Jason's Epic Adventures

The Chase

2009-09-30T14:59:37Z

Out walking with Dog this morning by the lake, she spotted a lone gull roaming around. She likes giving chase to animals, and so as commonly it happens, I unleashed her and she dashed after it. The odd thing was that today this particular gull had a broken wing. By the time I realized this, she had come to an abrupt stop within a nose of the bird. As it slowly hobbled away, Dog looked back at me as if to say "WTF??? Why isn't it flying away? What do I do now? D:". It took about half a minute for it to finally reach the water and swim away.

I love Dog.

Obama

2008-11-05T09:15:15Z

I began following his campaign 9 months ago with a tone of cynicism, not believing that the USA was yet able to change. It turned into hopefulness in the time since then, as I watched him battle the odds. And now here we are.

Congratulations, America

Thought.

2008-10-22T07:47:00Z

The world should have more spontaneous conga lines.

Mold

2008-10-07T08:40:03Z

There was this mold in my kitchen. I don't know how long it had been there. It was no regular mold. It's the biggest tuft of mold I've ever seen.

http://ra.orar.ro/etc/mold1.jpg
http://ra.orar.ro/etc/mold2.jpg
http://ra.orar.ro/etc/mold3.jpg

You can see the shape of the crest best in the third picture. The mold was about 4 inches tall at its peak.

Holy FUCK my life is EXCITING.

Pirates

2008-09-17T01:43:06Z

There is piracy going on around my neighborhood. I took this picture while walking with Dog earlier today:
http://ra.orar.ro/etc/constructionpirates.jpg

Coyote

2008-05-23T07:07:05Z

I saw a Coyote last night while walking my dog 1 Km north of here. It was a cool experience because I don't remember ever seeing a wild coyote irl before. Dog didn't see it; she was looking away the whole time.

So I broke into a convenience store tonight.

2008-03-28T09:38:21Z

I took the dog for a walk about 12:45am, and decided to see if the local convenience store was open so I could buy some Fizz. Probably got there at 1. The store was substantially illuminated so it appeared to me that they were open despite no cashier being present. I looked around the front for their business hours but didn't see any. I figured maybe they were open but the guy working there was in the can or something. So I tried going inside.

The entrance has two doors and whoever designed them is retarded because the lock is completely pointless. The door on the right has the deadbolt sticking out of it into the left door. All this accomplishes is to keep the doors aligned. If you try open both at once they still open.

So I pulled on the handles; the doors opened. Then the security alarm went off. Dog looked curiously between my legs as I stood in the open doorway. I obviously wasn't going to be able to buy anything, lol. So we began walking home. We got half a block, then I thought to myself that the police will probably show up, so I should at least be there to tell them what happened. So that's what I did, and I ended up hanging out in front of the store for ~15 min.

I was just about to leave out of bordom when the cops showed up. They got out of their squad car, which was parked right infront, and began examining the doors. I was waiting around the other side of the building at the time. I told Dog to stay, walked around front, approached them, addressed them with "Hey you guys", and went onto explain what happened, giving them a demonstration on how the doors suck. They lol'd and thanked me for sticking around. That's when the one cop asked me if I lived at such and such an address. I responded "yeah" and he was like "oooh you're that guy and the dog..." blah blah I don't remember exactly what he said-- because apparently he used to live 4 houses down from me on the corner. He had two German shepards in his back yard that often bark as I walked by.

They wrote up their police report, and commented on how well behaved Dog is, as she was just sitting where I told her to, looking on. Then we walked home. It was a nice walk.

Work And More Animu

2008-01-25T23:36:04Z

I was hired for my first real job recently. I say first real job because I don't consider anything I've done in the past as real employment (paper routes/art commissions/website designing/various things at businesses my family owns). I don't know many particulars of my new job but it'll be in building renovation. I'll learn more when my employer comes back from Brazil (what he's doing there I don't know).

As with most of my hobbies, watching animu is something I've been doing less of these days. But I've watched two series since my last review thinger.

Kasimasi -
The series was okay but certainly not memorable. I honestly don't remember enough about watching the 12 episodes to rate each part of it.

Honey & Clover -
plot	Started out painfully slow, but made up for it later.
funny	Morita-san is a funny, FUNNY man.
char	Takemoto seems to be the main character, which makes many of the episodes rather drab. I didn't like Hagu that much either. But it's the events and relationships that surround and intertwine the characters that makes this series good.
awesome
tech
op/ed

Honey and Clover started out really boring. However, by the end of each of the last several episodes I was like "AAAAH MUST WATCH NEXT EPISODE". That's something I've not felt in a long time. Possibly since the time I watched GitS. So that makes up for a lot of the series. Also, the series seems weirder if you think of Hagu as a 10-year-old, which it may be hard not to since she looks like it. My rating on this series may contrast a lot with other people's as I am not the intended audience :P

Speaking of GitS, I started watching Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig last night. I'm liking it so far, but the plot buildup in some of the episodes does go a bit fast.

A recap on my ratings:
The series failed to interest me enough to watch the whole thing. Since I only rate series I've watched completely, this rating doesn't really exist. The only time I'd use it is if someone strapped me in a chair and forced me to watch.
This is not a terrible rating. The series wasn't great, but it was interesting enough to keep me watching to the end.
It was good.
Very good series. Definately worth watching.
I'd consider watching this series more than once. It's JUST THAT COOL.
This is the awesomest shit EVER!

Also if anyone on my friends list missed it, I posted a few videos on youtube in effort to become a youtube celebrity (ha ha fat chance anyway this cake is great)! Here's one:

New Year's 2008 etc.

2008-01-07T20:49:23Z

Christmas has been going on for several weeks for me, thanks to nobody in my family being able to agree on a time to celebrate it all at once. I spent actual Christmas at my dad's place playing boardgames like Risk. I got back on the 29th I think. I'm not sure. Though I didn't ask for much, people gave me a lot nice stuff (tyty). When I get my camera back I want to take a picture of my new hat. Check out what my mom gave me yesterday: An authentic Japanese/Engrish MAGNET BOARD GAME. I lol'd when I opened it; see scan of box below ↓

scan of box lol
Yes, even in space I can feel at CASE.

I also got this cool package from SnowCoat from the UK a while ago

The chocolate Euros were tasty.

