Serendipity Islet

Wine and Cheese

2007-09-18T18:50:00.000-04:00

Some people have asked me what I like most about law school. My favourite part is the free lunches. About 3-4 times a week there is a free lunch offered by a law firm, society, or club. Sushi lunch is the trend recently and luckily pizza lunches are on the decline. These free lunches overall make for a great time to socialize and well, eat for free.

I'm going to the annual Wine and Cheese in downtown Vancouver tonight. It's a get-together hosted by the big law firms. Although I have no particular interest in working in BigLaw, this should prove to be a good experience in networking and the consuming of wines and cheeses.

Michael Jackson

2007-09-12T01:34:00.000-04:00

Michael Jackson is a superstar - a superstar professor and litigator. He's my Crim law prof. Jackson's pushing for prison condition reforms in Canada, and has successfully represented many "dangerous" prisoners: the "balcony rapist" from Toronto, for example, who served 20 years in prison. Interestingly for us, these people - who were just released from prison - are coming to speak to our class in the next couple of weeks. We'll have their cases read before class, to know what to ask them.

Michael Jackson's publications can be found on his website: http://www.justicebehindthewalls.net/

Orientation, classes, and free law firm paraphernalia

2007-09-05T21:14:00.000-04:00

First day was quite overwhelming, both in the sheer amount of information poured on us and in the mound of physical objects we're supposed to take home. Information came in the form of speeches, mini-lectures, and advice from upper-year students, and of course, the 20 lb. box of case papers for our courses. The physical objects I mentioned were useful and thoughtful gifts from various law firms - though somewhat redundant (we got about four water bottles or mugs) - but I guess they couldn't really coordinate their donations.

New school, new laptop

2007-08-24T22:02:00.001-04:00

Concluding that my 15.4" notebook is too unwieldy to lug around to every class, I ordered a Vostro 1400 from Dell Small Business this Monday. I was afraid the notebook wouldn't be delivered on time, as Inspirons from Dell Home usually take 2-3 weeks from PO to delivery, but DSB surprised me with a swift 1-week turnaround. I'm loving the deal: pretty cheap, 2 pounds lighter than my 15.4-incher, and a high-res screen. Here's the specs:

Vostro 1400
14.1" WXGA+ 1440x900 LCD (glossy)
Intel Celeron M 540 @1.86GHz (single core Merom)
1.5GB DDR2 SDRAM @667 MHz
80GB 5400 rpm HDD
Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics
Intel 4965 wireless a/g/n
24x CD Burner/DVD combo drive
56 WHr 6-cell battery

After a few calls, including some very polite negotiation with a CSR, I got the above for $699. I'm pretty satisfied.

Heading to 1L soon

2007-08-23T13:57:00.000-04:00

I'm headed to UBC law school in September. But I have yet to choose between several career paths. One takes me into public service, where I hope I eventually end up being a judge or justice of the peace. Another route leads to BigLaw(tm), where the money is. Trouble is I'd have to sell my life (and soul) to the law firm, at least until I make partner. The third path is public interest law. I don't have a strong conviction for any cause right now though, and the pay isn't great, so mostly likely I won't be doing public interest.

But who knows? Every law student I've talked to has said law school changes people, and that it's the most significant experience in their lives. So I'll stand at a crossroads right now, and let my law school experience guide me down the right path. The only thing I'm sure of now is that I want to go on exchange to Japan.

Arena 1v2! and more PvP screenshots

2007-06-25T00:56:00.001-04:00

I'm Fultram, true story. (and other screenshots)

2007-06-20T23:03:00.001-04:00

Skinner, the elegant UI mod.

Gruul down!

2007-06-12T02:43:00.001-04:00

It's been a while...

2007-06-01T13:38:00.000-04:00

Since I last posted five months ago, I've passionately played my priest Averre on Exodar and ventured into Serpentshrine Cavern, Magtheridon's Lair, Karazhan and Gruul's Lair. My, shadow priests really melt faces!

This is from my guild's latest Prince Malchezaar kill!

Next one is the last AV I did.

The Next Generation, or The Saga Continues...

2007-01-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

The adventures of Aeacos, Averre, Illucinara, Fultram and Kobal began in Exodar yesterday. Join them!

The Crusade that is Burning

2007-01-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

I've decided to be a paladin for the expansion, specifically, a DPS-oriented one. Here are the builds I'm favouring -- and I'm all open for suggestions. Tentatively, this will be my spec:

Ret/Prot

The Mandelbrot set

2006-12-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a project on this flamboyant set for PMATH 370. It's interesting and yields eye candy when the numbers are crunched. I'll put up a link to my project website once it's done! Update: here it is!

So it's 11:10 pm now. Alan comes in and says "I will take a shower sir." I counter with "see you tomorrow!"

Behold: the thing that reads a lot!

2006-12-07T02:05:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been watching Gilmore Girls to get re-acquainted with my feminine side. I've discovered that I can relate to the show on many levels. Its protagonist Rory reminds me of myself before I got my first computer. Like her, I was "the thing that reads a lot," consuming both fiction and non-fiction, novels and magazines, scientific journals and poetry. Actually, not much poetry, but hey, the point is I read a lot. Nowadays I don't read much save course material (shamefully not much of that either) and the news every week or so.

I have to start reading more, especially since I'm set for law school. So starting Christmas break I'm going to read lots. Rory's collection will be a good place to start.

Choices

2006-12-06T15:32:00.000-05:00

Choice is a great thing to have. The liberty to make decisions is often taken for granted in our society. Yet choice can also be as a burden, a pressure on one's shoulders. When I'm presented with difficult choices, like most people I tend to weigh the pros and cons of each choice:

So the game today is Pick Your Ideal Law School, and on the table I have two great universities from Canada and the HYSCCN clique from the south. I haven't been accepted to many places yet so I'm being a little preemptive. Oh well.

Toronto
Pro: reputation, Bay St. placements, faculty
Con: weather, "competitiveness"

UBC
Pro: location, curriculum, and there's a rez with tatami flooring
Con: it's far away, biglaw placement

Harvard
Pro: reputation, students, faculty, NY placements
Con: lots of US history (this goes for all US schools though), cost (this too)

Yale
Pro: reputation, reputation, faculty, students
Con: low chance of getting in, cost

Stanford
Pro: campus, students
Con: cost

Columbia
Pro: NY placements
Con: cost

Chicago
Pro: don't know much about Chicago actually
Con:

NYU
Pro: New York
Con: New York

This goes to show I have much research to do before I can start deciding.

End of term draft

2006-12-05T01:23:00.000-05:00

During a break from studying I drafted Time Spiral online with Alan. Unfortunately we both lost, but when I tested my new G/W token deck against five of Alan's draft decks, it performed 2-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, and 2-0. So it's surprisingly good -- and it recovers from bad hands gracefully. Its main weakness is evasion creatures, but it features cards like Aether Web in the sideboard to recover.

Oh and this is the first time I've used my sideboard to great effect! So here's the decklist.

17 Lands
11 Forest
6 Plains

15 Creatures
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Greenseeker
2 Herd Gnarr
1 Savage Thallid
1 Spike Feeder
1 Sporesower Thallid
1 Thallid Germinator
2 Thallid Shell-Dweller
1 Amrou Seekers
1 Castle Raptors
2 Icatian Crier
1 Outrider en-Kor

8 Other spells
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Tromp the Domains
1 Strength in Numbers
1 Thrill of the Hunt
1 Fortify
1 Griffin Guide
1 Pentarch Ward
1 Temporal Isolation

Cards of note in my sideboard are Chronosavant, Pull from Eternity, Primal Forcemage, Phantom Wurm, Havenwood Wurm and Aether Web.

The deck's main strength is its synergy: Outrider/Shell-Dweller, tokens/Fortify, tokens/Tromp, tokens/Strength in Numbers, Icatian Crier/Herd Gnarr, Thallids/Herd Gnarr, tokens/Primal Forcemage, and so on are game-winning combos. Herd Gnarr became 14/14 flying trample once, and Tromp and Fortify have each made a life total drop below -18.

Yet Alan's decks weren't pushovers -- not even close. If he has time he may post his decklists for all to see: some contain a questionable number of bombs...

It's that time of the term again

2006-11-29T20:25:00.000-05:00

Finals. I usually love finals: it's free time if one has been somewhat diligent throughout the term. Except I haven't. So this is going to be an arduous battle.

Darn law school applications.

Alan's Birthday Draft Decklist

2006-11-12T01:54:00.000-05:00

Drafting hasn't been fun for me since Coldsnap was released. But today's draft was very fulfilling -- I drafted a "suspendful", interactive deck; it's fun to play. I should test it against my old decks...

16 Lands
9 Island
7 Mountain

14 Creatures
1 Giant Oyster
1 Stormcloud Djinn
2 Coral Trickster
1 Slipstream Serpent
2 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Brine Elemental
1 Viscerid Deepwalker
1 Errant Ephemeron
1 Crookclaw Transmuter
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Firemaw Kavu

10 Other spells
1 Fire Whip
1 Sudden Shock
1 Ignite Memories
1 Word of Seizing
2 Orcish Cannonade
1 Grapeshot
1 Clockspinning
1 Snapback
1 Foriysian Totem

Back to Blogging

2006-11-05T01:37:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm done with applications and most of my midterms, it's time to return to blogging and visiting blogs regularly!

I've spent the past few weeks working on admissions essays for each law school. It's been a long, demotivating process at times, but ultimately it was a rewarding journey of self-discovery. Surprisingly, my midterms have been pretty stellar throughout this period. Maybe I can grab a 95% average this term? O.o

Tentative priest build

2006-10-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

14/0/47

Month of applications

2006-10-04T02:27:00.000-04:00

October is the month for applications to Ontario law schools. I'm thinking of applying to U of T, and maybe UBC and some U.S. law schools. Hmm, I need to think of some stuff to put on my essays and I hope my LSAT score turns out good.

For now, it's time to catch up on a lot of school work!...

Unofficial Transcript

2006-08-12T00:27:00.000-04:00

Let's see what I've done over the last four years. It's been mostly school and Japan.

I came to Waterloo in Fall 2002 majoring in PC & video games with a minor in dining out.

Snes 106: Introduction to Final Fantasy 6, Mario RPG and Zelda
Plaza 120: Plaza restaurants
WC3 101: Introductory Warcraft III
WC3 100: Warcraft III: Single player, Multiplayer, and Mods (double credit)

I'm cutting out a few terms because I'm lazy.

In 2B I changed my major to World of Warcraft and took a couple electives.

Wow 102: Introduction to World of Warcraft
Wow 134: Class selection (to which the answer is "Paladin")
Wow 138: Why Stormrage is Down: Semi-Real Analysis
Drift 135: Introduction to Driving sideways
Draft 136: Drafting in Racing games and Magic: the Gathering

I took another school term right after to get interviews for Epson.

Winter 2005

Dungeon 235: Introduction to Instances
Econ 239: Gold farming and Inflation
Raid 330: An Overview of Raiding
Group 336: Introductory Group Theory
Drift 486: Advanced sideways driving in PGR2
Pld 389: The Third Life

Then I went to Japan for a year.

Spring 2006
Pld 399: Being Immune
Guild 340: Militis Justica
Raid 454: Molten Core, Zul'Gurub and Ahn'Qiraj
Draft 380: Online drafting
Magic 338: Magic's rules and interesting cards
Socio 250: Badminton, Bubble Tea and Card games

Exams, LSAT juku, and a brief reprieve

2006-07-30T01:18:00.000-04:00

Dear journal/planner: July 31 to August 12 is exams, then August 18-20 is LSAT prep. Then I'm headed for the West Coast! I need more energy and motivation to overcome this lethargic heat...

(P.S. Too bad Waterloo isn't a snow land.)

Draft decks face off!

2006-07-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

Today Alan and I faced each other with decks from our G9G and Coldsnap drafts. My G9G deck is one of the best I've made: it won all its single-player and multiplayer matches. It's Izzet-Gruul with a focus on combat tricks and card drawing. Alan's Coldsnap deck is a very aggressive deck that won most of its single-player games. It has an almost unfair allotment of snow cards and exploits that with 3 Skreds.

So, we faced off.

In the first game, Alan easily removed my defenders with 2 Skreds and a Surging Flame, winning the game quickly.

The second game was less one-sided. Alan got me down to 8 but I stabilized and eventually won.

The last game was very memorable. It started off like the first game, and soon I was down to 5. Alan was at 19. I had an idea worth 19 damage if it worked out, but it was risky. So I chose to pursue it.

Okay here's the game state.

Alan had 4 creatures in play:
Karplusan Wolverine, Zombie Musher, Stromgald Crusader, Orcish Bloodpainter (summoning sickness), two land untapped, and 1 card in his hand.

