 2006



my new baby. she likes the fresh snow.

the magnetic board on my desk has been tainted. you know how i know you're gay? you play with magnetic poetry....

Jan 6, 2006

Toronto owed 6.6 billion

i read this article at thestar, and i noticed that Glen Grunwald is the president of the Toronto Board of Trade. really? i mean, i know that the board is really just a fancy country club for the urban power elite, but i mean....really? the guy we have speaking up for our city is the same guy that signed Hakeem Olajuwon?

that's scary.

Jan 4, 2006

how great

Howstuffworks "How does the light gun for a video game work?"

Lots of home video games and arcade games use some sort of gun as an input device. You point the gun at the screen and pull the trigger, and if you hit the target on the screen, the target explodes.

To create this effect, the gun contains a photodiode (or a phototransistor) in the barrel. The photodiode is able to sense light coming from the screen. The gun also contains a trigger switch. The output of the photodiode and the switch are fed to the computer controlling the game.

At the same time, the computer is getting signals from the screen driver electronics. If you have read How Television Works, you know about the horizontal retrace and vertical retrace signals used to align the picture on the screen. The screen driver electronics send pulses to the computer at the start of the horizontal and vertical retrace signals, so the computer knows where on the screen the electron beam is located during each frame.

The computer normally uses one of two different techniques to figure out whether or not the gun is pointed at the target when the user pulls the trigger:

* The computer blanks the screen and then paints just the target object white. If the photodiode senses darkness after one vertical retrace signal and then light after the next, the computer assumes that the gun is pointed at the target and scores a hit.

* The computer blanks the screen and then paints the entire screen white. It takes time for the electron beam to trace the entire screen while painting it white. By comparing the signal coming from the photodiode with the horizontal and vertical retrace signals, the computer can detect where the electron beam is on the screen when the photodiode first senses its light. The computer counts the number of microseconds that pass between the time the horizontal and vertical retrace signals start and the time the photodiode first senses light. The number of microseconds tells the computer exactly where on the screen the gun is pointing. If the calculated position and the position of the target match, the computer scores a hit.

Jan 3, 2006

clickity clack go the keys and the mice

i haven't eaten lunch today expecting to go home early. i....am still here. i guess there's something to be said for fasting. in my now empty stomached state, i wonder if there's anyone out there that really knows what they want out of this crazy life.