This year my resolution will be to use my time more wisely, as it should be every year. I'm way behind on my deadlines if I'm going to make it to Independent Games Festival 2009. Also this year has sucked so far. It's been nothing but a constant dramafest everyday online and off. I'd rather not go into that too much. That's not to say I don't expect the year to get better. It'd be hard for it NOT to. I have high hopes for this year actually \:)/

I'll leave off there for now. I hope everyone's year started off better than mine. Also a shoutout to Angela as it's her birthday today. Happy bday!

For whoever is reading my journal, you should give it a poke with a comment, even if you have nothing to say. I'm curious who still reads this.

New English Alphabet

2007-12-07T05:46:59Z

ConnnnQUESSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Society, Þe, members and honoured guest Tai,

I call your attention today to propose another revision of the English language writing system. This is, without a doubt, the boldest change I've brought forth thus far, but I think you will agree that it is in the true spirit of the society. Keep in mind that this is merely in the discussion phase and please take liberty to build upon and make changes to my proposal. That said, I'll begin.

English writing sucks. The currently accepted alphabet of 26 letters is insufficient. We need one with atleast 31 letters to better represent the sounds spoken in English. Before I get into my plan, let me expound upon some of the problems in English.

Aaaaugh spelling. I'm tired of trying to remember if the i comes before the e, or how to spell silly words like "bureaucracy". And can someone tell me why "thorough" has eight letters? As I see it, the main problem is vowels: they're placed capriciously and make no sense. Infact, meny sentences remeen cempletely reedeble when e sengle vewel es sebsteteted fer every ether vewel. Here's another example to illustrate the confusion:

Pot cow mow blood soot boot.

Take a moment and sound out each word. One vowel, six distinctly different sounds. The main reason English words are so hard to spell is because every vowel sounds like every other vowel. One of the least deviating vowels is probably 'y'; I'll get to that in a moment. Consonants have a similar problem, though not to the same extent. 'g' sounds like 'j', 'c' sounds like 'k', etc.

Let's analyze the English alphabet (fig. 2, below) a bit further. And don't pay too much credence to what they taught you in school. Yes, I called 'y' a vowel. Everyone knows that it behaves like a vowel sometimes. What you might not know is that it behaves like a vowel ALL the time.

Look at the word "you". "you" doesn't have any consonants; it's made up of two vowels pronounced as a single syllable: "ee" and "oo" -> "ee-oo" -> "eeoo" -> "you". It makes the same sound with words that end in 'y': "main-lee" -> "mainly".

So although English likes to think it, it doesn't have only five vowels. Infact it has seven. How seven? The letter 'w' is a vowel too (Why do you think it's called Double-u?).

Take the word "cow"-- the first two letters are pronounced the same way as the first two letters of the word "cat". Take that "ka" sound and add an "oo". "ka-oo". Then shorten it up to one syllable: "ka-oo" -> "kaoo" -> "cow". Then try this: take that "oo" and add "ay", "oo-ay" -> "ooay" -> "way". W's, infact, always make an oo sound (though are sometimes used as a silent indicator in words like "saw" where the w is not pronounced). Conceivably, you could spell the word "loop" as "lwp".

We've established that the English alphabet (fig. 2, below again) has 19 consonants and 7 vowels, right? Right.

As for the basic English consonants, they represent 16 distinct sounds: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, z. Many consonants have more than one sound associated with them, and (no surprize to anybody:) three (c, q, x) have no unique sound associated to them at all.

Fig. 2. The English alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Fig. 3. A more complete alphabet using 31 letters to represent 31 distinct sounds used in English.

Aa Ää Bb Cc Çç Dd Ðð Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Þþ Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Now onto my proposal. I have spent a lot of time analyzing spoken English and I've come to the conclusion that it has 31 basic sounds. I've categorized them into 4 groups:

- 9 Vowels
- 8 Basic consonants
- 8 Hard basic consonants
- 6 Sounded consonants

I think it's important to realize that for every basic consonant, there is a corresponding hard basic consonant with very fundamental difference between the two. Understanding this will help my point for including certain sounds in the new alphabet later. One basic/hard basic consonant pair is 'b'/'p'. Try making a buh sound, then a puh sound. Notice that your mouth is shaped exactly the same way when you say them. The only difference is the strong puff of air when saying the hard basic consonant, p (it's easier to notice the puff of air if you hold your hand up to your mouth). The same is true for every other basic/hard basic consonant pair. Try the same thing with some of the other pairs in figure 4 (each column is a pair), and see if you can figure out which sound belongs in the blank space:

Fig. 4. Letters of the English alphabet which represent basic consonants and hard basic consonants.

Hard basic consonants	s	t	k	p		f
Basic consonants	z	d	g	b	j	v

Eleven of the sixteen basic/hard basic consonants are represented by single English letters. There is quite a noticable gap in Figure 4. This is because the hard basic counterpart of 'j' is actually represented in English as the letter pair "ch". Three of the four remaining consonants are represented by letter pairs as well. "th" represents one pair (both the basic and hard basic counterpart are represented by "th"). As for the final pair, the hard basic version is "sh"; pretty straight foreward. It's non-hard counterpart however, though it is used in English, and included in other alphabets, has no real representation in the English alphabet, and as such, the sound tends to be forgotten. It takes the form of various different English letters and letter pairs and is the sound spoken in words like "seizure", "mirage", and "fusion".

Here, now, are pronounciation charts of the phonetically complete alphabet (seen in fig. 3) I devised:

Fig. 6-1.

Vowels
Letter	pronounciation
Aa	above
Ää	cat
Ee	end
Ii	kit
Oo	mode
Öö	paw
Uu	put
Ww	root
Yy	seed

Fig. 6-2.

Basic consonants		Hard basic consonants
Letter	pronounciation	Letter	pronounciation
Zz	dogs	Ss	send
Dd	dog	Tt	tail
Gg	god	Kk	flask
Bb	boat	Pp	pipe
Jj	just	Xx	child
Vv	live	Ff	face
Ðð	this	Þþ	thing
Çç	treasure	Cc	she

Fig. 6-3.

Sounded Consonants
Letter	pronounciation
Qq	hanging
Hh	hot
Rr	carrot
Ll	life
Nn	gnomes
Mm	mail

(I will use the above alphabet for all further demonstration, so as to be less phonetically ambiguous.)

A phonetic 31 letter alphabet would make English writing easier and words easier to learn. Not only that, it would also make foreign languages easier to learn through transliteration of words, give more meaning to onomatopoeias, and abate confusion in proper names and new loanwords.