I also had 4 creatures:
Wee Dragonauts, Izzet Chronarch, Izzet Chronarch, Silhana Ledgewalker

So I decided to attack with all my creatures! I had 4 instants in my hand; these were key to the play: Gigadrowse, Schismotivate, Wildsize, Leap of Flame.

Alan declares blockers. He's at a comfortable 19, so Zombie Musher blocks one Izzet Chronarch. He blocked only one creature and didn't give his Crusader flying to block my Dragonauts. That sealed the game.

I cast all my instants, making my Wee Dragonauts 16/5 flying, trample, first strike. The unblocked Chronarch and Ledgewalker contribute to make 19 damage. Ultra! Ultra! Ultra!!!

Thank you H20

2006-07-17T22:53:00.000-04:00

A storm has passed over, dropping the temperature a few degrees. Thank you water! Thwater.

Le stuck

2006-07-08T18:20:00.000-04:00

I'm stuck on a new math problem. Alan's having problems recalling the solution to a previous problem. I hope we get them soon. On another note, Alan showed me a pic of some card from Time Spiral.

4 8 15 16 23 42

2006-06-25T02:41:00.000-04:00

Some builds...

2006-06-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

Dunno which class I'll be yet, but here are the work-in-progress builds anyway:

Fury/Arms warrior, Prot warrior

Discipline/Holy priest (contemplating whether to take Spirit of Redemption or Power Infusion..)

I remember school was better than this

2006-06-09T22:48:00.000-04:00

I used to like school terms. My profs were great and courses were interesting. However this term sucks. I have no good profs, and the courses are either difficult and boring, or just boring. I'm usually much more motivated to learn.

Thankfully I'm looking forward to several courses next term: Social Psychology, Chaos and Fractals, and maybe even Primate Behaviour (aka Monkey Technology)...

So this term I'll try to weather through, survive, and then hopefully the dawn will come.

Hot

2006-05-30T02:26:00.000-04:00

It's hot and humid. I can't seem to sleep, so why try? Yeah I gave up, so I'm sweltering in my room typing, trying to revive my blog. I miss those single room aircons in Japan. It could be 35 outside, but my bedroom would be a nice 23. I would buy one if we have them here... install it in my room...

(Listening to Escaflowne soundtrack.) Let's see, my next post will be list of goals for this term, and maybe a routine I should follow...

Until then, cha!

Quitting WoW and starting MtGO?

2006-05-20T21:32:00.000-04:00

My WoW subscription ends this month and I'm supposed to get my ass back to work. This term has to be kick-ass in terms of grades, since I'm applying to law schools starting in the fall. No more gaming for Jason?

But there's MtGO! It's great for taking a break every now and then, since an average game of Magic takes only 10 to 20 minutes or so. So I'm thinking of replacing WoW with MtGO.

I haven't made an account though; I'm content for now playing newbs with 9th edition precons using the free trial. If others are willing to play some MtGO then I'm sure to sign up!

So... who's up for this?

Getting used to campus life

2006-05-06T11:50:00.000-04:00

This term reminds me of my 1B term: summer at UW place. It was hot in 1B and will be hotter this time, since I'm on the top floor...

Let's see, what happened the first week?

I turned to the dark side and started playing WoW. So WoW was all I did except classes. My first Onyxia experience was disappointing: it took almost three hours and my raid group wiped on Onyxia Warders (which is shameful).

The elecs '07 are on campus this term, and I want to meet up! Hopefully I'll meet them soon...

I'm back!

2006-04-22T14:51:00.000-04:00

To-do risuto

2006-04-12T07:19:00.000-04:00

Add: I started using Google Calendar today. Much better than this list =P. Here's the feed.

'x' means done, while '-' means not 'x'.

Moving from apartment:
x clean room
x pack and move to aunt's house

Company:
x work evaluation
x work report evaluation
x application for pension plan lump-sum withdrawal
x farewell speech

Gifts/requested items:
x peanut butter for Silph
x Magic cards for Alan
x Aquarius for Bao
x iPod nano for sister
x high-end shaver for father
x electronic thermometer for mother
x Gundam modeling books for Paul

Visit:
x Chiba University
- Akina downhill
x Akihabara (electric town)

Misc.:
x cancel gym membership
x cancel cell phone

Auld Lang Syne's a playing

2006-04-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

Work'll soon come to a close, and then I'll have about a week to boldly go where I haven't gone before. I'm scrapping the FAQ idea: it's too time-consuming! I tried a new Pokémon game involving playing as a kid transformed into a Pokémon. You get a Pokémon pal too -- I chose (read: choose you) Pikachu! Yeah, that didn't last long. Then I tried a Rockman RPG, but that failed as well. So I give up.

I'm welcoming suggestions for where I should travel to in my last week. Anyone know cool places/things to do around Tokyo? I'm sure some of you do. Yeah, the only conditions are that it's around Tokyo (< 2 hour train) and that it doesn't cost a fortune. =)

Oh yeah, the title of this post. Japanese stores have a habit of playing Auld Lang Syne when they're about to close, and I thought that it fits this time quite well.

Personality awareness

2006-03-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

So there's this thing called the "Johari window." Basically you describe yourself using a few words from a set, let aquaintances describe you using the same set, then compare the results for some earth-shocking revelation.

And here's my Johari window -- fill it out if you have time! My Nohari window might be more fun though (thanks Wen for pointing this out) ;). If you're interested in this kind of thing like I am you can make one too, and I'll be sure to fill it out.

Add: The "bad" traits are in the Nohari.
Add: I see two glaring flaws: first, the provided vocabulary is inadequate (Ray pointed this out), especially in describing "bad" qualities; and second, people tend to be laudatory or at least anodyne on these things (note: this is kinda forced by the first flaw). I believe these flaws render this "window" unreliable for personality assessment. You might get a kick out of it though.

The complexities of queries

2006-03-26T08:35:00.000-05:00

I had this thought while buying strawberries at the local supermarket. Don't ask me why. Wait -- actually that's somewhat relevant. Inspired by computability theories, I was pondering if I could separate the five W's and an H into complexity classes. While carrying the groceries home, I gave it some analysis. Let me proffer my findings.

Let's start with the "easiest" queries. 'Where' and 'when' seem to be the simplest class of questions. In effect, the two are the same thanks to modern physics' space-time. Given that the answer is known, all that is required to relay the info is a vector v=(x, y, z, time), provided with a reference point in space-time. Let's call this class of queries Q1.

Next is 'who' and 'what'. It's obvious that 'who' is just an application of 'what' to human beings. To see why these are of higher complexity than 'where' and 'when', imagine relaying the answer to the querier when you've found it. You would need to describe it. The object o you are describing has characteristics; you could describe them by c = c1, c2, c3, ... etc. This may seem to be of the same complexity as Q1, the only difference that v is of variable length. Yet c may conceivably be infinite or undefined. For example, the answer to the question "what is the meaning of x?" The answer may furthermore depend on the entity which posed the question. This delves into the area of philosophy regarding the nature of truth: is it absolute, subjective, or something else? This I'm afraid is beyond the scope of this post. Let's call this class Q2.

Separating the last two types of queries is hard. Is 'how' simpler than 'why?' I believe so. 'How' (excepting cases like "how come", which is a colloquial way of asking 'why') requests a list or sequence of events that effect an outcome. One could then see this as an extension of Q2: each component in c, the descriptor, would be answers to Q2 or Q1 queries. For example, c1 would contain the first 'event' that triggers the outcome referred to by the 'how' query. This c1 itself is an descriptor to the Q2 query "what is the first event?" In this sense 'how' could be seen as an extension of Q2. Let's call it Q2x.

The remaining query is 'why.' Intuitively one can appreciate the difficulty of 'why' by comparing two oracles, one which can answer any of the above classes of queries, and one which answers 'why'. Which do you think is more intelligent? This shows that we humans in a sense respect the question 'why'. I believe that 'why' has supernatural connotations associated with it. An entity that could give 'why' answers in general would be viewed as a god. 'Why' also gives rise to questions for which even the existence of an answer is undeterminable. This contrasts with Q1 for example, since even if we don't know the answer to "where is x", we know that an answer exists.

What's ironic is that although past classes were each supersets of its prior class, the supernaturally difficult 'why' is not a superclass of Q2x but is simply unrelated. An oracle that answers 'why' cannot provide answers to even Q1 queries. "Why is the location of x?" No good, regardless of how it's phrased. 'Why' is in a superclass of its own; let's designate it W.

I posit a very coarse analogy of 'why' to the unsolvable problems in real complexity theory. The "hard but solvable" problems like the NP-complete ones could be Q2x or Q2.

So in essence, I find W ('why') to be in a realm of its own, and the class relationship Q2x ('how') > Q2 ('what', 'who') > Q1 ('where', 'when'). So... why did I chance upon this thought while buying strawberries? Too hard to answer, sorry. =P

Things to do before I leave

2006-03-24T09:24:00.000-05:00

I'm compiling a list of things I should do before I leave. Suggestions are welcome. Here's what I've got so far.

visit Mt. Haruna (Akina) of Initial D fame
write a FAQ for a recently released Japanese game
buy a pack of Japanese Magic cards
buy a bottle of Aquarius
buy some peanut butter

Kyoto pics

2006-03-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here are pics of beautiful wintertime Kyoto. It may be cumbersome but by following this adventure log and this map you can get a good idea of what my adventure was like. The pics have timestamps that correspond with the appropriate log entry for easy searching.

The most memorable places were Kyoto University, where I interviewed a prof, the pristine Ginkakuji garden, the grand Kyoto station, and the serene night scenery. Also very memorable were my aching legs that bore me over 40 km that day.

10:20 - Kyoto station. I should have taken pics of the inside; it's really grand with a view like Terminal 3 of Pearson airport. There's also a large department store there with escalators arranged so that it looks like one really long escalator (ie. not overlaid on top of each other). Quite breathtaking.

10:55 - Nishi-honganji temple.

11:55 - Kiyomizu temple.

12:10 - Maiko girls on the way to Gion.

12:20 - Gion pool.

12:20 - Wish board at Gion. There is one that says, "Please let Mr. Asakawa meet a good person."

1:50 - Kyoto University. The construction sorta ruins the pic, but oh well. This building is the easily recognized clockwork tower, and the tree in front of it is the university's crest.

3:25 - A peculiar work of art at Ginkakuji.

3:25 - A beautiful spring/stream/waterfall in the Ginkakuji garden.

3:25 - The Ginkakuji itself.

5:00 - Kyoto Imperial Palace.

Hope this was enjoyable!

Japan pics from 2003

2006-03-08T05:49:00.000-05:00

Here are nine select pics from my previous stay in Japan. Photos of Kyoto will come soon in a separate post :)

Let the pics form a 3x3 matrix:
(1,1) athletics festival at a primary school, Kanamachi, Tokyo
(1,2) precipice, Enoshima, Kamakura
(1,3) misty ravine, Okutama, Tokyo
(2,1) fishing lodge, Okutama
(2,2) view of harbor, Enoshima
(2,3) sunset, Enoshima
(3,1) precarious crossing in storm, Okutama (flooding claimed two lives that day)
(3,2) costume party, Harajuku, Tokyo
(3,3) preparing sushi rice, Mejiro, Tokyo

Happy hundredth post

2006-03-06T09:44:00.000-05:00

Wahoo, 100th post! Now is there anything to blog about, hmm...

I began composing my work report today, cancelled my gym membership, and had a long conversation with my mother. What else... I watched Mai-Hime on TV today. It's okay but I see the production quality isn't on the same level as say Fullmetal Alchemist. Nothing sets it apart from other magic school-girl anime. I have numerous complaints: lack of memorable music, overly done fanservice, mediocre fight scenes, insubstantial character development (ok, I only watched one episode), narrow range of character expressions and finally predictable actions and outcomes.

There goes my aunt again

2006-03-05T09:10:00.000-05:00

My aunt's notorious in our family for her spending habits. I went back to Tokyo on the weekend and found that she bought a $42,000 grand piano. What's more, it was an impulse purchase, made on the spot at some exhibition downtown. I suppose she has high hopes for my cousin, who is just 13 years old. Well, now he's one of the few kids in the world to get a brand new Bechstein grand piano for casual play.

Tagged!

