info @ the P.Pole 07.19.07

This is the big 500th post! Woo! Thank you! Thank you! This place couldn’t have come this far if it weren’t for you (or me, I suppose).

Last night’s LoaH didn’t really go as great as I’d have hoped but I suppose it can’t be helped. Anyway, I still think it was alright (it could’ve been better… or could it?). The amps never came (in time) and I assume they are probably going to arrive between now and next week (right when we’re done “needing” them). I guess it’s probably best though, that we didn’t get new bass and guitar amps to play with in the rain. I think we did what we were decided on doing. I just hope we’ve got some better weather foreknown for us in the weeks/Wednesday evenings to come.

info @ the P.Pole 06.30.07

5 of my PSX games that I’m now rehashing:

• Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage – IMO one of THE best games I’ve ever played/beat. This series has got a special place in my heart because I spent many hours with Grant beating Spyro games (and Crash games) in our childhood days (which are, sadly enough, coming to a close quite quickly).
• Final Fantasy Tactics – I’ve always owned this game but I never took it up seriously because I was either too young or in the process of playing “Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together” which is another RPG/strategy type game that’s about the same in style. Now that I’ve got it on my PSP and I’ve got the energy and mind for it, I’ve taken it up and let me say, this game is amazing. One the best, definitively, that I’ve ever played (and I’ve played a lot).
• Metal Slug X – I technically don’t have this exact game but I do have a few other “Metal Slug” games in my library. I’m generally not a huge fan of arcade-like sidescrollers but this one is one that I enjoyed because I used to play it a lot with my uncle Keith when he was a visa student here (that was WAY back in the day, when I was seven or so). Fun pick-up and play distraction is alright.
• Vagrant Story – This one I’ve yet to actually start but I intend to soon. All I remember about this RPG game is that it had a weird way of doing the battle system. My dad loves this game and used to play it while I watched. It was pretty neat and so I intend on giving it a good thorough whirl myself.
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together – Here’s the last title to make the cut so far. I mentioned this game before. To give you an idea of how much I am a fan of this game, on my actual PlayStation game savefile I’ve achieved a 150+ hours of gameplay with all my characters uber’d. This game, I think, was the first of its kind that I seriously ever got into. I remember playing this after school when I went to my grandma’s. I’d blaze through any homework and then get a-crackin’ on the training. Now that I’ve got it portable… well, I don’t see how I’ll be doing much of anything else once I start. That’s why I’ve got to put off starting a new game for as long as I can so I can finish the other games first.

Note: Click the titles to see their pages on Amazon.

info @ the P.Pole 06.20.07

I don’t know why I need to stay up so late but I don’t have anything tomorrow (actually it’s today since it’s 1:30 am).
When I was small, I watched one too many vampire movies and a Discovery Channel special that either disproved or confirmed various urban legends. Their final chilling piece was about vampires and, calling all other urban legends false, the program actually cited real, unexplained cases of what seemed to be vampires roaming the night, hospitals, and whatnot. Needless to say, I was mortified at the thought that a reliable source would confirm my greatest fear, that something out there was out to get me (specifically, get at my neck) and had sharp teeth to boot. Perhaps that explained why for the subsequent years of my life I could not walk through a dark hallway or room without first pausing to weigh the risks and flipping on the light switch whenever possible. I seriously could not take myself around even remotely dark or shadowy places.
I remember one habit of mine was to look over my shoulder every so often and especially right before starting to brush my teeth to check for said vampires. As a foolish child I would look intently at the mirror as I brushed at the spot just above my right shoulder, waiting for something to jump at me from behind. I have since then grown up and I no longer check in the mirror for vampires. Want to know my secret? Well, as one grows up, one learns to overcome one’s own fears, gaining wisdom and rationality. In my case, I grew up and learned that vampires don’t appear in mirrors, which is why it is futile to look for them in mirrors. What a fool I was.
If one were to come at me today, I’d be ready with my beloved wooden Katana (which serves as a stake of sorts I imagine) and my mostly fit physical stature (don’t look at my hips, they really don’t lie). I’ve been preparing mentally for just such an encounter all my life, practically, ever since I decided years ago that I would not allow myself to be run by my fears of something I’ve yet to meet. I’m totally prepared for an attack by a vampire. Either I kick his ass or he bites mine. What’s the worst that could happen? So I get bitten and turn into a vampire, big deal. Now I’ve got an eternity to get revenge and scope out the wicked-awesome fempires lurking around… It’s either bragging rights or undead superpowers. This is what we call a win-win situation.
Of course, I never much bothered thinking on the possibility that the one to attack me might turn out to be a fempire to start… Now that’s an interesting one. Would I even bother fighting back? I mean, winning a fight like that would be like beating up a girl (something I’d readily do in Tekken but not in real life… not again anyway). And I mean, if she wants to bite me that badly I ought to be a gentleman about it and let her have her way with me. A woman’s got to satisfy her cravings right? It’s the only noble thing to do when you think about it.
Now I’m off to bed before my insane nocturnal patterns make you suspicious of my secret night-prowling life… Blah! I vant to suck your blood!