My design for this alphabet was one of phonetic completion while staying as close as possible to the English alphabet and remaining relatively typographically easy (I obviously reused the useless letters) to produce. It is by no means a final draft. I've considered adding additional letters. Writing could be made simpler but still remain phonetic by adding a few letters for very common English diphthongs like "ay" (as in "sky", "I", "ride the lightning") and "ey" ("pay", "ate/eight").

This style of alphabet is not the only option. Syllabic script has some benefits too (that is, script plainly written in segments by syllable). Syllabic script has the ability to be read much easier written in any direction: left-to-right, backwards, down, diagonally, etc. It also has some benefits according to some other observations I've made. Firstly, consonant clusters at the beginning and end of syllables can only consist of basic or hard basic consonants-- never both.

Look at "käts" (cats) and "dögz" (dogs). Käts contains entirely hard basic consonants, while dögz contains entirely basic consonants. If you try switch s with z, Kätz, it becomes impossible to pronounce as a single syllable. In that case the t and z conflict as you are unable drop the hard sound from only one of them, and depending on which one you stress, you end up saying either Käts or Kädz (or breaking the word into two syllables). However, basic and hard basic consonants can harmonize with sounded vowels in consonant clusters, like in the word "carks" (sharks). Take the hard sound off the end of the syllable, "cargz", and the r sound is unaffected.

How this could potentially affect the design of a syllabic script is by reducing the number of required characters (thereby decreasing their inherent complexity), and instead using a marker to indicate whether the syllable starts or ends with hard sounds. Because of the nature of English syllables, a very simple marker can describe many consonants at once. The following is an example of an alphabet just as phonetically complete as the 31-letter alphabet, but using only 22 letters:

Fig. 7. Phonetic 22-letter syllabic alphabet.

In this example, syllables are arranged in blocks with the consonants read from left to right, and the vowels read from top to bottom.

You may have noticed in the example that H and Q(ng) are grouped as the same letter. Syllabic script makes that allowance. In English, an H sound can only occur in a syllable-initial position, and a Q sound can only occur in a syllable-final position. This distinction determines which sound the letter makes based on where it is placed in the syllable.

At last, a sample of these scripts:

Fig. 8. Transliteration of a System of a Down song.

This ballgame's in the refrigerator
The door is closed
The lights are out
And the butter's getting hard

What a splendid pie
Pizza-pizza pie
Every minute, every second
Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy
What a splendid pie
Pizza-pizza pie
Every minute, every second
Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy

Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olives, chives
Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olives, chives

Need therapy, therapy
Advertising causes need
Therapy, therapy
Advertising causes need

Advertising's got you on the run

Ðis balgeym'z in ða ryfrijureydur
Ða dor iz klozd
Ða layts ar awt
Änd ða badur'z getiq hard.

Wat a splendid pay
pytsa-pytsa pay
Evry minit, evry sekund
Bay, bay, bay, bay, bay
Wat a splendid pay
pytsa-pytsa pay
Evry minit, evry sekund
Bay, bay, bay, bay, bay

Pepuroni änd gryn pepurz, macrwmz, ölivz, xayvz
Pepuroni änd gryn pepurz, macrwmz, ölivz, xayvz

Nyd, þerapy, þerapy
Ädvurtayziq közuz nyd
Þerapy, þerapy
Ädvurtayziq közuz nyd

Ädvurtayziq'z göt yw ön ða ran

A random point of interest: while writing this I noticed the words badge and patch are not only similar in meaning, but they would be written exactly the same in the syllabic script except with opposite consonant markers. That could be evidence of a common etymological source. I wonder if there are any other words like this.

So. Any questions?

Korean

2007-12-03T01:02:01Z

I'm posting the long answer here for those who are curious (and so I don't have to repeat myself). It gets tiring and can spur a spurious response when complete strangers ask me, because I get asked often, and I don't have a simple, clear-cut answer. That is, whenever I tell someone I'm learning Korean, the first thing they ask is "Why Korean?"

I've always wanted to learn a second language. I made an attempt many years ago (maybe 10) to learn Mandarin. I took classes for a few months, but I got discouraged and quit. Since then I've forgotten all of it except 15 words or so. I picked up small bits of other languages too but nothing significant until I started learning Korean in late fall of last year. I think what rekindled my interest to learn a language was when I started watching subbed anime. As the characters spoke, I began to pick up phrases and notice patterns, which was exciting.

So the decision was made to learn a language, but which one? Japanese obviously (to me, as I was watching anime) interested me, and it was definitely my second choice at the time, given my criteria:
● Somewhat exotic. Asian culture has always interested me (not necessarily even East Asian). French would be cool to learn (and I might some day, who knows), but it doesn't give me a sense of stepping out of my own domain.
● Has large population. It would feel like a wasted effort if there wasn't enough native speakers in order to meet four thousand new people every day for the rest of my life.
● Challenging. That's not to say that learning ANY language isn't challenging...
● Doesn't use Latin-derived alphabet. Abcdefg...zzzzzzz... An unfamiliar writing system increases overall incomprehensibility, which is fun.
● Internet permeating. I do spend half of my life on the computer, so being able to use the language on the internet is important to me.
● Gives good base. One that introduces a new way of thinking rather than just a new vocabulary, and has similarities with other cool languages.
● And of course, spoken by people that I'd like to talk to.

I had, at the very least, lent an idle thought to learning Korean before I ever considered seriously learning a language. I met plenty of Koreans on the online games I used to play (KEKEKEKEKE). During my Nox days, my brother and I wanted to create some custom maps but the only known map editor in existance was made by a Korean clan. Of course communication was limited to severely broken English, and thus diplomacy failed and no map editor was obtained. We reflected on it saying something like, "If only we knew Korean, things like this wouldn't happen." Anecdotal perhaps, but one of the many times I've wished I could talk to them in their own language.

As for the language itself, the first thing that appealed to me about Korean was the orthography*. The writing system (hangeul), aside from looking really cool, is also extremely well designed. I won't go off on a tangent about the design here; go read about it if you'd like. One great advantage to the writing system though, is that words are written as they sound (unlike the [un]phonemic nightmare that is English).

Another thing I like Korean for is its strong ties to Japanese and Chinese. It's cool because when I learn Korean I learn a little bit of the others at the same time. I've come to think of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese as the East Asian Language Trinity. Japanese uses Chinese characters (so does Korean to a small extent). Korean, depending on your source, shares 40-70% of its vocabulary with Chinese, and less than half that with Japanese. Korean is also the closest language grammatically with Japanese, and vice versa.