2006-03-01T10:11:00.000-05:00

I'm it I guess. =)

Four jobs I've had:
1. Software developer - Seiko Epson Group
2. Calculus II tutor/marker - Universty of Waterloo
3. Localization developer - Roxio (bought by Sonic Solutions while I was still there)
4. Systems engineer - Watanabe Seisakusho

Four movies I can watch (and have the potential to watch) over and over:
(I don't like to watch any over and over, but if I had to pick...)
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Memento
3. Mulholland Drive
4. The Lion King

Four places I've lived (if vacations don't count):
1. Shanghai (also vacationed)
2. Tokyo (also vacationed)
3. Greater Toronto Area
4. Waterloo

Four TV Shows I love(d):
1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. Frasier
3. CSI (all locations)
4. Everybody Loves Raymond

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Chicago
2. Kyoto
3. Montreal
4. New York

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. Pan pizza
2. Fresh sushi and sashimi (must be fresh)
3. Crab cake baked inside the shell
4. Good curry with some meat

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Blogs
2. Utopia
3. the Inquirer
4. Wikipedia

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. England
2. Taiwan
3. Roppongi (or anywhere closer to central Tokyo)
4. Outer space (in a spaceship of course)

Four bloggers I'm tagging:
1. Kevin
2. Jia (maybe multiple tags will make him do it.. :P)
3. Paul
4. The other co-ops in Japan

Rainy day

2006-03-01T09:26:00.000-05:00

It rained the whole day today. After work I went to the supermarket and bought some groceries. I wanted them to stay dry, so I uncomfortably held the grocery bags under my umbrella. Then it came to me that I could just hook the bags onto the umbrella's bottom "hook" thing. That way the groceries will be in the middle of the umbrella's shelter. Bystanders started staring at me though, as if I was cooking sashimi or something.

Intel's new naming scheme

2006-02-17T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've gotta give kudos to Intel's marketing gurus for their new branding scheme. They've turned their logo inside out -- the "inside" in "intel inside" is now outside. They've faithfully followed the trend of CPU design, emphasizing multiple cores over megahertz. So what does Intel decide to call a CPU with a single core? Core Solo! A CPU with two cores? Core Duo. You see, a single core will have to solo all the instructions challenging it. Very appropriately named indeed. Continuing the trend, a CPU with 40 cores in the near future shall be called Core Raid.

And what about an overheating CPU? Molten Core! Ah okay, I'll stop there. =P

川の流れのように

2006-02-12T08:55:00.000-05:00

"Kawa no nagare no youni" is one of the most famous Japanese songs. Here's a mp3. This remix is a bit cheezy and overdone but it's the only one I could find.

And here goes my attempt at translating it.

川の流れのように
知らず知らず　歩いてきた (Without knowing, I have walked here)
細く長い　この道 (Oh, how narrow and long, this road)
振り返れば　遥か遠く (If I turn and look back now)
故郷が見える (I can see my hometown, far far away)
でこぼこ道や　曲がりくねった道 (Over bumpy roads, winding roads)
地図さえない　それもまた人生 (Without even a map, but again that's life)
ああ　川の流れのように　ゆるやかに (Ahh, like the flow of a river)
いくつも　時代は過ぎて (Gently do the times pass us by)
ああ　川の流れのように　とめどなく (Ahh, like the flow of a river, ceaselessly)
空が黄昏に　染まるだけ (The sky becomes dyed with twilight)

Time to time to time to

2006-02-09T09:35:00.000-05:00

What is time? We treat it as obvious knowledge, yet we lack a solid answer. We define units of time, measure time, but we cannot manipulate time. In contemporary physics, time may be unified with space into spacetime, but it's definitely not akin to the spatial dimensions.

I'm now 22. I'll never be 21 again.

What's life? Why am I here? Should I do something before I turn 23? 24? Age, and hence time, scare me. We're so helpless: Tick. Tick. Tick...

I like how this Enka song captures life and time. It sets a deep and mildly melancholic mood apt for reflection. Enka tends to do this kind of thing very well.

川の流れのように (trans. "Like how the river flows") by 美空ひばり

知らず知らず　歩いてきた
細く長い　この道
振り返れば　遥か遠く
故郷が見える
でこぼこ道や　曲がりくねった道
地図さえない　それもまた人生
ああ　川の流れのように　ゆるやかに
いくつも　時代は過ぎて
ああ　川の流れのように　とめどなく
空が黄昏に　染まるだけ

I'll translate it and find an mp3 soon.

Coming back on April 20th

2006-02-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

47 more work days. (>/^.^)>//

Addition to coin collection

2006-01-30T08:57:00.001-05:00

I haven't been up to much lately. I did buy an expensive coin, the 2000 Library of Congress Bimetallic Ten Dollar. Its composition is 1/4 oz Au, 1/4 oz Pt. Here's a scan.

I started playing Utopia, or rather, nostalgia. The last time I played was Grade 10. I doubt anyone from back then (Paul, Roddy) is playing, but if you are, say hello or attack me. :P I'm on Legends 28:39; my place will be easy to figure out.

Then there's work. Work is interesting: I'm applying some theorems and skills I acquired in Graph Theory and CS241. And my coworkers like it. They like software that's better than the open-source alternatives. They like proofs of upper-bound running times and novel approaches to old problems. Work is great! Some things I'm doing may be good grad school material.

Oh, and I've been dreaming a lot. Long, coherent, narrative, sometimes poetic dreams in vivid technicolour. Like Kevin dreams. I wonder why... :P

Great but banned ad from Microsoft

2006-01-25T05:48:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the best ads I've seen in a while. It certainly brought back some childhood memories and the kid within me... I remember doing that and imagining stuff like that when I was bored with school.

In defense of gifted education

2006-01-22T09:44:00.000-05:00

Let's start with a question: are we all created equal?

No.

Well, it really depends on what "born equal" means. If the meaning is taken to be "all men are born equal in dignity and rights" then it is yes. If the meaning is taken to be "all men are born with equal intellectual abilities" then the answer is a hard no. Some are offended by this, but let me pose some questions. Are we born equally tall? Physically strong? Beautiful? No of course, right? These are much less contentious. So why is intelligence so touchy? I think the answer is because in our society, intelligence is highly correlated with success.

The idea that some cannot achieve a high level of success almost regardless of how hard they try is denied by many. Yet studies show that this is very true. I'm not going to use footnotes since Wikipedia has already done that for us. Back on topic, studies show that IQ is the best predictor of future performance. Now this doesn't mean that IQ is a good indicator of future success, it just means it beats all the others. So before the smart ones start wearing a grin, remember that there is no substitute for hard work. Or is there?

Contrary to what most others may believe, I think there is a very good substitute for hard work, and I think that is high IQ (work is still needed, just not hard work). High IQ babies look at a novel object and get bored with a few glances, while average babies will be intrigued for much longer. Years later, the high IQ babies become schoolchildren and are bored with their lessons, their teachers, and probably their classmates as well. They'll think "d'oh, Mrs. Campbell is teaching that again for the 14th time" and begin daydreaming, doodling -- whatever relieves them of their boredom. If kept in such a stultifying environment, these minds will not attain their true potential. They will still do better on average than their peers but the point is that they do not reach their potential.

We want to nuture our bright minds, since it is known that a well-educated people fare better economically and hence we invest in education. So what's the best way to invest though? I think having a good gifted education program is essential to investing this money properly. Now, the main point coming from people that oppose gifted education is that it segregates the children, and violates the widely accepted clause of "all men are born equal." After all, why should these gifted children receive more resources (like better teachers) and therefore more investment money? This is where we go back to the question posed at the beginning of this post. Simply, we are not created equal when it comes to intelligence!

Here's a hastily thought-up analogy:

Basketball is what determines success and thus basketball teams, that of nations.
We want to invest in out nation's basketball team.
We want teach our children basketball, for a great team in the future.

Now, do we

spend equal resources on short children as very tall children? Illogical isn't it? The tall kids will be bored; they may start lifting the ball above their heads and grinning at the stunted kids frantically jumping. They tall ones will not develop their skills.

spend more resources on our very tall children? Logical isn't it? You know that the future all-stars will be tall. No, not all the tall kids will be excellent players, but the best players will be tall. In analogy with IQ, height isn't a great indicator of future basketball performance, but it is nevertheless the best indicator. Thus it is statistically wise to specially nuture our very tall children.

Sorry, this post is probably disorganized and unclear, but I don't feel like cleaning it up. =P
Time to sleep. Cha!

New year, new post

2006-01-18T09:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, very late, but happy New Near! 新年あけおめ！

Sorry for not posting. I've been caught up in "family" things: a cousin from Shanghai is visiting, and my aunt opened up a restaurant. The weather is fine here, around 9 in the daytime and 4 in the evening.

I got Bao's awesome anime package in the mail a week or so ago, filled with food for slacking. After feasting, I started to think about Canada, about home. And the more I thought the more I came to miss it. Oh, in the vast fields of white (with some brown and black on the roadsides [ed.: don't spoil the image]) how I long to roll! T_T

Today, I decided when my last day of work would be: April 14th. I'm thinking of flying home around April 18-20th. I hope Bao's house is open from April 19-21st to May 1st... =P

In my spare time I was shopping and exploring Tokyo with my two cousins, playing games (Golden Sun 2, Civilization IV, Freespace 2, Freelancer, Super Mario RPG, Lego Star Wars, Windows Vista's Chess), eating too much, and eating too much too much [ed.: hard to read].

I also tried a new IQ test by highiqsociety.org, the Teaching Assistant Cubed, and got a questionable result. I tried it again and got 134. @_@

Crunch time

2005-12-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

It's crunch time. Home before 10pm? No way.

On the bright side, I get to toy with confidential releases of Beta 2 of Windows Vista and the technical beta of Office 12. Though to be more specific, it's Vista and Office that's toying with my program... =P

So what am I doing? I'm working on an XPS implementation which will be used in the upcoming Windows. XPS has great potential I think. It's a open fixed-document format, which means it's non-interactive like PDF, platform independent, and also it's the native spool format of Vista. Imagine the possibilities. Better yet, imagine the specification. Yup, it's only 385 pages long. (version 0.7 was ultra verbose at 500-ish)

Oh yeah, I have to keep track of some blogs at work... ;)

	Tim Sneath (WPF & WinFX)
	Feng Yuan (Windows Digital Documents)
	Andy Simonds (Windows Digital Documents)
	XPS Team (Windows Digital Documents)
	Brian Jones (Microsoft Word)
	Jeff Bell (Microsoft Publisher)

Office 12 and Vista are visually dazzling. The system requirements are equally dazzling however.

JLPT overwhelms Jason 60-40

2005-12-04T08:59:00.000-05:00

JLPT pulled a dramatic 60-40 upset victory over defending champion Jason yesterday in the 2005 Language Cup finals.

"I was confident going into this match," said a sweaty but ecstatic JLPT during the post-match interview. "I was so devastated by last year's 8-92 loss to Jason. I trained hard throughout the year and have reached a level of play that I can really be happy about," added JLPT with a genial smile.

Things weren't so bright for last year's champion. Asked whether he continued his training throughout the year, the 21-year old refused to comment. "I don't think it was a good day for me." he said instead. "I didn't bring my watch, and [JLPT's] 'time warp' really caught me off guard. Before I knew it I had five minutes left to prepare my final counterattack."

During the first phase, Vocabulary and Writing, the two players were generally evenly matched though JLPT always held the upper hand. This probably threw Jason off guard. By the time the closing bell rang, JLPT finished with a slight lead over last year's champion.

In the second phase, Listening Comprehension, Jason valiantly rallied back and finished with a substantial lead over JLPT. Using his 'ear technique' which he honed after watching hundreds of episodes of anime, Jason enjoyed an excellent round of play. The fat lady had not sung yet however.

The third and most important phase, Reading Comprehension and Grammar, was when the outcome was sealed. JLPT opened with her usual 'mundane two-page essays on useless topics' strategy. When Jason appeared to be coping well, she revealed a formerly proscribed technique: the 'repetitively-redundantly-droning-and-makes-no-sense-like-this-current-sentence sentence that uses basically only bombastic words and which is definitely a run on-sentence in English but if it isn't I'd like to make it so because I-loooove-curry-and-by-the-way-I-just-had-some this morning... keke' trick of doom.

From this Jason never recovered. JLPT mercifully finished him off with her famous 'time warp' trick -- those that witnessed it for the first time were completely baffled.

Jason later admitted today that he bathed in last year's glory and was idle in preparations, while his opponent apparently increased her powers tenfold.

In her usual emollient way, JLPT remarked, "Jason is a formidable tactician with quick and effective plays. I had a tough time due to his outstanding techniques of 'guessing' and 'second guessing'."

source: Serendipity Islet
Official purveyor of useless news

/played

2005-11-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

--------------- Preamble ---------------

I'm a gamer at heart. I know I spend too much time on this pastime, yet it's difficult to let go. I've tried quitting on several occasions with little or no success. I play a lot more after a period of withdrawal, so these efforts could be counterproductive. Currently, I'm on my longest 'no-gaming' streak so far and I'm hoping it'll last as long as I'm here. Otherwise I'd be squandering this lovely opportunity in Japan next to my laptop.