Final Exam Season 2007

Next Monday will mark the beginning of exam week at VPCI and as I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve come down with something like an auto-immune problem. Nevertheless, here’s the run down:

• Monday – Exam Review Day = massive skippage
• Tuesday – Biology (2 h) at 9 am and Chemistry (1.5 h) at 1 pm
• Wednesday – No exam! Break day for sleep and some review I guess.
• Thursday – English (2 h) at 1 pm
• Friday – It’s the big one, Math (2 h) at 1 pm

So that’s what I’ve got lined up for the coming week. Tomorrow night I’ll be heading to Hosanna to have a night’s worth of guys’ sports without girls around (win win!). I’m actually quite glad we’re having a guys’ night since we never get to actually compete for real with girls around… (this opinion of mine is also why I could never play mixed for badminton).
We were reviewing old tests in Biology today and I was quite surprised to find my results weren’t half as bad as I’d thought (I’ve a terrible way of being relatively under-prepared for this class). Obviously, the marks weren’t amazing but really, I’d say I did quite well. I could’ve done better but sometimes I don’t really think it’s worth the extra effort.
While walking through Fairview Mall today with my good friend Shivon, I came up with a pretty neat idea. I’m not going to say what it is since I wouldn’t want to give away this kind of thing but I am pretty fortunate to have friends like Shivon (and Kishon, even though he’ll likely never read this) around to keep me company. I mean, they may not be the most tactful or comforting friends at times, but they sure are honest. Seeing as how I’ve shared maybe only 2 classes with Shivon in my entire high school career, I’m pretty surprised that he and I are good friends to this day (I tend to not keep friends with whom I don’t have things in common very well). I guess it’s all thanks to Frisbee and ranting about school stuff.
Speaking of Frisbee, I’ve joined the TUC and the Junior’s league in that club. Today was the second skills and training session of two but the first session I attended since I missed last week’s. League games start next week and we get our stuff (rulebook and more importantly, one of their 1337 standard size and weight Frisbees) next week too. Today’s scrimmage was pretty good and I think I played pretty well (not to mention the fact that my larynx burns when I breathe). See what I did there? I named the part that was on fire with Biology knowledge. These exams are going to be interesting. I just hope I get better sooner before later.

NOTE: Click title for Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” covered by Kanye West. This one was brought to my attention, rather appropriately, by Shivon so yeah, have fun.

Killer AC

I don’t know if you know, but I happen to spend a large chunk of my day behind my computer. I’ve got everything I could need pretty much here (short of a washroom and food). My desk also happens to sit directly beneath the AC duct. My dad is insane about blasting the AC at you’ve I’ve got some body core temperature problems. I am now a few days before exam week and am coming down with something along the lines of a pseudo-cold (since I’m only feeling sick because my body thinks something is wrong… or at least that’s what I’m assuming from what I’ve learned from biology this year).

info @ the P.Pole 06.04.07

Today’s a special day because it’s the first info post of June as well as it being another 4th of ________ (month). Those have been special for awhile now and I’ve grown fond of commemorating them in small ways.

5 things that made me teary recently:

• watching the Team Hoyt video (see end of the post) that was part of the “ASK” sermon yesterday–I don’t even know how to begin describing how inspiring the story of this father and son is… watch the video and go to their site
• downing a glob of wasabi the size of half a large marshmallow at Starwalk Buffet last Friday to stay in and win an eating contest between myself and Henry
• yawning uncontrollably today during badminton at the club because I didn’t get enough sleep last night
• having to cut open the scrotum to reveal the testes (on my dissection pig at school)–I was the only one who could do it since David was squeamish and Amy, being the innocent little (and little as in petite) girl she is, wouldn’t know her way around these parts
• attending a Sunday baptismal service (Jessica Lu’s, no less) at Morningstar Fellowship church (at Morningside and Sheppard, formerly Churchill Heights Baptist Church)

Something about yesterday’s double whammy of Sunday services (first at TJCAC and then at Morningstar) made for a seemingly endless service. It was a good Sunday, a good day of renewal and refreshing of the soul’s viscera. Morningstar Fellowship has something that I think Jaffray is lacking… but I can’t place it exactly. Anyway, here’s the video I promised.