Korean ranks as the 15th largest language in terms of native speakers, and a respectable 8th on the internet. That internet presence is partially thanks to Korea having the highest rate of broadband connectivity in the world, which also renders the country the most conducive to online gaming. My favourite hobby (and preferred career) is in games; I like playing them, and I especially like making them. I could have a lot to share with what is essentially the biggest gaming clan on Earth. I've enjoyed playing several Korean MMOs, and I'm working on a major game project right now that I plan to internationalize starting in Korea.

Going with Korean seemed like a good idea. Though in the end I had to take a leap of faith that it was going be fun and interesting learning it for a long time to come (and, I hoped, until I was satisfied with my proficiency in it). And it has been, despite various hinderances along the way. The grammar is difficult (zounds, particles!). Studying agglutinative languages, I've come to suspect, should, even moreso than other languages, maintain a strong emphasis on verbal skills. This clashes with my learning style, as I've mainly focused on reading and writing. Most people seem disinterested that I'm learning and aren't very supportive. Although I can't blame those who simply aren't into linguistics, nor forget the ones that are supportive. I'm sure it'd be the same way no matter which language I was learning. Lastly, and probably the most discouraging thing I've experienced, is the collective xenophobic views and policies in Korea toward/on the internet (which I'm hoping aren't reflected in real life). Many Korean websites and games only allow registration if you're a citizen of Korea, which they easily enforce by requiring a Residence Registration Number. Suddenly the Chinese and Japanese web looks much friendlier.

Like I said before, it was a close decision between Japanese and Korean. Surprizingly, anime wasn't a determining factor for me to learn Japanese. I saw it as an easy way to get familiar with the language, but being able to understand what's said without the use of subtitles doesn't seem more enjoyable. I find some ambiguity in the dialogue romanticizing, actually. As for perceived cons of learning Japanese, everyone and their dog seems to have attempted it at some time (in my circle of friends anyway). Learning Japanese seems to be notorious for failure (to learn the language) and weeaboos. Those aren't things I want to be immediately associated with. I also disliked the Japanese IME for it's use of a qwerty (keyboard) layout**. If I do learn a third language some day, there's a good chance it will be Japanese. Though there's an equally good chance it'll be German, because German rocks. Learning Russian and French are also on my agenda if I happen to live to 130.

So there you have it. At the time of writing this, I've been learning Korean for fourteen or fifteen months. I don't always study as much as I'd like to, but I plan to keep going with this even after I'm fluent. All in all, I do it for fun, and most of the Koreans I've talked to so far have been super friendly and fun to talk to. If you still want to ask me questions based on what I've written here, go right ahead.

*A system of writing, its symbols, and the rules associated with it. This is a subject that has always fascinated me. Among the doodles in my school notebooks were various and often full sets of glyphs that may or may not have had any connection to a real language. Infact, while writing this journal, I got distracted for a few hours and started scrobbling out transliteration diagrams on paper... >.>;

**In my opinion, the Korean IME is designed much better, especially since it doesn't adhere to obsolete standards such as qwerty. I don't even use a qwerty keyboard for English. I made the switch to Dvorak many years ago. Unfortunately, for Japanese input, I'm not very familiar with the direct kana input method, and in hindsight I should've researched it more before condemning the whole IME.

내가 여기 (나중에 안되풀이하겠러) 누구의호기심에서 장황한 대답을 쓰겠어요. 사람은 이것을 물어봐을 때 대답을 다 안말하지만 자주 그것을 해요 그러나 좋은대답을 모러요. 나는 한국어 그렇게 공부하를 말하를 때 사람이 「왜 한국어?」 물어보겠어요.

제두언어를 내가 배우고 싶는다. 년 많이 전에 중국어 배우를 노력했어요. 이달동안 반에 갔어지만 낙담하고 사직했어요. 요즘 단어 열다서개만 생각해 내요. 언어들 조각 줍었어지만 이전 가을에 시작 한국어 공부하까지 내지식을 쓸모없어요. 언어 배우고 싶어를 왜냐하면 일본의 애니메이션함께 작은 표제을 시작 보를 대문이다. 캐릭터는 말하를 때 난 행복하를 때 시작 구와 단어를 줍었어요.

그리고 내가 언어 배우를 결심했어요, 그러나 무슨 말을? 일본어 좋아하를 (나로, 왜냐하면 애니메이 봤어) 분명하고 그어 선택 두번 였어면 이요구가 조화하다:
● 신비. 나는 아시아에 흥미 있는다. 프랑스어 배우는 (그것 언젠가 혹시 해요) 좋아지만 이국의것 안같아요.
● 큰 인구. 공부는 쓸모없은 노력 같아면 내가 여러날 죽까지 낯선 사람 사천명으로 말할 수 없어요.
● 도전. 언어 다 배우는 도전 이에를 말할 나위 없어요~
● 글은 라틴글이 아니에. abcdefg...흥... 장난 되러 모르는 글이 이해할 수 없은 늦아요.
● 인터넷 많이. 내짬 반동안 컴퓨터에 있어요, 그럼 나는 인터넷에 언어 하고 싶어요.
● 받침 좋아. 언어 많이 배우를 도움러 이언어가 단어 더 있고 좋은 언어들 같아요.
● 재밌는 사람이 말하를 말할 나위 없어요.

언제 제두언어를 공부하를 결심하전에 한국어를 배우를 생각했어요. 내가 온라인게임에서 한국사람 많이 만났어요 (ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ). Nox날동안 남동생과 천지를 구상하고 싶었어지만 에디터 프로그램만 한국사람의것을 였어요. 한국사람은 영어 잘 안말하니까 우리가 통신할 수 없으니까 에디터 프로그램 안줬어요. 「우리가 한국어 공부하면 문제 없겠데」 남동생보고 했어요. 일화이나마 그것은 시점에 많이 한국사람에게 말하고 싶었을 같아요.

제일 한국어 특성 좋아하은 맞춤법* 이에요. 그것의글 (한글) 유행하고 진짜 잘 구상했어요. 여기 구상를 설명하겠어요, 고리고 넌 읽고 있으면 그것을 말할 나위 없어요 ㅎㅎ. 제일 한글의 유리는 철자법은 어음 같 이에요 (영어의 맏지 못한 철자법는 어음 안같아요).