The purpose of this post is to in part serve as a grisly reminder of life passing me by, as well as to just serve as a list of the games I've played so that I can glance and reminisce on good ol' times.

--------------- The Meat ---------------

Gamer levels:
Casual gamer 1-2 hours/day, Enthusiast 2-4, Dedicated 4-6, Hardcore 6-9, Extreme 9+

Let's first start off with the two periods where I didn't play games. One of these periods is right now! The only other period was in grade 12 second semester, application season for university. (After I got in, I thought I'd be at the bottom of the class, so with a "why try?" attitude I drastically lowered my standards and just cared to pass; the marks I somehow ended up with first term suggested I could fare much better had I cared...)

Now those two periods aside, the following is about my gaming life since grade 5, when I got my first PC.

University: I'm around the "dedicated" level at university, with the notable exception of the WoW period, where without fail I played 8 to 12 hours a day. In particular, I binged on the weekends I stayed in 'Loo, where at the very least I played 14 hours a day.

High school: I played everyday after school, almost religiously (like with EQ) until around midnight. For EQ, I even woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning to play. I was dedicated during school days and turned hardcore or extreme on the weekends... :P

Grade school: Still everyday after school, though back then I was also into calligraphy, chess, and science. Probably around enthusiast level on average.

--------------- /played estimate ---------------

How much time have I spent on games? Let's start estimating with an old mathematical approach: find the lower bound. The games that really left an impression have a short description. (All units are hours)

Computer games

MMORPGs
World of Warcraft
Total time spent: > 720
November 23, 2004 to January 23, 2005: 19 days 5 hours. In other words, 32% of the two-months time was spent on WoW. Basically I could take 24 hours, subtract sleep time and 1-2 hours for substance, hygiene, etc, and that would be my play time for the day. No regrets: it was a great time, though my marks suffered a 6% drop. =P

Guild Wars
Total time: 150 to 250
May 2005 to present. Not sure if there is an in-game chronometer. I estimate completing the game at 40-60 hours, 40 for classes like the Monk which can complete missions easily with henchmen. Played about 5-9 hours per day in May and June, while waiting for the Japan visa.

EverQuest
Total time: 600 to 800
One of the most memorable times I've had, surpassed only by WoW. I still remember the opening music and the exact time the music stopped when the game loaded. I still recall a Frost Giant stepping on me.

Multiplayer/Action
Half-Life 40-50, Doom II 20-30, Wolf 3D 20
TFC 300-800, Counter-Strike 300-800
Total Annihilation 60-80, Warcraft II 50-60
Warcraft III 250-500, Starcraft 100-150
Diablo 100-150, Diablo II 300-500
Neverwinter Nights 200-250, Dungeon Siege 30
Freespace 40, Freespace 2 40-50, Freelancer 50

RPGs
Planescape: Torment 40-50
Baldur's Gate 30-40, Baldur's Gate II 50-60, Star Wars: KotOR II 20-40
Star Wars: KotOR 30-60, Albion 50-70, Morrowind 20-30
The Longest Journey 50 (counterexample: WoW was a longer journey)
Grim Fandango 40

Other
Sega Rally 2 20-30 hours, Hitman 2 20-30 hours, Tyrian 40-60 hours

Video games

Action/Party
Smash 300-400 hours, Smash Melee 60-150 hours, Project Gotham Racing 30-50 hours
Mario Tennis 20-40 hours, Tales of Symphonia 90-110 hours
Mario 1 to 3 70 hours, Zelda 1 and 3 60 hours, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 30-40 hours

RPGS
Chrono Trigger 30-60 hours, Chrono Cross 60-70 hours, FFIX 40-50 hours, FFVIII 40-60 hours, FFVII 60-80 hours, FFVI 40 hours, FFV 30 hours, FFIV 30 hours, FF 25 hours

Gameboy games
Pokemon Yellow 40-45 hours, Pokemon Silver 30-40 hours, Golden Sun 30 hours

Various (Mostly old games; 15 hours each for quick calculation)

Jazz Jackrabbit, Raptor, Commander Keen, Prince of Persia, (10-20 more titles)

--------------- Analysis ---------------

The list above contains the large majority of the games I've played. I've omitted games that I've only played for on a few occasions. Notable examples are Halo, the Mario Party series, Mario Golf, etc. Let's say those games sum up to 100 hours in total.

By summation,

Σ(floor[/played] ) = 5060 hours

So, I've spent a minimum of 5060 hours playing games. My best estimate would be 6400 to 7200 hours, but this bare minimum estimate suffices for the purposes of this post. It's hard to estimate play time for games like Counter-Strike and Diablo II; I would say the upper bound is much more realistic for those games.

A completely different approach to estimate "/played" would be to take my mean daily gaming time as say, a conservative 3 hours, and multiply that by 10 years x 365 days a year -- this yields 10950 hours! (What's scary is that this isn't an upper bound by any means...)

--------------- Reflection ---------------

Let's finish off by putting the lower bound estimate into perspective, to visualize what "just" 5060 hours can mean. . .

A full-credit course in university is about 36 hours of classroom time + an optional amount of self-study or homework time (recommended to be a matching 36 hours). On average, I attend 30-36 hours of lectures, and do about 10 hours outside class. Let's put the total time for a course then at a high 50 hours. With that, 5060 hours translates into the time and effort needed for 101 courses, or 20 terms of school! Indeed, the 720+ hours from WoW alone would be about 3 terms.

Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 1, the highest level, is usually obtainable after 900 hours of study. Generalizing other languages to be the same level of difficulty -- very conservative since Japanese is hard -- 5060 hours is ample time to fully master five foreign languages! (I've spent about 36x3 classroom hours + perhaps 50-150 hours self study, so around 200 hours...)

5060 hours is 2.3 years worth of sleep at my usual 6 hrs/day

In conclusion,

/played
. . . STACK_OVERFLOW

Miss Universe-ity?

2005-11-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, apparently there's an annual pageant among Japanese universities. Awesome, no?

Volleyball

2005-11-23T06:56:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching a volleyball match between Japan and America. Like always, there was enthusiastic cheering from the Japanese crowd -- I almost felt sorry for the Americans.

I was disappointed to observe that, like the last time I watched volleyball in Japan two years ago, the comments directed towards the non-Japanese teams usually contain 高さ, or height (i.e. height advantage), especially if they're winning. I'm a little annoyed at this: it's almost as if it's wrong to say that the opposing team's technique or strategy is better. No, it's their height of course!

Announcer 1: "Ah, point America!"
Announcer 2: "Yeah, player X is so tall isn't he?"
Announcer 1: "Yea, amazing isn't it?"

Some thoughts

2005-11-19T09:20:00.000-05:00

I wonder what it would be like right now if China, instead of Japan, performed something like the Meiji Restoration and Westernized more than a century ago? It might've been China that attacked Pearl Harbor to secure her position in the Pacific. China would've probably annexed Korea instead of Japan. Atomic bombs might've been dropped on China. This alternate timeline is unlikely* to have occurred since Japan Westernized in response to the Qing Empire's defeat to the European powers -- very shocking since China was the overwhelmingly dominant power in the area since recorded history. Plus, with China's historically infamous hubris, it is unlikely to happen even given that the order of events is reversed and instead Japan was the first in the area to be forcibly opened up to European powers.

--

Anyone experienced a moment when a familiar English word suddenly just doesn't "look right"? You question the spelling at first, then it becomes more and more 'correct' as you stare at it... I've had this happen to me often recently. I've already forgot the words that triggered this. =P

--

I've made note of a couple minor problems that I've observed here.

Idling. No, not the people but the cars. My extended family here is a archetypical example of this: whenever they wait for anything -- people, events, etc. -- while traveling by car, they never shut down the engine. This could go on for a couple minutes to over an hour. Sure, my cousin likes watching the LCD (an excuse they suggest) but doesn't anyone care about the environment, not to mention the yen slipping out of their pockets by the second?

Smoking. I think smoking is a major health issue in Asia. I've been to Shanghai before and it's the same: cigarette smoke taints restaurants, streets -- almost everything. I have to give credit to some of the districts in Tokyo which have implemented anti-smoking bylaws to alleviate the problem, though they do not seem to have been very effective. I still breathe second-hand smoke almost everyday from men smoking as they walk around, even in crowded areas.

---
*Of course, probability doesn't apply to historical events, but this is speaking with the quantum theory of multiple timelines in mind... :P

J-wiki

2005-11-14T09:47:00.000-05:00

For those that haven't heard, Wikipedia (in my links area) is a great place to find information.

As 勉強 (benkyou: study) for my Japanese, I have made my first page in Japanese! Check it out .

I'm hoping to add more topics soon. Any suggestions?

Coins

2005-11-12T11:54:00.000-05:00

I've delved a bit into coin collecting recently. I'm not yet well read on numismatics, but here's a description of my collection so far:

1/20 oz. Gold Maple Leaf (I forgot the year -- I bought it at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa a few years ago)
3x 1 oz. Gold Maple Leaf dated 2004
1 oz. Silver Maple Leaf dated 1989
Tri-metallic (Au/Ag/Pt) 1 oz. coin from the Pobjoy Mint (mintage 999)

Gold and Silver Maple Leafs.

The Au/Ag/Pt coin -- this one's my favourite. =)

Go Waterloo!

2005-11-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

'Best overall' in MacLean's reputational survey for the 14th year. On top of that, 'Loo's two teams claimed both 1st and 2nd place in the East Central North America ACM contest. That's right, we pwned again.

Both come as no surprise though -- it's been like this since I was in Grade 1.

Hmm.. that's enough shameless promotion for a day ;)

Let's see how we do in the Putnam this year.

Preparation for the JLPT

2005-11-05T22:48:00.000-05:00

The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) on December 4th is drawing nearer...

I went to a language school in downtown Tokyo for a few weeks but that wasn't really helpful. I find the best thing to do now is just to practice the language: chatting with the natives, and listening to the news, etc.

I think I'm ready for it.

Favourite colour

2005-11-04T07:52:00.000-05:00

What's your favourite colour? Mine's lavender. The next three would probably be gold, bright orange, and sky blue.

Investments

2005-11-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

I had a discussion with a young colleague today about investments in general. We went through many popular forms such as stocks, bonds, real estate, et cetera, arriving somehow at cash. This became quite humorous for me, as I think investing in cash is amongst the most foolish investment choices. He didn't agree.

We defined "investing in cash" as the process of committing money, storing it in the form of cash (domestic currency in physical paper form or in a chequing account), for the prospect of future returns.

I think most everyone knows why this is a poor investment, in fact I wouldn't even regard it as a proper investment. In my opinion, it's the act of not investing. Sure, you can save cash in preparation for a real, large investment, but I dearly hope that cash isn't your final target.

Anyway, its demerits are simple and numerous: inflation nibbles (or chomps) away at your purchasing power, which is obviously not increasing; you're at the whim of the volatile currency market; and quite plainly, there's no growth. These were the ones I suggested.

He didn't have time for much rebuttal as the lunch bell beckoned us to our cubicles, and being a curious guy, I would like to hear some merits of being a "cash investor". I just doubt a combination of miniscule growth potential and low security make for a good investment.

Brainstorm! - show me your creative financial genius!

Aspirations, huh....

2005-10-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

It seems that the last post has made some buzz. Ray has reflected on it.

This seems like a good time to list some goals I have. Pardon the rip off of Ray's blog title, but what dreams may come? Indeed.

I've worked for a couple engineering firms and software companies, and quite frankly I can't see myself doing that for life. So what is there left? Drumroll.

I like university. I like the overall academic environment, and of course, the social side as well. So that brings me to graduate studies. The field is probably mathematics. After that, maybe professor? There's option one.

Option two is law. Law is interesting. The average lawyer doesn't actually make large amounts of dough, so it's really based on interest and my reluctance to just graduate and take a job at say, Epson.

Option three is medical school. My parents went to med school, so naturally I feel somewhat inclined to do the same thing. I'd have to admit that I don't have the stomach that my parents do for the things that may I have to learn and do in med school (actually a long story, lot's of talk with 'rents :P). So maybe it's not such a good idea, being afraid of germs, diseases, and nasty things in general. Yet, I do have an interest in the field, more so than programming let's say. :P

Options two and three seem pretty cliché for a person with no clear idea of what they want to do after graduation, and indeed I am, but I don't believe I'm choosing two and three for the popular reasons.

Anyways, this is basically as far as I've gone in contemplating my future.