Life’s Edge

Is the tentative title for the culminating movie project of my group (tentatively named Pointy Hat Grp./Ltd./Wtf.). It’s a story that revolves around two brothers, one older and essentially the generic blessed and admired older sibling and the other one who is younger and conventionally jealous of the older brother’s success and good reputation.
One summer day, after some harmless sparring in the park (both brother conveniently happen to be martial artists, go figure), the older brother (played by Darren Guo, superstar in queue) suggests that they go for food together. The younger brother (Henry Leung, my doubles partner) brings them to a restaurant he heard about from a friend nearby.
Upon exiting the shady cafe, the two brothers happen upon two mobsters (played by my good friends Kishon M. and Jonathan L.)headed the opposite direction. Some short bursts of dialog follow ending in the older brother fending off the two mobsters and a third one in hiding (played by Alex K.) with a sledgehammer while the younger brother makes a run for it. He is soon gunned down just as the older brother is beaten unconscious.
From here, it only gets better, but you’ll have to wait until the final product is out (via Alex K.’s editing). To say the least, there’s a lot of revenge and sword busting-out-ing.
I received a (pardon my French) fucking cool gift today from a school friend as a way early birthday present. Amy happened to be at Anime North, an anime convention of epic proportions I’m told, and I had originally asked our friend, Queenie, to pick up something in my stead for ~$20. Neither found anything totally awesome on the first day (past Saturday) of AN. On Sunday, however, Amy had to make a judgment call. Either get for me a bookmark with Fuu (from “Samurai Champloo”) on it, a huge pin-up poster of Haruhi (from “the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”), or a mystery gift. The bookmark, she said, was too girly, even for my tastes. And she feared what I might do to the life-sized Haruhi poster, so she ended up buying a wooden sword for me because it was expected that I’d appreciate something so (pardon my French again) fucking cool. She was totally right.
Here are the pics (click for a larger view):

The sword has some pretty sweet detailing etched into it’s smooth black finish (it’s wooden, remember?). Click here for a video groping of it.

Note: If you’re wondering why, the sword came originally wrapped in gift wrap paper and then plastic cling wrap under to prevent scratching. I didn’t wrap it in a huge latex–nevermind.

info @ the P.Pole 05.27.07

Today I woke up with a sharp pain in my right wrist. It felt like the tendon was off or something (like a cracked knuckle gone wrong, if you know what that feels like). I thought it was nothing but I soon found out my grandfather had actually fallen and broken–i.e. completely snapped–his wrist. i think the radius was what snapped. Anyway, this was, without a doubt, many times worse than my fractured wrist in grade eight. I think it was sympathy pains that I was feeling.
The whole family headed for Scarborough Grace Hospital and had him admitted. During the time that I would’ve otherwise spent at church, I kept my grandfather company as he went through the normal paces of a hospital patient. It was particularly sickening (yet undeniably cool) to watch the doctor and nurse literally pull my grandfather’s wrist apart (lengthwise, don’t be scared) and put it back together. What was awesome was that my grandfather took it like a man and never made a sound. Or maybe the localized freezing was just that good… Either way, it looked Fing painful. Cool and painful.
That was my morning. I’m sure my grandfather’s going to be okay (he’s home now, probably watching TV). What was awesome was that moments after getting it wrapped in a cast my he started swinging his arm around exclaiming “Hey! It doesn’t hurt anymore. Let’s go home.” I think that doctor did too good of a job freezing the arm.

French SL Papers 1 and 2

It’s been almost twelve hours since I finished my last IB exam paper for this year and I’m still pretty exuberant about it all.

Paper 1
Section A

• There were a whole slew of short readings. The first one was about Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Quebec and their various populations of francophones. The second had to do with some crackpot lady’s trip to the capital of Niger. The third one had to do with a woman who crossed the ocean in a single-person boat–how did she go to bathroom (not a perv-question btw)? And the last had to do with plastic bags and their effects on the appearance of the countryside, wildlife, and future waste management problems.
• There were also corresponding short answer type questions, including matching the correct endings to beginnings of sentences, matching the right synonym to vocab words taken from the text, and true/false + justification from the text type questions. Those were mostly easy and I’m sure I killed them all (with the exception of one tricky vocab word that I couldn’t place until after I handed the paper in). “There’s only one real answer and you can find it in there.”

Section B

• A short writing task of at least 100 words where one had to write an article or argumentative essay that would go into the school newspaper citing the problems associated with using plastic bags for many daily purposes (NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES IN CONSUMPTION!).
• I remembered reading over the format/structure (worth a third of the mark for writing assignments for IB) of “les discours” in particular (I just had a gut feeling it’d be handy) and so I was well versed in how to write in this style. You’re supposed to use exaggeration (OMG t3h b49s 4r3 4tt4ck1n9!), emotion (think of the dolphins and turtles!), and humour (plastic bags are like people with disgusting perfumes, they’re grossness lingers even after they’re gone) to prove/argue my points. So I did. I even came up with the title “L’attaque des sacs!” for my “discours” and I’m actually pretty proud of coming up with that on the spot (and in French, no less).
• I also used (and slightly abused) idiomatic expressions which score big style points with IB. I’m such a nerd.