일본어와 중국어를 비슷하도 한국어 좋아한이유 이에요. 왜냐하면 한국어 공부하를 때 일본어와 중국어도 배우를 대문이다. 일본어와 중국어와 한국어은 아시아의 언어 삼위일체 예를 생각하고 있을 나는 됬어요. 일본어가 한자를 쓰어요 (한국어도 그것 조금 해요). 무슨 출처 나름이나마 한국어의 단어들 기원 중국어에서 40-70% 이에요, 고리고 것보다 몇 반 일본어에서 와요. 한국어와 일본어는 문법적으로 제일 비슷하고 거꾸로 것도 맞아요.

한국어는 인구로 열다서번째 큰 언어 예고 명예로운 인터넷으로 여덟번째 크어요. 그계급은~으 후~웅 난 이구를 쓰를 노력하를 체념해 ㅠ_ㅠ. 그럼 계속하러. 내 좋아하는 취미는 컴퓨터 게임 이에요. 나는 게임을 놀고 게임을 만들 특히 좋아해요. 한국어의 MMO를 놀았어요, 게임도 만들고 있어요, 그것을 하국어로 번역하고 싶어요.

그럼 한국어 배우는 좋은 계획 처럼 보였어요. 그지만 결정하는에 한국어 배우는 오랫동안 (회망적 익숙하까지) 재밌겠고 장난이겠을 믿아야 했어요. 그리고 것 재밌었어지만 그동안 곤란은 있었어요. 한국어의 문법이 아주 곤란해요 (흐윽~ 조사들!). 부착어들 공부하는 기타보다 언어 능력을 강조하야 해요. 것은 내공부하게법을 다르어요, 나는 읽으로 쓰로 조로 공부해요. 사람들이 나는 한국어 배우를 안흥미하고 안격려해요. 그지만 사람을 알아요, 사람이 언어학을 안흥미해요. 같은 것 것이면 여러언어를 나는 배우겠어요. 한국인터넷에 (이것 현실에 안같으면 좋아) 외국인을 싫어한 정책은 제일 곤란은 것 봤어요. 한국의 웹페이지와 온라인게임 많이 한국사람만 참가하를 허락하러 주민등록번호를 필요해요. 그럼 일본과 중국의 인터넷은 아주 더 친하를 보여요.

일본어나 한국어 공부하는 곤란은 결정 였어요. 요인은 한 개 일본의 애니메이션이 아니에구나. 일본어는 익속하는 된 좋은 방법을 것은 보이지만 안읽으로 것은 알알 수 있어는 장난은 더 것 안보이에요. 대화의 모르는 좋아하는데. 일본어의 약함이 여러분과 여러분의개는 (우리 찬구는 이것 했어요) 일본어 공부했어를 언젠가 보이에요. 일본어 배우는 알려지게 실팬 오타쿠의 것 이에요. 나는 그생각 연상고 안싶어요. 일본어IME도 싫아요, 왜냐하면 것이 qwerty자판** 쓰를 대문이다. 언젠가 제두언어를 배우면 일본어는 것 이에는 것이에요. 그러나 독일어도 좋아니까 독일어도 것 이에는 것이에요. 러시아어과 프랑스어도 배우겠으면 내가 백사십년까지 살겠어요.

그럼 대답을 있어요. 이페이지를 쓰었어를 때 나는 십사나 십오달전에 한국어 배웠어고 것을 쓰러 사전을 물몬 쓰었어요. 한국어 더 공부하고 싶어지만 그냥 잘 말하까지 계속하겠어요. 장난으로 조로 하고 한국사람이 조로 친해요. 모르는 있어면 물어봐요.

*나는 것에 흥미가 있는다. 학교 공책에 그림과 기호가 많이 있었어요. 이대답를 놀랄게 쓰를 때 몇몇시동안 빗나간 되고 알파벳 도형을 쓰었어요.

**것보다 한국어IME는 잔짜 잘 계획했어는 내의견 예요 왜냐하면 쓸모없게 스탠더드는 qwerty 같를 안쓰를 대문이다. 나는 qwerty자판를 안쓰는다. 많이 년전에 Dvorak으로 바꿔요. 일본어 자판이 것의 직접 가나 쓴 방법을 나는 잘 모르고 일본어IME를 비난하전에 것를 연굴걸 그랬어요.

It's tl;dr, I know. If you can't read Korean, don't be too impressed. I guarantee my translation sucks. And it took me FOREVER to translate it.

I say, Vinnius. Fine day to be lifting our huge triangular weights!

2007-10-21T00:05:34Z

I'm sleeping a lot better now, thanks. Those documents I lost are going to stay lost, but I'm moving on. So that's the last I'll say about it on here.

I went to a Japanese restaurant with a friend on Thursday, where I sampled many new flavours. I started with some sushi, not too unlike anything I've had before, it had in it raw tuna, cucumber(or similar vegetable), rice, seaweed, and spicy red sauce. It came with some wasabi which I took a quick liking to. My second course was eel on rice-- textured like fish, but softer and very tasty. While I was feeling adventurous, I ordered the spicy jellyfish bowl. It was weird! For dessert I had this creamy opaque jello stuff, which was actually Evan's dessert but he was nice enough to let me steal it. Thx it was yummeh \o/. Overall it was a very good expensive. I mean experience. There's another Japanese restaurant in the city too. I need to try it.

Also went to a book signing event at a coffee shop for some popular local author. I don't even know his name, haha, I was just there for the cake and free entertainment.

My brother is into crossfit ( http://www.crossfit.com ) and he's now getting me into it. My first trial was yesterday, where I attempted to run 10 kilometers. I ended up doing just under 7K in about 35 minutes. I stopped short because I was afraid I'd damage my legs if I pushed too hard. In the past month most I've been doing is 3K at a time. My brother managed 9K, but in something around 55 minutes.

Today's workout was 45 reps of thrusters at 95 lbs. and 45 chinups. I skipped the thrusters altogether, and just did the 45 chinups. I felt like an idiot because it's not like we have a chinup bar at home, so we went to the playground and did them on the monkey bars in the rain. Not only that, my brother brought the weights so he could do the thrusters at the playground too. And the dog came along to mock us. Good times.

Well SHIT

2007-10-14T22:14:12Z

Hey everyone. Sorry if I've seemed emo today or yesterday or the day before... or tomorrow D: ...

It's been a somber few days for me.