Le comte de Monte Cristo

2005-10-26T11:24:00.000-04:00

I started reading this as of late. It made me remember a thought I had when I was little:

Wouldn't it be mutually beneficial and convenient -- not to mention cool -- if we as good friends hold positions of esteem in the future?

Now, if you've seen Gankutsuou you'd probably realize what I'm blabbering about. My version isn't nearly as romantic as the one played out in Alexandre Dumas' magnum opus: it's pragmatic and doesn't require ardous effort for its realization*.

Basically what I mean is that it would be great to have at least a doctor, a lawyer, and then other professions too numerous to list, that are all of utility, in our circle of friends. There are some determined among us who already aspire to become one of the aforementioned, hence this 'idea' doesn't change anything. But --

*It's nearing a time when we should be looking at the horizon, wondering which career we should pursue. I'm sure that even without this assertion, we'd eventually find our place in this world; this merely is an attempt to put it into words, partly with the hope of stirring up motivation in some of the lazy asses we have in our circle (myself included =P). Being far from eloquent and rather officious, I would appreciate it if anyone can rethink, rephrase or improve upon this fledgling thought.

Questions, comments, suggestions?

Curry (in a hurry too!)

2005-10-20T08:45:00.000-04:00

The Japanese love curry. Their curry is quite a departure from Indian curry. I prefer Japanese curry because it has that "sweet 'n' mild yet spicy" flavour. The best curry is found in specialized curry restaurants; the best dishes there use premium wagyu beef and can cost over 3000 yen. Regular curry rice with inexpensive imported beef usually goes for a reasonable 600 to 800 yen.

You can eat decent curry at home too! It's as easy if not easier to make than instant noodles. Instant curry rice is cheap as well, only around 300 yen altogether for rice and curry. You do need instant rice -- i.e. rice that's already cooked -- otherwise the curry rice wouldn't be very instant now would it...

Here's how to make instant curry rice.

1. Buy instant rice and instant curry. This is a pretty obvious step. Supermarkets typically have a wide selection (at least 20-40 kinds) of curry.
2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil, and then put the curry package in for 3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, 'instantly' cook the rice in a microwave ('instantly' = 90 seconds).
4. Take a plate and spread the rice on it to cool it down a bit.
5. Cut the curry package and pour its contents onto the rice or beside it, whichever you prefer.

Done!

Here are some pictures from my instant curry adventure:

These are the 12 kinds of instant curry I bought today. Prices ranged from 90 yen to 525 yen. Can you guess which is the cheapest and which is the most expensive? The cheapest one should be easy to spot. =P (Answer at bottom of post)

Here's what's inside a box, a pack of curry.

And the instant rice.

(Answer to the expensive/cheap question!)

The middle one in the leftmost column is the 525 yen one. It contains below-average Kobe beef, which means it's still among the most expensive. The cheapest is the one without a box. A pitiful, homeless curry pack.

From most expensive to least expensive, left to right.

No start button

2005-10-17T09:04:00.000-04:00

Oh no... now I can't start.

Name

2005-10-16T11:48:00.000-04:00

My name in Chinese characters is 郁聞遠.

The first character 郁 is my family name. It's read 'yu' in Chinese, 'yoo' in Korean, and 'iku' in Japanese.

郁 means 'fragrant, rich aroma', and can also mean 'prosperous' as well as 'brilliant' (like 華). According to a Korean friend, 郁 is a common Korean surname. It's rare in China though, isolated to a region south of Shanghai. It's also a Japanese surname, and albeit very rare, it's popular in first names. Generally speaking I guess it's a Korean surname!

聞遠 is my first name, transliterated from Chinese as 'wen yuan'. In Japanese it's read 'bun en' and in Korean it would be 'moon en'.

聞 means 'to hear' and 遠 means 'far', hence it could be naively translated as 'hear afar'. However the meaning is rather artful and thus cannot be simply translated as such. I think it means 'to profoundly inquire and illuminate'. In this case, the 聞 takes on the meaning of 'to inquire/to illuminate/to make known' and 遠 means 'complete, profound, distant'.

For those of you that have names with Chinese characters, I'd like to know what they are. =) Typing them might be a hassle though...

Who orders steaks well-done?

2005-10-11T11:20:00.000-04:00

Whee, this post was supposed to be on a totally unrelated topic, using "who orders steaks well-done?" only as a rhetorical question to stress the main point.

I was too tired to post last night so I only put the title up. But eh, this turned out okay too, interesting :P

What's more interesting is that I forgot what the real topic is. Hopefully it'll come back to me. =P

Ties with the Wu

2005-10-10T09:27:00.000-04:00

There exists an interesting link between the people of ancient Japan and the people of Wu, a historic region in southern China. Wu was also one of the Three Kingdoms which controlled the same region. The character 'wu' (呉) is pronounced 'go' in Japanese.

A map of the Three Kingdoms, courtesy of Wikipedia

Records by Chinese emissaries to Japan from the Wei and Jin dynasties describe the contemporary Japanese as having customs similar to the people of the Wu kingdom. Furthermore, the Japanese referred to themselves as descendants of the Wu. Many words in modern Japanese have pronunciation similar to Wu words of the same meaning, reflecting an ancient tie with the Wu.

As an anecdote, I have found that people from Shanghai pick up Japanese quicker than those from northern China.

Traditional Japanese dress, popularly referred to as kimono, traces its roots to Wu-style dress. In fact, the proper word for "traditional Japanese dress" is gofuku (呉服), lit. "dress of Wu".

(As a side note, Manchu-style dress is often mistaken for traditional Chinese dress. The actual style of clothes the ancient Chinese wore was similar to kimono and the Korean hanbok. The Manchu subdued China circa 1640 and forced the Han Chinese populace to abide by their customs, including adopting Manchu-style dress and a pigtail hairstyle.)

Did you know...? =)

Searched for friends, got something else

2005-10-07T10:01:00.000-04:00

I haven't made any friends around my age yet. And yes, I want to. No offense, but my colleagues at Epson are all men in their 30's or 40's who go to bars and pubs (pub = a place where one pays a lot of money to cavort with voluptuous ladies) every few days. I went drinking with them a couple times, but I don't go regularly; I don't enjoy those activities.

So I said to myself, "make some friends around my age whose interests more or less coincide with mine!" I went to a site that advertised 友達探し, which when I translate it, means "looking for friends service".

Registration was simple enough. For my short blurb about myself, I described myself as a Canadian working in the IT sector, looking for friends to do language exchange. I also uploaded a small picture of myself, the one in the "About Me" section here. Put my hobbies as anime, athletics (wouldn't be true a week ago :P), and onsen (hot springs). This was yesterday.

Guess what? I came back today to find my mailbox flooded. What's more, all the messages were from girls. I assume that it's a matchmaking site of sorts.

I started reading the emails. Some of them had "out of the blue" content that was disturbing in ways. Let me share some.

anon_girl1 20 years old
Subject: Good evening!
Message: Can we meet sometime later tonight?
(What? Eh? No introduction - nothing. A little scary. Time stamped 8:14 pm too.)

anon_girl2 28 years old
Subject: I wonder...
Message: I'm anon_girl2. Hello. It's lunch break, so I sent this message. Tonight, or maybe Saturday - free?
(Okay, a tad less scary. But wait, there's more!)

Message: . I'm looking forward to this weekend!
(Wait - we have plans for the weekend?! I haven't even replied!)

Message: (Long message, cut short) Still no response...? I can understand, I didn't put a picture of myself (actually she does have a pic, which is a shot of her bosom) and you probably feel insecure. I'm not very cute or beautiful so being ashamed of myself I don't do this often. You must let me pay the restaurant and hotel fees. I'm looking for someone that I can meet on a regular basis.
(Ooh, free food! - eh, hotel too?! . . . . .)

Suffice to say, I unsubscribed to that site right away. Now, was something lost in translation or what? Tomodachi sagashi means what?

Okay, there were a few other girls who were normal. A few were interested in language exchange and I'll keep in touch with them. Another was a 14 year old girl from Taiwan. Another mail came from two girls. Two of them share the same email address? Me no comprehend.

*yawn*.. time to sleep...

Chinese history

2005-10-04T07:32:00.000-04:00

Embarrassingly, I haven't read Chinese history. Quite a few Japanese that I've met have studied Chinese history to some extent. Conversations with my colleagues sometimes come to this topic, and me knowing pretty much nothing made me feel like a child who has disappointed his parents. So, I started reading up on Chinese history. It's rather interesting I must say, and certainly more interesting than Canadian history. Here's a summary.

Famous parts of Chinese history:

First characters were written around 3500 years ago on turtle shells and bones, which were used for divination
Beginning of imperial China with the Qin (秦) Dynasty around 2230 years ago (imperial China would last until 1912)
Three Kingdoms period, a time famously depicted in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
Three great dynasties - Han 漢, Tang 唐, and Ming 明

漢 2200 years ago - China adopts Confucianism and prospers; population reaches 50 million. Paper is invented. China expands into parts of Korea and Vietnam.

Chinese people to this day refer to themselves as the people of Han in honour of this period. The major ethnic group in China is Han Chinese, which makes up 92% of China's population.
The Japanese word kanji (漢字) literally means "the words/characters of Han"

唐 1400 years ago - A high point in Chinese civilization, perhaps even greater than the Han dynasty. Golden period for Chinese literature and arts. The government is run by intellectuals selected through civil service exams (standardized merit tests and the closest thing to IQ tests until the late 1800's)

Chinatowns in major cities are often called 唐人街, lit. "district of the Tang people"
Block printing greatly improves literacy

明 640 years ago - China finally recovers from Mongol rule and begins a successful revitalization. The economy flourishes bringing arts and technology to new heights. A vast army and navy is built. Ming becomes the most advanced and powerful nation on Earth - The Great Ming Empire (大明帝国). Later on, there's a shift from exploration to isolation which marks the beginning of the decline of China, which in turn would last until the 20th century.

Over 100,000 tons of iron per year was produced in Northern China
Books were printed using movable type
The navy consisted of four-masted ships displacing 1500 tons. Early Ming explorers and merchants explored all of the Indian ocean, with some historians proposing that even the Americas were reached.
Ming was the last ethnic Han dynasty in China. The "great restoration of China during early Ming" was used as a rallying cry to instill feelings of national pride and resentment of foreign rule from the Qing Dynasty (Manchu rule) until after WWII.

I hope this was an entertaining and informative read!

New acquaintances

2005-09-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

I met some new people in the last two days.

Yesterday I went to Tokyu Square in nearby Hachioji to check out its international exchange corner. After reading some brochures I approached the reception lady. Apparently she's a close friend of the last Epson intern from Canada, Candy! Her name is Tsuneko. According to her, she acted like a mother to Candy. We chatted a bit, exchanged contacts, and then she left.

I lingered a bit and visited a volunteer club with a long name: Club of Children and Students Working Together for [a] Multicultural Society (CCS). I told them I wanted to join CCS. I was rejected because I'm working here and not studying here. Not all was bad however, as I met some people around my age who were volunteering there. Again, some new contacts, and this time I was first to leave.

Today I met two fellow gaijins on the stairs to my apartment. It seems easy to befriend other foreigners in Japan. I think it's because we share a lot of experiences here and are in similar situations, and voila - that's the important common ground.

A lull and some useless things I did

2005-09-27T11:54:00.000-04:00

I haven't done much aside from work since I arrived. Realizing this, I recently developed a strong urge to volunteer, work out, and study Japanese.

Megalos (the gym), Japanese lessons, volunteering - everything is set to begin in October.

I'm now waiting for October. This week I've somehow fallen into a state of torpor; waves of boredom and apathy have been breaking on motivation beach. Normally when this happens I go out and buy a game, however, this time I squandered my time on online tests.

I want to be more transparent. If my life is a house, I hope this blog will be like a window, revealing the innards rather than like a photo album with snapshots of the exterior.

Starting now I'll post some personal things, including dreams, fears, thoughts, et cetera.

______________________________

I found out my overseas health plan covers psychological tests, so I treated myself to some. I took two intelligence tests. An emotional IQ assessment will have to wait till next year as the $400 allowance for this calendar year is all spent.

IQ

IQ tests are quite fun. The "ah-hah!" feeling experienced after solving a perplexing problem is certainly one of euphoria. Online tests usually don't have problems of this caliber; the few I've found were all hosted by highiqsociety.org.