Paper 2
For paper 2 we were to choose one task from the 4 (or so) given and carry it out writing at least 250 words and using the writing style appropriate to the task (eg: essay, official letter, informal letter, guide, report, journal entry, etc…). Obviously each type of writing has its own quirks, pros, and cons. I took on the first task.
Question 1
Write a page of your personal journal describing your decision to move in with three of your friends and the difficulties of living together.

• I wrote down on my scrap piece of paper all the things I could remember about each of the different styles needed in the tasks mentioned, and I just ended up knowing more (than nothing!) about journal entries than the rest of the formats. I also didn’t feel like writing another essay.
• So I started out by drafting my introduction on scrap (I had 1 hour and 30 minutes to write >250 words so I took my time), mentioning how much I regretted my decision to move in with the three friends.
• In my first body paragraph I talked about Joe. Joe is my imaginary friend from grade school and he’s a big social butterfly. He also likes to bring home strangers and leave them all over the place without warning, so I wrote about how nervous it made me to come home to a random “inconnu” in my room. Perhaps an agreeable stranger (there’s only one way to find out!), but a stranger nonetheless.
• Then I talked about Tina, the studious Chinese (implied, not directly mentioned) immigrant who is a complete slacker at home. I complained about how she did all her work from school but never bothered to clean stuff. Frustrating!
• Last was Gordo. With a name like that, you can’t be surprised that he’s the one who eats all the food. I whined about him eating the food I put in the “frigo” (I hope they like slang in journal entries). “DAMNIT GORDO!” I actually ended this paragraph off with the sentence “ZUT!” which, FYI, means “DAMN!” and not “F*CK!”
• In my conclusion I pined on and on about how I’ve got to be more understanding of people (not entirely untrue for my real life friends/acquaintances) and less impatient. I also mentioned, in a rather emo fashion, that no one would like to be my friend otherwise…

And that was my IB French SL exam! Done within a total of almost 4 hours (7:30 – ~11:30 am). I’m really glad I went to Shivon’s place yesterday to review. I also really don’t think I would’ve done as well if his father, during the ride they gave me back home, hadn’t challenged me by telling me to think of “someone with average intelligence” as my model to follow. He’s a wise guy. “Expect the unexpected. You never know what will happen the next day. No one knows who will die tomorrow.” And so I went home and frantically reviewed (but not too frantically) and rested up. Now I’m dead tired and totally satisfied with my performance in the past few days.

Note: You might be wondering why I chose to remember these details from my exams and write them up. It’s not because I think most people with find it interesting. It’s my way of being done with the anxiety of these exams for good and recording them for future reference/nostalgia. IB exams come once in a lifetime. Savour the nerdiness.

Economics SL Paper 2

Today I wrote the second (final!) paper of my Economics exam and I must say, I’m feeling pretty good about it. It’s easy to feel good about doing decent but not exceptional after writing a paper like yesterday’s. I answered 3 of the 5 possible questions (don’t worry, you’re supposed to do that) and I think I related all three to development economics in one way or another.
Before the exam I said to Shivon, “I’m heading straight for the market failure and development questions.”

• Question 2 dealt with malaria treatments serving as merit goods (market failure) and African governments encouraged to purchase large scale orders of the treatments (development).
• Question 4 had to do with less developed countries (LDC) selling sugar on international markets (international trade) and inability of LDC firms to compete with subsidized exporters from more developed countries (development).
• Question 5 discussed the effectiveness of the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for improving the standard of life and economic growth in LDCs (development).

So I kept my promise. Three times over. I actually didn’t expect that many development geared questions (since there are usually only one or two per year that relate to each section) but some overlap allowed me to have my way (fun!) with the question. As soon as Uganda was mentioned, I knew I could drag in development economics. It’s almost sick how I profited from their suffering… Well, not really.
After the exam we had some two-on-two action in the field with four of us guys (we played frisbee). Then Shivon and I headed for SUBWAY for some quick eats (I didn’t have any cash on me but Shivon spotted me with his debit card) before returning to school to meet up with Kishon who just finished writing his academic economics exam. Apparently, it was a joke.
With a French exam tomorrow (both papers with 30 minutes break in between) I decided to hit up Shivon’s house for some review. We basically spent 3 hours writing practice/previous exams. The ones from 2003 and before are insane. I averaged 80% or so on all of them but then again, they were, in Shivon’s words, “F*ckin’ hard.” So if I can score decently on those (and before bell curve too) then I shouldn’t do too poorly on tomorrow’s since they’ve gotten progressively easier over the years. Confidence will either save me or screw me now.