The REALLY exciting stuff began early Friday morning when I was running some errands. I made a stop at the Canada building to get my birth certificate photocopied and certified. After that I went shopping, stopped and got a sub at Subway, and took my dog for a run. It was just after I got home and unload the car of its day worth of contents that I realized an important binder was not among those contents. The binder that contained my certified photocopy of my birth certificate, my ORIGINAL birth certificate, and numerous other papers containing things like my address, phone number, schools I attended, and SOCIAL INSURANCE NUMBER.

I told myself not to panic. It didn't help much. I checked my car four times, under the seats etc, I checked every room of my house even though I was sure I hadn't brought it in with the other stuff. It didn't make ANY SENSE, and it still doesn't. I had it in the Canada building. I didn't have it when I got home. Somewhere in between it fell off my car seat or I dropped it or it got stolen. I drove back and checked in every store between the Canada building and where I parked to see if anyone turned in a binder. I reported it missing to the police. All out of ideas, and mentally and emotionally spent, I went to sleep at 7pm that day.

I can't go very long now without worrying about it. If any noble person had found it they'd have more than enough information on me to contact me about it. But it's been over two days. Either nobody has it, or somebody I don't want to have it has it. Now I can't help thinking that some lowlife has all my personal information he would ever need to render me financially fucked for the rest of my life.

I'm not sleeping well. I need something to give me some sort of closure to this, I don't know what. I want to get back to my routine. ㅠ_ㅠ

Cake day

2007-10-06T22:53:20Z

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and my mom surprized me with this cool and very personalized icecream cake!!!!!!

The "Saengilchu..." at the top says happy birthday Korean. It was obvious what it said, but I wasn't able to read it even though I'm learning Korean. I find Korean words hard to recognize when they're romanized.
And at the bottom, the Catzooka Entertainment (my game company) logo for great justice. I think it turned out really well for cake art. Seeing my logo in a new format always makes my day :D

It was a good day. Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday! :D

Animu Review

2007-08-01T08:49:23Z

Upon consultation with a friend, I have recently found out that I am an ANIMU GEEK. My adventure began last March or so, when I saw a bit of Full Metal Alchemist on TV, and got hooked. Since then I have watched 11 full animu series, and bits and pieces of others. In this post I'll be reviewing (or just rating) those that I've seen all the way through.

About my rating system:
* stars does not mean 50%-- it is not a bad rating.
* 0 is a bad rating. It is failure.
* is a poor rating. It is near failure. All the other numbers are pretty much just relative, ie. would change if I happened to watch something better/worse

The maybe not-so-obvious categories:
awesome: is a rating of how much awesome was displayed in the series. How many people got owned? How fast did the protagonist's foot/fist/trigger finger move? Were there ninjas? How badass was the baddest ass in the series? How big is Osaka's mouth when she yawns? How long will penguin chiyo try to eat her fish stack before she realizes her arms are too short? etc...
tech: technical quality of the series including animation, art style, and background music.
op/ed: stands for opening/ending themes. The main focus is on the music but visuals play a part too.

overall score: how much I enjoyed the anime over all, and how well I think the series accomplished its goal. Overall score generally has nothing to do with the other ratings.

And now the reviews in order of overall score:

Azumanga Daioh -
plot	? ? ? ? ? - Lol plot? Who needs plot?
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Full Metal Alchemist -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Ghost in the Shell SAC -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu -
plot	? - The series was a little hard to follow.
funny	I got the feeling with this series in particular that a lot of the jokes went over my head.
char
awesome
tech
op/ed	- Definately 10/10. What got everyone excited was the ending though. I thought the ending was great but I actually liked the intro even better.

Cowboy Bebop -
plot	While I was a huge fan of the side quests, the main story line did nothing for me.
funny	The mushroom episode hogged ALL the funny.
char
awesome	Spike's fighting style, borrowed largely from Bruce Lee, is immensely entertaining.
tech
op/ed

Genshiken -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Trigun -
plot
funny
char	There were a few really charming characters in this series, but I had to rate it down for the incredibly annoying/stupid ones.
awesome	It's AAAALL Vash
tech
op/ed

Rozen Maiden -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Love Hina -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Mahoraba Heartful Days -
plot
funny
char
awesome
tech
op/ed

Ranma 1/2 -
Honorable Discharge

Summary:
best plot: FMA
best funny: Azumanga
best char: Azumanga
best awesome: GitS
best tech: GitS
best op/ed: Haruhi

Blizzard

2007-01-10T21:25:15Z

We are having an epic blizzard here today which makes me very happy :D~ I wish I could share it with everybody but the batteries to my camera died! I can't see out my windows because they're covered in snow. And I can't even see the street infront of my house from my front door. -19C, 75kmph winds, and pure whiteout conditions.

The sky

2006-07-14T06:20:45Z

We're having the first good storm of the year. The lightning is putting on a good show. How I love storms <3
It feels a bit late though. Especially up to June it was very dry.

Some pictures I took of the sky a few days ago:

I stopped running recently because of sore joints in my legs. Since the beginning of April I estimate I've run nearly 450 kilometers. Until a week ago I felt in perfect condition, I don't know what happened. It seems I always have some minor injury or health problem that gets in the way of my routine. Well I've switched to walking and biking for now. I suppose it'll be a while longer before I can run that marathon.

I just finished watching Love Hina today. It was often outrageous with predictable humor, but the characters were fun. Also I'm almost through watching Full Metal Alchemist, which I've enjoyed a lot. I think of all the anime series I watched Azumanga Daiou is still my favorite. I'm considering buying the manga.

Bill Clinton

2006-03-09T09:11:15Z

Bill Clinton was speaking in Saskatoon today, but I missed it. Opeth played in Saskatoon yesterday and I missed that too. Major bummer on both counts :(

Not out of the woods yet

2006-02-18T01:39:32Z

Thanks to who commented on my last journal. This whole week has been really stressful :/ I don't know why I'm writing these journals... it's really hard to write this.

Dog is at home, and going back to the hospital for tests regularly. She also takes large amounts of medication twice a day, primarily for the infection. It's getting hard to feed the medicine to her, she's not eating well. I'm greatful of the recovery she made since just last Friday, but her condition is still very worrisome. I feel uncertainty and helplessness.

I heard some good news yesterday that the E coli bacteria in her blood has mostly been destroyed. Because of that she is starting to have more energy, which makes treating her easier. She occasionally wants to play. For the time being she is stable.