Online tests:

iqtest.com = 148
intelligencetest.com = 138 // "Ph.D. certified" ?
queendom.com = 144
web.tickle.com

Super IQ Test = 143
Classic IQ Test = 144 // Another flawed and simple test

highiqsociety.org

Ultimate IQ Test = 150, 157 // well made (took it twice)
Verbal IQ Test = 144 // features obscure words that have no practical use
Timed IQ Test = 136 // this proves I'm slow :P
Culture Fair IQ Test = 155, 153 // I liked this one best (score went down T_T)
Test for Exceptional Intelligence = 155 // takes a long time to finish, took me over 3 hours I think

Paper tests:

Entrance-test-thingy-into-gifted-program = ? // forgot, enough to get in :P
WAIS-III = 155 // most comprehensive test I've taken
Tanaka-something, a Japanese IQ test = 8th percentile // >.<

Try out some of these!

Personality tests

EQ = 99 // EverQuest = level 34 cleric :P
What's your Destiny? = Manager // Oh come on, a destiny should have more grandeur
What's your Fantasy Island? = New Zealand
Ayurveda Body Type = Vata
The Confidence Test = High
Career Personality Test = ESTJ
What Breed of Dog are You? = Scottish Terrier

I like the IQ tests better. Good IQ tests are like good games: they stimulate the mind. Personality tests are like surveys.

Photos from my trip

2005-09-26T09:55:00.000-04:00

I'm back! Let's see how the past week was...

Aichi Expo (ended on September 25th)
Very fun and very tiring. Honestly, more tiring than fun. The Expo attracted about 50% more people than it was designed for, so in short, long lines and crowded areas got in the way of enjoyment. Photos couldn't be taken inside the pavillions so I just have some photos of the grounds and exterior exhibits.

The north gate. Over 100,000 people passed through this gate every day.

Toyota's new toy, the I-unit (I think). Toyota had the best show, which featured a robot band playing "When the Saints Come Marching In" and a dozen of these I-units whizzing around, topped off by a dazzling laser show and some acrobatics, all led by a funky Japanese DJ rapper.

This is about a quarter of the line-up to see the Toyota show. 4 hours wait!

One damn hot car :P

Expensive Dining in Tokyo (ended September 25th as well :P)
My aunt went on a spending spree, treating us to all kinds of expensive Japanese cuisine every day. The most memorable restaurant we went to was a shabu-shabu restaurant nearby - it was about 7,000 yen per person. There were 4 qualities of beef available there, ranging from 1,200 yen to 5,000 yen for 3 slices. I think my aunt spent over 250,000 yen this week on food...

The shabu-shabu restaurant. 7,000 yen per person, ouch. I went to an all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu place for 2,000 yen in Shinjuku.

Misc.

A recently passed law encourages or enforces (don't know which) women-only cars. Something tells me there'll be a public outcry if the TTC tries this :P

Who let the geek out?

2005-09-16T10:23:00.000-04:00

No work for nine sweet days! The geek writing this blog will be partying like it's 1699 - woohooo!!

As I'll be going on some trips, I won't be blogging for a week. I know, the pain of withdrawal is excruciating at first. Yet despair not - you will survive! Just tell yourself that it's only one week =P

では、またね！ (^.^)/

More pictures!

2005-09-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

I'm going to start putting up some pictures I took 2 years back, last time I was in Tokyo. Enjoy!

It's a Harajuku thing... don't ask =P

Athletics festival at Mejiro elementary school.

This is has nothing to do with my stay in Japan 2 years ago, meh. It's a picture of Shanghai at night, taken by my relatives when they visited Shanghai a while ago.

If you look closely, you'll realize that everyone is wearing either suits or uniforms. Not a sight you can see in Canada.

A temple in Kyoto. I took many pictures of Kyoto so I'll dedicate a special post to it in the near future, and maybe incorporate them into the Kyoto post I wrote a year ago.

Okutama. This mountain valley stream is where I went fishing and also where the "About Me" picture was taken.

And to finish today off, a picture that captures all the deliciousness of sashimi! おいしそう！

Next week I'll be going to the Aichi Banpaku. I'll be sure to take pictures wherever it's allowed, or maybe even where it's not :P

Goals

2005-09-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a long six weeks since I first started working at Epson. I think I could have done a lot more much better had I some goals. So, as a blindingly obvious solution, I made some goals.

I think that posting them here, by making them public, accountability will make me actually work towards them. Hopefully.

-Learn all the Joyo Kanji (1945 commonly used Kanji) before December. I can understand about 1300-1400 of them now. 600 Kanji/60 days = 10 Kanji a day, roughly. Ouch. I'll essay the JLPT in December.

-Bring back 1,000,000 yen to Canada. A millionaire will I be. 1000000円/8ヶ月 = 125,000円 a month. Not too difficult. However, this will mean not going drinking every few days and laundering 3000-4000 yen or so every time. Bye bye lavish - better yet, profligate - lifestyle.

-Gain 25 pounds. Now this is going to be much harder. To eliminate possible confusion, I mean twenty-five pounds of muscle, not fat =P. I'll be going to Megalos, the gym, about 3 times every week.

I had my first dream in Japanese yesterday. I think it's finally starting to sink in =P. Or maybe I'm just turning insane. (And adds the mathematician, "Or both!!")

Unexpected turns

2005-09-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

I found out some things today that, if I had known earlier, would've saved me a lot of hassle.

First off, some background. The place I'm staying at is best described as half-motel, half-apartment. It's suited for people that want to stay longer than they would usually at a hotel, and short enough so that a rental apartment would cost too much (renting a place in Japan costs a lot, about 4-7 months rent is normal for the first payment). Hence the term "Weekly/Monthly マンション". That Japanese word is 'mansion', but it doesn't carry the same meaning as the English 'mansion' - not at all :P.

Anyways, it already comes loaded with the internet. Yup. I just have to buy an Ethernet cable and I'm set. Moreover, there's lots of free channels with good programs, including anime, recent movies, and CSI!! I guess the absurd cost of the rent here is justified. I mean 107,800 yen a month is a bit steep for a fairly rural place!

Secondly, and lastly (I have 2 minutes left in internet cafe time =P) I found a pair of new shoes in my luggage! For those that haven't read, I bought a new pair because my shoes got soaked and stunk. Wow, now wasn't that a wisely spent 10,000 yen? :P

Wet shoes and beefing up

2005-09-06T08:07:00.000-04:00

It has been rainy and damp for the past week or more, and it's going to continue as more typhoons pass by Japan. I only brought one pair of shoes, so that quickly got drenched and started stinking. Yeah, for a couple days I brought the wonderful aroma of brevibacteria by-products to the company. Today I bought a pair of Nike shoes at ABC Mart, a famous shoe store apparently, in Hachioji (a nearby big town). It's a nice, dark pastel green pair, for about 120 Canadian. I also bought some shoe shampoo too clean my other pair; it's actually pretty new so I don't want to throw it away.

I've been thinking to myself, "I should really start working out soon!" for quite some time now, so today I mustered enough motivation to fight back the procrastination devil and went to register at a Hachioji gym. It's Megalos, a large chain of gyms. I must say the service here is impeccable. I couldn't complete the registration because I needed to bring a hanko (personal stamp) but yet I was treated to a personal tour that lasted over 45 minutes. They even gave me a body check-up which gave a thorough breakdown: protein weight, muscle weight, fat weight, bone weight, water weight - all individually measured for different body parts! The conclusion? I need to increase muscle weight. I think that's why I'm here... =P

Hmm, I still have 15 minutes left here in the Internet cafe. I guess I'll do some surfing.

No Internet...

2005-08-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

The wireless network I've been using isn't there anymore, so now I'm in an internet cafe writing up my week. =P

I subscribed to Yahoo! BB but that's going to take a month or so. Bah. Anyways, in my boredom I bought a Japanese RPG made by Falcom. It should improve my reading speed of Japanese text, right? :P

Another co-op student working in Matsumoto showed me a great site for learning Japanese. It covers mostly elementary topics but some advanced stuff is there as well. I sent in my application to go for JLPT level 1 by December. It's going to be real difficult (>.<)　何とかなるさ．．．

I've been enjoying the night life in Tokyo this past week. I went to Ebisu, Meguro, and Shibuya - some of the most fashionable districts in Tokyo - on Tuesday and Wednesday. I tried expensive Thai cuisine in Ebisu, and some good ol' cheap (but tasty!) Yoshinoya Gyu-don in Shibuya. On the way back to my humble abode on Tuesday, I fell asleep on the train and arrived in Hashimoto, which was like going to North York from Mississauga by way of QEW.

Friday was my welcome party, an all-you-can drink kind of thing. =P I met this Japanese guy who has a deep interest in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Me being from Shanghai might have perked his interest, since after the welcome party he treated me to some nice Cantonese food at a nearby mall-like building. The whole floor was full of Chinese restaurants of many kinds, about 12 stores.

I was astonished when he took me to a Japanese restaurant after the Chinese restaurant and the welcome party. We ate some sea urchin there among other common dishes. By the time we finished, it was 2:10 am. He sent me home by taxi. What a nice guy! He spent like 18,000 yen that day compared with my 0 yen. I feel kind of bad.

So on Friday, I drank domestic beer, plum wine, oolong tea, green tea, milk tea, white wine, sake, and Tsingtao beer, and ate sea urchin, sushi, sashimi, Caesar salad, garlic bread, Italian pizza, yakitori (Japanese-style barbeque chicken), Cantonese cashew (that's how they spell it here, I dunno..), and a host of other foods I either don't remember or can't describe without writing a whole lot more.

Hmm, what else... I got my paycheck on Friday. Today, I met up with my grandpa from Shanghai. He's here to see the Expo in Aichi (see previous post). I can't wait to go... I wish September 18th is nowwww... =P

Time to go buy some groceries.

Expo 2005 Aichi

2005-08-22T09:27:00.000-04:00

I'm going to take a one week vacation in September to go to the Expo in Aichi. My relatives here are visiting the Expo this week, and might go again with me and my parents in September.

The theme of this Universal Expo is basically "Harmony with Nature"; in Japanese it is 愛・地球博 (Love the Earth Expo). I hope it's fun!

I've been spoiling myself lately with expensive fruits - like grapes today - but I really should start making a monthly budget. I've already borrowed 40,000 yen from my aunt =P Payday is 4 days away! =D

As I'm typing this, I'm watching a fun Japanese show about women and their thoughts on the opposite sex. Just now, two warning signs of "bad" men were mentioned. They are:

・ママを連れてくるダメ男
Translation: "a man that brings his mother (to lunch, was the example) is no good"

・迷信を信じるダメ男
Translation: "a man that believes in superstition is no good"

That's it for now!

Ikebukuro

2005-08-21T08:46:00.000-04:00

I spent half a day in Ikebukuro with a penpal, shopping around and what not. It was fun but tiring. Now I know a famous meeting spot, 池フクロウ, which is an owl statue in Ikebukuro station.

I brought home the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD, so it's time to relax and watch some good ol' action from Gandalf and friends, in English! English means understanding without thinking - oh yeaaaaah! Ah, there doesn't exist anything more refreshing right now. =D

As for studying Japanese, that can wait another day... =P

First Principles

2005-08-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

In a perhaps vain attempt to gain a clear sense of direction in my life, I've been thinking of ways that might shed some enlightenment. Specifically, I have been seeking some fundamental, guiding principles. Reading philosophy came to mind.

I began with some Descartes. His method axiomatic and his reasoning deductive and terse, I quickly came to respect his work. I especially admire the argument he made to establish his famous statement "Je pense, donc je suis".

I'm thinking Greek is next, maybe Socrates.

Work, work.

2005-08-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

Meeting. Another meeting. Real work is delegated to overtime. Skipping dinner for another meeting. Meeting goes into overtime. Get off work at 21:30. Eat and drink at some restaurant. Get home, check e-mail, and sleep.

That pretty much sums up life recently.

As you might've guessed, I'm in a semi-melancholic semi-"just tired" mood. I have a bunch of penpals here but I haven't had a chance to meet any of them yet. I'm hoping to make some friends who can hang out with me. It's not easy however, and my work schedule isn't helping either. To my family and friends back in Canada: I miss you guys!

Tommorow, one of the big honchos in Epson is coming to visit our lab.

Sunburn

2005-08-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

I was reluctant to put disturbing pictures of my sunburn on this blog, but now I've decided that I should, since it's part of my experiences here (not a pleasant one at all, I can assure you)..

So here they are, enjoy! =P

(L) Watch saved my skin! (R) Peeling skin - eww! (Peeling it is a cool feeling though.. :P)

So what happens after being sunburned?
-about 3-4 hours after you've actually been sunburned, you will start to notice it
-pain starts 4 hours after being sunburned and is worst 2-3 days later
-if you've been burned badly, your skin will start to peel about 5 days later, however, by that time it doesn't hurt

It's not an experience I'd want to have again, but yet, it was great as a conversation opener. Here's a typical conversation, HK-47 style:

[exclamation] "Hey, look at this!"
[shock and mild disgust] "Eww! Doesn't that hurt?"
[assuring reply] "Not anymore."
[question] "Where and when?"
(long conversation ensues)

At the moment, skin peeling is nearly complete, so I expect to be fully healed in a few days.