She went in for tests this morning again. Her blood is normal but she still has severe infection elsewhere, and the bacteria is especially virulent in her liver. If it doesn't improve it could mean organ failure, and from there, well, it would only be a matter of time...

I remember last Friday, sitting in waiting rooms with a furrowed brow all the while. I couldn't help it. My face ached for days afterward. They did an ultrasound on her that day. There will be another one this coming Monday. They seem to be looking for another underlying problem, like maybe cancer. I think there must be something else too. Sad.

Also I shan't be visiting my grandpa and uncle next week as planned.

Silver is very sick

2006-02-12T22:41:09Z

My dog has been in the hospital for the last two days.

It started Thursday evening when I noticed she was moving slowly. She looked to be in pain. I stayed up with her all night, and watched her go from good to bad to worse in the course of ten hours. At 8:30AM, her and mom and I went to our vet where they did some tests, and from there referred us to the animal hospital at the university.

The worst moment, for me, was driving to the pet hospital. I was worried sick, I felt noxious, thinking soon she could go into shock. She could hardly lift her head off the floor when we got to the hospital and her heartrate was reportedly double what it should be. I carried her in, a doctor met with me right away, I explained what was going on, and gave him the x-rays and stuff that the vet did. Then Dog was taken into the back. I was stuck in the waiting room until 5 in the afternoon.

Waiting rooms are hell. And it's a thousand times worse when you are waiting to hear if someone you love will survive or not, and for a long time I seriously didn't know.

They told me at the end of the day that Silver(Dog) had a serious liver infection, and some blood problems. They gave her some plasma, and later a blood transfusion. I went home to sleep and Dog stayed at the hospital overnight. That was Friday. The friday I was going to go skiing- I had already paid for my seat on the bus.

I went to visit her twice yesterday, once in the morning, once in the afternoon. She looked much better but still very weak. I hear she is doing better still today, since she got more blood, and some antibiotics. She will be okay for now. They said we might even be able to take her home on medication, and bring her back every day for tests.

Daniel, mom, and I are going back to the hospital right now. I hope we will be able to bring her home today.

Italy

2006-02-05T12:52:29Z

School is over. I don't know the marks I got yet, but I will get that in the next few days. For sure my average is high enough to get into the university but I'm not planning on going there-- yet, anyway. I'll be programming and arting and visiting some family that I haven't visited in way too long. Mom is also on my ass about getting a job, which probably wouldn't be a bad idea either, heh. I was supposed to go on a skiing trip with my friends on the weekend but it got cancelled D:... bummer, I haven't gone skiing for a few years. I promised I'd get out this year. I will yet.

In other news, I finally got the pictures from Italy developed, scanned, edited, and all that. So here is my Italian adventure. Zounds of pictures to follow:

Trip to Italy, Christmas 2005
We started our journey from Saskatoon, where from we had a two-hour drive to Regina airport. From there we got on an eight-hour flight to Toronto. In Toronto we took a trans-Atlantic flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Then from there to Rome. The English Channel and the Alps were cool to see from the airplane.

In rome we first saw the Coliseum
Here is the entrance

My brother overlooking the interior

Some nice scenery in the interior of Rome

Daniel in a public garden. We walked through here with our luggage because we didn't want to take a taxi. It was totally worth it.

Not far away, a picture of me in a square.

Rome was the most crowded city we visited. Motorcycles and cars were parked in the most disoragized fasion on sidewalks, in alleys. The traffic is terrible. There are no traffic rules, people speed and run red lights, and cut others off. Motorcycles drive at full speed between rows of cars. Nobody gets out of the way for emergency vehicles. Though they stop at crosswalks if you smile to them nice enough-- or usually do. The usual trasportation is small economy cars. You see those new Smart Cars everywhere, and anything just so long as it's small and efficient. They don't have a lot of space or patience for anything bigger. Motorcycles are very popular too for the many people feeling particularly suicidal. Easy to park and squeeze between the dense traffic. Oh and once we saw a donkey...
Here is a common sight in Rome, not quite in the city center. I think there are some emergency vehicles down there somewhere.

One of our guides told us a joke, I think it goes like this: "Heaven is where there is French cooks, German mechanics, English police, Italian lovers, and everything is organized by the Swiss. Hell is where there are English cooks, French mechanics, German police, Swiss lovers, and everything is organized by the Italians."
The main point of that is, yes, they can be very disorganized.

My favorite structure in Rome was the Pantheon. The dome is incredible. It is huge and there is an open skylight. It was raining when we went so the floor inside was wet :P

Some more Roman architecture. Daniel at the bottom left of this picture.

Here is a fortress we visited. It's not far from the Vatican.

The Vatican close by as you can see here from the top of the fortress. Mom and me pose for the camera.

Now here are a few pictures of the beautiful Vatican square. (the pillars are bigger than they look)

The building on the right has the Pope's residence. He lives to the left of the top floor.

The Pope spoke in the square one day. It was a pretty big crowd but we got pretty close to the popemobile as he drove by. I took this snapshot, it's the closest we got.

And here we attended a mass in St Peter's Bascilica in the Vatican!

Also while in Vatican city we visited the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel, but they have a rule of no pictures there. Oh well.

Here are two pictures from a really cool little square not far from the Pantheon. We ate truffles and icecream at a little shop there, very tasty. The first picture is of a fountain depicting some sea creature getting owned by the god Neptune. It bears a certain resemblance to one of Vivec's statues does it not? Another thing this square reminded me of was a scene from The Count of Monte Cristo. I thought maybe they filmed here. No, though it was similar square. In the second picture, Daniel is walking toward the other fountain, depicting the four seas (as were known at the time) and you see pointing toward the sky an Egyptian Obelisk. There are several Egyptian Obelisks in Rome, imported, as I guess, Egyptian stuff was in style in the time of the Roman Empire. So this place is really nice, if there was anywhere in Rome I'd want to live it would probably be here. Aside from all the tourist-trash shops. Way too much tourist-trash.

The pizza is quite different in Italy, though not always consistant. Some places have very thick crust and other places have paper-thin crust, but usually on any pizza there is only a few toppings. Unlike all-dressed American pizzas you find pizzas with two to four different toppings. Cheese and sauce are optional. They are not big on breakfast in Italy. They offer no more than some slice of meat or cheese and a bun. Most Italians do not eat breakfast. They eat more seafood than we do in Saskatchewan (which is not surprising in the least), and their preparation of it is quite different as well. My first day in Rome I ordered a fish sandwich. Good idea? The fish was raw. I ate it anyway, it wasn't too bad. Another time I got seafood linguine and it contained shrimp complete with heads and legs, oysters, and squid legs.