On a less disgusting note, here are two pictures from yesterday's hill climbing trek. Very tiring it was.. some of the slopes were about 16.3 degrees from horizontal!

(L) Mountain pass. Drifty drifty! =P (R) Interesting irrigation system...

Exploring the surroundings

2005-08-14T10:33:00.000-04:00

This long weekend will be the first weekend I spend in Hino. I thought I should start exploring the area. I found a church that is within 5 minutes walk. In the afternoon, I climbed a nearby hill range, and got a pretty good look at what my neighbourhood looks like from above. I also went to Chuo University (中央大学), but apparently they have a guarded gate and only students and faculty can enter T_T. I passed by a nearby theme park, Tama Tech. I will keep it in mind; it'll be a good place to spend a day with friends. There's also an expensive looking Cantonese restaurant and a hot springs spa nearby, but I think those cost too much o(T_T)o

On a side note, at first I found typing Japanese on the cell phone to be extremely tedious. The first few times I exchanged cell phone mail, I took about 10 minutes to reply and the other person would take like 30 seconds! I was discouraged - I mean it's pretty embarassing to make the other person wait 10 minutes when everyone else responds in under a minute. Anyhow, I'm still relatively slow at it but I'm amazed how fast these things can be picked up. Typing English on the cell phone however, is a separate skill.

Most people use cell phones primarily for e-mail. I find that a neat and maybe welcome change. I think the main reason is the high cost of actually talking on the phone.

Hmm, and I need to start saving money now, at least until payday comes. I have about 12,000 yen or $140 left and still 2 weeks to go. D'oh! =P

Mizuho bank and cell phone!

2005-08-12T10:26:00.000-04:00

Today I finally got my bank account with Mizuho! Woohoo... money!
I also picked up a cell phone for one yen (no contract) :D
It has a free TV service and a free interactive navigation/map service to help me when I'm hopelessly lost. I can also use it to find nearby restaurants and places of interest.

Two funny Engrish quotes from the company:

1. Especially, it is not. ←when trying to express 'nothing in particular' (Yoda-speak!)
2. ...now judgement failure... ←when trying to express 'cannot decide yet'　(I pictured a robot breaking down when I heard this, hehee :P)

Nikka Differences

2005-08-08T23:58:00.000-04:00

It can be said that I started working on this post in my head when I was in Japan 2 years ago. I was asked to and so I'm going to post some differences between Japan and Canada (nikka). Limitations include but are not limited to my unbalanced scope of knowledge (I know more about Canada than Japan) and the following...

Disclaimer: These 'differences' are intrinsically flawed as they are generalizations of behaviours of groups of people - there are almost always, and probably many, exceptions to each of the points posted below. Please keep this in mind to avoid stereotyping; it is not my intention to offend any Japanese or Canadians. For example, if a medical study lists the mean IQ of African Americans at 87, that does not mean that a given African American is 'dumb'. Use the same kind of thinking when reading the post.

Language must also be clearly defined. By 'many' (or 'frequently') I do not necessarily mean a majority. 'Many' may even applied to describe a small percentage of the population, such as 1%. However, 'many' still carries meaning because it emphasizes a difference. For example, if the rate of 'such and such property in the general population' is 0.4% in Canada and it is 1.1% in Japan, that is a significant difference - almost 3 times! Yet, it is still a tiny minority of the population. When I say "Men here have more..." I mean that "Japanese men have more..." - this is the point of reference when using 'here'.

Japanese culture is changing quite rapidly, so there are some generational differences. There is an aging population that is creating a significant change in the structure of Japanese society, the implications of which will be felt from now until decades later. Some of the points below may only apply to one age group. Younger generations tend to be more Westernized, and so there is probably less of a difference between Japan and Canada in these cases.

I don't know if this is very enjoyable to read, but some have been waiting for this, so here it is!

And so, without further blah-blah...

Society
⇒Men here have more prominence in all high-level positions, especially in companies and the government. The second point is related.
⇒Compared with Canada, a higher proportion of women in Japan fulfill traditional roles in society (e.g. housewife, receptionist) and a much lower proportion are in the technology sector (e.g. areas such as software engineering).
⇒The use of personalized stamps (not the postal kind) is required in Japan; signatures alone are, generally speaking, insufficient.
⇒The main modes of transportation are train, bus, and taxi. However, many if not most Japanese families do have a car. Still, the percentage of Japanese owning a car is much lower than that of Canadians, owing to their excellent public transportation system.
⇒People are almost always polite here, in other words you'll be hard pressed to bump into a rude person. Many people, especially company employees here, are very busy and so may seem to be rude but really they just have no time (i.e. if you ask for directions to a temple).
⇒Service is basically without exception, exceptional here. When I come back to Canada I'll be in for a huge reverse culture-shock. "Whaddya want??"
⇒There is a much greater emphasis on cuteness here. Many commercials, books, even cars and electronics are essentially made to be cuter than their competitors. This is known as the 'cuteness factor' by foreigners like me studying cultural differences.

Family
⇒Many Japanese may form closer bonds with their co-workers and high school friends than with their immediate family. Due to this, it is frequently the case that husband and wife are not 'close' or affectionate. Stemming from this and weak anti-prostitution law enforcement, we have the booming love hotel/soap spa business.
⇒A mother usually bonds much more closely with her child(ren) than with her husband.
⇒Guys usually hang out with guys and vice versa for girls. They tend to form large cliques. Consequently, even when married, it is common for men and women to form separate groups, like for instance, when dining, partying, and shopping.

Company
⇒Most employees work long hours. What I mean is 9:00 to 21:00 is not really considered overtime.
⇒Company events here are held more frequently and on a larger scale (we had over 1500 people at our summer festival last Friday)
⇒The bureaucratic procedures here, although created with the intention to help boost productivity, is practiced to the point where it hurts productivity instead.
⇒People are almost always courteous and helpful here. In the company it's even harder to find a rude person since you won't be asking for directions to a temple or something while they're running to the company.
⇒Bonds between company employees are quite strong. It's almost family-like.
⇒Beer and sake are the agents that keep strong these bonds. Sure, many people in Canada drink beer and have a great time after work/school. But no, not nearly as prominent as it is here - here it is almost guaranteed that you'll go out a few times a week drinking.

Education
⇒There are many private schools here. In fact, most high school students go to private high schools.
⇒There are dozens of books that just describe and compare the 300-odd high schools around Tokyo.
⇒Primary school is 6 years long, junior high is 3 years long as is high school.
⇒There are many 塾, or cram schools that supposedly help you into universities and high schools.

Environment
⇒Sorting the trash into 11 different piles is something that Epson does (ISO 14001), but even in everyday life, garbage is sorted in a specific manner.

Sources of information include many 25-50 year old Japanese colleagues, penpals, Canadians working here, my relatives and their friends, and lastly of course, my experiences here.

This is a working list, and so even if a few months pass, expect this page to be updated again. Items may be removed and/or added without notice at my sole discretion.

And yes, I've been reading too many software licenses. =P

Ginza

2005-08-07T11:13:00.000-04:00

I went to Ginza today with a few distant relatives from China. Ginza's the kind of place that makes you feel poor. At first, you tend to think that the extra few 0's at the end were added by accident.

I can't afford any of the stuff there nor do I wish to buy them if I had the money; I'm not into fashion. What surprised me is that these relatives from China are rich. A better term might be nouveau riche. The tendency to spend, and especially display wealth is typical of the newly rich, and it is an epidemic here (referring to Japan, China, and Korea). People here have to realize that wearing $6,000 worth of Burberry and Louis Vuitton doesn't make you a better person. I think that if one is indeed blessed with fortune, one should use discretion and show a little subtlety. Conspicuous consumption is a social problem with implications that may be difficult to see.

Over-consumption is a social norm here. It's basically expected that one has at least a few brand names on their person. This is doesn't apply to guys as much, but the girls here certainly feel pressure. Sure, there are many wealthy people, and yes, they buy many brand name goods. The sad part is that the average Joe - probably Jane in this case - is expected to do the same. What happens? They wear a few grand, looking like they are the daughter or wife of a multi-millionaire, and have basically nothing in savings.

It's a fact that many girls (and some guys too) in Tokyo are very materialistic. This is why I'm very glad to have met a few girls here that do not prioritize making and spending money.

So there goes my anti-materialism rant. I'm not against great brands, rather I'm against the notion that one must wear brand names to fit into society.

Nagano, summer festival, medical exam, Shinjuku, Star Wars: Episode 3, O-bon

2005-08-04T07:50:00.000-04:00

I'm going on a business trip to Nagano next week (update: actually I don't know when but it's 'soon').

Work is tough but since I'm working on some very new technology, I'm happy. I can't reveal much, but it's to do with the next version of Windows, Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Longhorn). Research is in the form of reading 400+ page Microsoft confidential documents that have like 8 pages or so of legal blah-blah before the real material. Company policy dictates that we read the legal stuff =P.

Let's look at some differences between the work environment in a software company here and in Canada (using Roxio as the reference):

-almost everyone here works crazy hours. Like 9:00 to 21:00.
-no games room here =(
-more company events here (tommorow we have a summer festival! I bought some raffle tickets.. I hope to win a PSP hehe)
-bureaucracy is rampant here
-the reception ladies are quite cute :P

I'll add more differences as they come to me, but other than these, it's pretty much the same. Oh, and we speak Japanese here, but that's obvious, right? =P

Due to popular demand, (actually just one person so far, but eh.. :P) I'll be posting more differences in the near future, about everyday life though, not work. Although do keep in mind that many points are generalizations, and as there is inherent danger in generalizing, be careful not to infer too much.

All new employees must undergo a thorough medical examination, which I think shows a bit of the extent of bureaucracy here. I went to a nearby hospital today (the building I'm in has a small hospital too, but it's too limited to perform such an exhaustive medical exam). Among the things performed were:

-measuring height, weight, chest, hip, waist
-urine sample, blood sample (4 tubes!)
-x-ray scans
-blood pressure
-vision tests, hearing tests
-reflex exam
-electrocardiogram

Yesterday, us 3 Canadians in the office (me, John, and Sachin) went to Shinjuku to meet Sachin's Japanese friend. She's pretty and studies law - wow, go Sachin! =P We had fun eating Shabu-shabu buffet. We had plans to watch Star Wars: Episode 3 so we had to leave her in the middle of Shinjuku (one of the busiest cities in Tokyo).

I'll take some pictures of my colleagues soon, and with their permission post them here =D.
I also want to watch the O-bon festival. I'll try to take pictures but it's a nighttime festival I think, so they might not turn out well.

以上。(the end)

Yachting near Tokyo

2005-07-31T09:23:00.000-04:00

I went yachting for a day with my uncles' high school classmates south of Yokohama, in Misaki.
Now I'm all red and hurting - yeoow, sunburn!! It was really fun though. There was this extremely humorous and cheerful pilot (he flies the Pokemon plane for JAL!) that kept saying weird things in English and French to me, which made me and everyone else laugh like crazy. For example, he would add "..in the bed" after nearly every sentence, like "Co-pilot, in da beddo". Other quotes include "I'm Michael Jackson - do you know Michael Jackson?", "Do you trust me?", and "Sil vous plait.", which were all overused but funny nonetheless.

We sailed quite a distance in the morning, about a third of the way to Ooshima. While I was at the helm, 2 or 3 yachts passed us - yeah, I suck =P. At lunchtime, we came back near the harbour, and we had 3 yachts all anchored side-by-side and started to barbeque. I swam in the ocean a bit too, but accidentally swallowed a bit of sea water. Boy, was it salty!

Hmm.. tommorow is the first day of work. 頑張ります！ (ganbarimasu!) I hope this redness fades a bit by tommorow morning..

Hino 日野

2005-07-27T08:42:00.000-04:00

I moved in yesterday under heavy rain, but I ended up going back with my relatives since I was missing many necessary things (including food!). So, I came back today at 2:00 pm, bought some stuff along the way, and started unpacking everything. Here are some pictures (some were taken vertically so you'll have to exercise your neck a bit =P) of Hino and my apartment:

Apartment - Outside:

(L) This is the apartment complex. (R) The parking spaces are small but well-paved.
Little space is wasted here -- look at the corn planted just behind the parking spaces.

(L) Bicycle parking area. (R) Apartment notice board, containing garbage pick-up dates.

(L) The name of the apartment complex is Leo Palace 21 (at least that's what I think), but apparently Libra (written in Katakana below the lion) is the actual name. (R) Stairs. Yup, really.

(L and R) My unit, 204.

Okay, let's go inside!!
(I photographed the inside first and then the outside, so that's why the file names are like that)

Apartment - Inside:

(L) The entrance. Shoes off! The pair of slippers there is a souvenir from my uncle, when he recently was in India for a business trip. (C) Closet is to the left, in the middle is a ladder to the sleeping quarters, and to the right is the door which opens into the hallway. (R) Mirror and closet.

(L) Sleeping quarters - nice and cozy. (C and R) Bird's-eye view.

(L) Microwave and fridge. (C) Scotty's place. 30 amps should be enough, right? The breakers are divided into 10A, 15A, 20A, 30A, 40A, 50A and 60A in Japan, all colour coded. The colours are red, pink, yellow, green, grey, orange, and purple respectively. So I con green, a decent challenge. We need more power Scotty! (R) The washing machine, which is right under the breakers.

(L) A toilet. To the right and up a step, is the bathroom. (C) The bathroom. To the behind lies the toilet. (R) A sink and an self-cleaning range.

Well, wondering how the view is like from the window? Here's a semi-panoramic view:

(L, C, and R) View from window. Go unnecessary comments! =P

To be honest, I can't think of a good name for the next section -- 'Miscellaneous' would be too boring and 'Things on desk' seems a little lame -- so I'll call it.. umm.. stuffy stuffies!

Stuffy stuffies:

(L) Things I bought on the moving day (yesterday). In Hino, special garbage bags must be used. The orange is for non-burnable trash and the green is for burnable trash. The key to the apartment is the metal card in the middle of the picture. To open the door, you insert the card and twist it 90 degrees to the left (refer to previous pictures of the front door).
(C) The pink book is the apartment manual (yes, there's a manual). The other booklets contain other instructions, warnings, and flyers.
(R) Other things I bought yesterday.

(L) Things I received from the Hino City Office after registering. Free garbage bags (alright!), an Engrish manual on garbage disposal, a Hino City guidebook, and a colour calendar containing the garbage pick-up dates.
(C) Groceries I bought on my way back from registering as an alien at the city office. Those peaches are delicious!! That boxed meal is my first meal at Hino =). Hmm, what else. That orange egg-shaped thing is actually a refill, not a real air freshener -- doh!
(R) Emergency escape rope ladder.

Hino City, Tokyo Capital （東京都日野市）:

These pictures were taken on the way from my apartment to the Hino City Office, in chronological order this time:

(L) Railway tracks. These are fairly close to my apartment it often gets a bit noisy. (C) Blueberries! (R) うぁー！ひろい！(uwaa! hiroi!) Guess the meaning on the comment page! Let's see who gets the closest answer! =D

(L and R) The closest station to my apartment, Toyoda.

(L) Fairly large park. To the left is the Hino City Office. (R) The Hino City Office.

Coming out of the city office, I took these pictures of the park.

Okay, that's it for now! It took 2 hours and 30 minutes for this post, whew!

Earthquake brings pictures

2005-07-23T11:20:00.000-04:00

A notable earthquake occured at 4:35 pm today! I was walking in the neighbourhood with my cousin when it happened. He was reading Azumanga manga, while I occasionally read some parts he showed to me.

My first sensation of the quake was of a rather peculiar sensation coming from my feet. It's hard to put into words, but it was as if I was walking on a gradually rotating high-pressure air mattress. The next sensation was a rattling noise mainly coming from garage doors. At that point, I asked my cousin, "Earthquake?" "Nope, it's the wind."

About 2 seconds passed since I first felt the quake.

After that, street poles and buildings started to sway slightly. My cousin though, was too engrossed in his manga so he never looked up. While the earthquake was still going on, we walked passed by an elderly man who was staring at the buildings around him and at us.

To me, the quake lasted about 6 seconds. It might be longer though. My aunt and uncle were in the house at the time and so the earthquake seemed to be more intense to them.

My cousin was supposed to go to Shanghai today, but due to a 3 hour or so shutdown of most train lines and the highway, we couldn't get to Narita airport in time. So, now he's staying at an airport hotel with my aunt and will leave today (the technical 'today' instead of the colloquial 'today' meaning 'the period of time starting when I awoke and ending when I sleep') at 3:00 pm.

The earthquake gave me something to post about and so now I'll get my lazy ass up and post some pictures! They weren't well taken but they show what it's like here. Okay, here goes!

June, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and the household noisemaker. His eyes aren't supposed to be shiny like that in the picture. He looks and acts like he's really stupid, which makes him very adorable.

A picture of my cousin sleeping, taken early in the morning while I was still in jet-lag mode =)

The kitchen and dining room.

Bath/shower temperature control. It's great not having to adjust the temperature manually, although it's somewhat a skill by now =P

A painting by my cousin, Yoshikazu. He apparently didn't hand it in, so he got 2 (out of 5) in visual arts on his recent report card.

Yoshikazu diligently doing homework while I ninja him - Muwahahaha!

Getting ready to go to the airport, after the quake.

I'll post some pictures of my 2003 stay in Japan soon. Also, I'll take pictures of where I'll really be staying once I move in on the 26th, though I don't know when I can post them by (gotta get internet there). sleeeeepy...

First week in Japan

2005-07-20T22:54:00.000-04:00

I haven't got around to blogging lately, sorry! Internet access has been a problem, but I have a temporary solution: leeching off nearby wireless networks! Wheee. So, 6 days until I move into my real apartment; I know the address now. It's 3-18-4 Higashi Hirayama, Hino-shi, Tokyo-to, Japan.

In 3 weeks or so, I'll receive a landing card and will get a bank account. That means in 3 weeks I can also get a cell phone and an internet subscription!

So, what's been up these days? Hmm..

I've been helping my cousin prepare for some kind of English recital competition they have annually between 30 private schools in Tokyo. It's a 7-line prose piece about the Mona Lisa. That and his English homework, which takes him like 3 hours to do. I help him with math too, although his school doesn't seem to give much math homework.

We also watched Azumanga together and he seems to like it :) I also watch a lot of TV, especially the volleyball competition last week.

It's pretty hot here, about 31 degrees Celsius, but the sun isn't as strong as it is in Canada.

Lately, I've been checking up on the American Solar Challenge.

That's about it. I'll put some photos up soon.

My first take on Windows x64

2005-07-04T01:34:00.000-04:00

Windows XP Professional x64 went RTM (i.e. went gold, in Microsoft jargon) on April 25th 2005. For those with Windows XP Professional and a 64-bit capable system, you can order your x64 "upgrade" online. The reason for the quotes is because you must do a fresh install (it's evident if you think about it: 32 -> 64) rather than just upgrade on top of your existing install. Personally, I do fresh installs even when the option of upgrading is available.

I installed x64 yesterday. From installation to use, it feels identical to the regular 32-bit edition save the name. One might think this is fairly obvious, as the user interfaces and everything else should remain identical since it's still Windows XP, just that it's 64-bit. This is not true however; the x64 is built upon Windows Server 2003 code, not Windows XP.

Installation was fairly painless, but x64 did not install my graphics card (GeForce 440 Go) and audio chip (ADI 1981B). After searching around the 'net and settling for some beta release drivers, I finally got both these essential system to work. My laptop's fan seems to be going off a lot more frequently and some of the indicator lights act strangely. At least the video and audio drivers are stable..

Now, on a positive note, the performance thus far has been amazing. I used to run Guild Wars (GW) in 1280x800 on the lowest settings, and even then the framerate was less than adequate. However, now I run GW in 1280x800 on the highest settings and it's liquid smooth!

I was quite shocked: I expected a decrease in performance since GW does not support 64-bit goodness and instead is a native 32-bit application - meaning it has to be emulated. x64's emulator is named WoW64 no less =P. So far all my 32-bit applications have been running better than before, so this the first emulator I've seen that is more efficient at running applications than their native environment :) Keep in mind that I'm keeping the hardware capabilities constant.

Anti-virus software was a tad difficult to find for the x64 platform, but I eventually found one that had this funny registration message:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The free registration of avast! 4 Home Edition is performed by a robot which sends the message containing the license key to the email address you entered in the registration form.

Awesome, go robots! :P

Also, as I was looking for a new place to find torrents after the demise of suprnova.org, I came upon this site called "The Pirate Bay". The best part I've found about this site is their "Legal" section =P. Take a look when the mood is light.

Pictures of where I'll be working

2005-06-29T00:19:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd follow the example of my last post and do some photoblogging. So, here are some photos of the workplace! :D

Map of the surrounding area:

Photos of the building, reception desk, lobby, and cafeteria:

Guild Wars PvP screenshots

2005-06-28T02:21:00.000-04:00

So far I've mostly played in the random grouping PvP arenas. I've come to like the lower level PvP battles more.. it's more exciting somehow =P. Trouble is, you'll often be grouped with very low level people, like a level 4 in Ascalon Arena (which is 1-10.. but you should be at least 7 or 8). Those teams don't last long (once your team loses it is disbanded).

It takes a while sometimes to be placed in a great group, but when it does it's great :).

It's 2:30am and I can't sleep, so here's some pics taken in some of the Arenas. I don't want to lose a battle and screw over a good team so I don't take shots in the middle of battle (it freezes my laptop for like 2-3 seconds).

Other random screenshots will be here too. I think I'll use imageshack.us for posting pics of Japan too.

Pics:

First off, a very cool mob! Go Kratos! (He pwned me good but the party recovered)

Tomb of the Primeval Kings Missions:
(International, 8 players, goes to Hall of Heroes)

This arena is the toughest to win in. Some of the missions there have 6 teams from all over the world competing, and with 48 people it gets hectic real fast.

6 team all-out competition!

King of the Hill style match with 3 teams.

Competitive Missions:
(Random grouping, 4 players)

3 on 4 battles are very hard but sometimes are doable..

R/Me versus casters.. it's amazing. Especially when people don't see "Backfire" and cast themselves to death.

This was a very good team, probably the best so far. It's funny when people run from warriors while they're still bleeding.. you just chase them, chase them (maybe pull their monk away from the rest of their group) and they inevitably die.

I actually joined in the middle (same with Scraper), but Stalvys and Huck got to 50 consecutive wins on this great run. We parted ways amiably. This was about 10 minutes ago =)

Farming:

Well, enough of my PvP adventures. Here are some fun farming pics. I don't farm anymore, but it was great for a while. 19 hp farmzor monk!

And a prayer to providence (hey, I'm a monk!)

Well that's all. Now I'm sleepy..

Finally, Japan has the COE!

2005-06-27T11:43:00.000-04:00

Just 16 hours ago I received this message from Epson in Japan:

Dear Mr. Wen Yuan Yu

This is to inform you that we have received your Certificate of Eligibility
(COE) from the Japanese Ministry of Justice.
Before sending the COE, could you please confirm your mailing address ?

As well, could you please provide us with your phone number ?

And also I would like to know which day you will arrive in Japan and also
start to work.
As to the day which you start to work for our company, please choose one day
on either 1st or 22st of August.

Regards,

Chiemi M.
*****************************************

SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
Software Engineering Planning Department
M. Chiemi
Email：M***Chiemi@exc.epson.co.jp

Going to Tokyo in July (yes, July)

2005-05-09T15:28:00.000-04:00

Yeah, the Certificate of Eligibility and visa application process takes a while, so it looks like I'll be going sometime in July. Ah well, time to find something to do for another month!

Well at least I'm learning lots of Japanese before I go. I've got about 1000 Kanji down now (up from 500 in May) and sufficient grammar and vocabulary for JLPT level 2. I'll try for level 1 in December but I don't know if I'm gonna pass that =P. Time to learn another 1000 Kanji for level 1! >.<

On a side note I got into an awesome PvP group today. We had some rough times when a member left but we managed to win 3 vs 4 twice in a row! The game then provided for us another random person (he was pretty good too) and we managed to get famous in that place, the "Competitive Arenas". That's because we played so much that we faced the same opponents many, many times =D.

The thing that kills other teams a lot is when all 4 of their players go out of their way to kill me. I put on Protective Spirit (max dmg. taken is 10% of health) and a 9 arrow Healing Breeze and live. This basically means all their offensive power is being wasted. One group managed to learn and equipped some enchantment removals so that game was close (I died twice but our team managed to win). Finally, three of us had to go eat dinner and so we parted ways, everyone showering compliments. Best PvP team I've had so far. The team was comprised of a N/Me, a W/Mo, a R/E, and a Mo/Me (me).

I think I'll be updating this blog frequently while I'm in Japan. I need someplace to upload pictures to though.. I'll be searching for a free hosting site or something I guess. I'll probably end up using Imageshack.

Updated: Changed "June" to "July". Added stuff about my learning Japanese and some Guild Wars PvP info.