After a few days in Rome, we joined our tour and the first stop outside of Rome was the ancient city of Ostia.

They were sophisticated for their time, some 2000 years ago. They had business signs in the form of stone mosaics advertising shops and restaurants. Their waterworks kept the public toilet just as sanitary as any today. And here you can see the theater, for any kind of performances.

Later we visited this beautiful mountaintop town, San Gimignano. It is a very old place. I would so live here. Not quite as much tourist trash. The architecture is lovely and the buildings are so close together, the streets feel cozy and friendly.

A picture of one of the main streets. Great place isn't it?

Here we have the last picture of Daniel in the town. We don't know where exactly he went. He just disappeared, later to appear outside of town.

Me and mom climbed to the top of the tower in the center of town. It is such an incredible view, I took pictures from all sides. Here we see over the East wall of the tower.

Somewhat northeast

And more

Apparently Italian has very different dialects in different parts of Italy. Romans can not understand what Venicians are saying and so on. It must make travelling rather difficult. These small mountain towns are also where the strongest differences are.

Here we are in Siena.

Siena is the home of the oldest, and one of the largest banks in the world I forget what it's called. Vehicles are only allowed in with a restricted license so the traffic is not very bad in the city. Also I forget what ancient myth it is derived from, but the icon of Siena is of two children sucking on the tits of a wolf. So on every street corner you see these kids drinking wolf milk.

The only free bathroom in Italy is the one in the hotel. To use a bathroom anywhere else in Italy, you have to buy something first, or use one of the many coin operated toilets. It was an inconvenience for some people on the trip.

Daniel looking evil in a church

The three of us sampled many, many glasses of wine during our stay. At every dinner, a few glasses. Plus several more when we visited an actual brewery:

Mom got a bit excitable. Nobody really got drunk though.

We stopped in Verona for a while. They had good pizza there. We saw the balcony where Juliet looked down to Romeo from. The picture did not turn out unfortunately.
Here Daniel and I stand infront of the coliseum in Verona... woah lookit that pigeon!!!

Florence was quite nice. Here someone took our picture by some famous landmark or something. It looks dirty. I guess cleaning those buildings is an ongoing project. There are scaffoldings up on many of the building walls in some places. Some of them are freshly cleaned and some are badly stained. It takes a very long time to clean stone.

A parking lot by our hotel. I wish I took more shots like this, not so much focusing on tourist attractions. It gives a better idea of what Italy is like.

Here is the old city hall, with the famous statue of David in front.

There is certainly no shortage of naked statues in Italy. They are everywhere.

I bought a really nice Italian leather jacket in Florence, I may model it soon, but I have no pictures right now. I also got a genuine Oalvin Klein watch for $5. What a deal! And here is a souvenir Asterix shirt:

This marching band walked by us in one of the towns while I was enjoying a calzone.

We went to a few grocery stores during our trip. They are not big on most canned products there, and they have a great quantity of fresh foods. There are many weird seafoods available there too. While we were there we bought as many bottles of Sanpellegrino drinks as we could carry... it is really a great drink that is made in Italy, and I wish we could've brought more home. I still have several cans left, but Daniel was an ass and drank a bunch of mine.

Here we are in our hotel in Assisi watching Cowboy Bebop in Italian... That Sanpellegrino is good stuff.

An interesting view by a monestary in Assisi

A courtyard sorta thing in the monestary.

Venice! Okay Venice was great. Besides the sheer awesomeness of a city built on water, we found some really good deals on some really good food. And I am hungry. I am torturing myself writing this. Food in Venice was just a dream... everything I ate there was awesome. wow. There was this seafood lasagna at this one bar. Incredible. And some little confectionaries on the peer had some great cheap little wraps for only two Euro ($4CDN). Also there was a Burger King and I can't believe people were eating there. Whyyyyy. That makes me sad. Here are some pictures from the boat when we drove into Venice through the grand canal.
First, portside view

A bascillica in Venice built out in the middle of the water. Some gondolas docked outside.

One thing I absolutely love about Venice is how it defies all good sense for city design. It was built on the water for the sole purpose of being easy to defend against attack. And like a maze, the streets and alleys are as unorganized as possible so as to confuse any strangers.

Here we are on our gondola

A gondola across from us, some people from our tour group. Christina, the genius girl, smiling at me.

Here is a mask shop in Venice. There are quite a number of them. Tis the season. In January (I think) there is a festival of masks in Venice.

Here are some nice pictures by the water.

In this one is some weird lasery-plasma-boat thing sticking up in the air. I have no idea what it is, but it sure looks cool at night.

Mom thought it was stupid for Daniel to take a picture of the sun. I think it turned out okay.

A large bridge nearby where we bought those tasty two-Euro wraps.

Mom and Daniel in this very nice picture.

Daniel and me looking rather appalled. The woman to the right says *GASP*

We are in our hotel watching more weird Italian television.

We were back in Rome again, on our last day in Italy. We visited Trevi Fountain as seen here:

And thus the journey ends. Here is Daniel and I in the Frankfurt airport. We did not sleep much the whole trip. It was always up-at-five rush, rush, rush.

We did sleep a lot when we finally got home to Saskatoon, a good 24 hours later.

PHEW!

School's Out

2006-01-27T22:22:58Z

I am a highschool graduate!

Returned

2006-01-06T06:13:11Z

I am officially back from vacation. I actually arrived back home several days ago, after a wearisome 30-hour voyage. Sleeping on the plane didn't seem to help; I went into hibernation soon after I got home. Italy was nice. Venice was scenic. Rome was epic. I'll go into more detail later, with added pictures.

Today was my first day back to school. I have two weeks left, then final exams start. Things are moving fast, too fast, for my taste. There isn't enough time. Stress is piling on. Soon it will all be over (thank God).

Leaving for the holidays

2005-12-14T00:19:48Z

Starting today I'll be gone for a while.

This is turning out to be a very hectic week, characterized by a grand pile of things to do before the weekend. For Friday I need churn out a seven-page essay for history class and finish an acrylic painting in art. I wrote two math tests yesterday and thank Odin I don't need my other essay or my book report done until after the break. Tomorrow I'll also be taking my dog into the vet for a nose biopsy. She hasn't been feeling well recently and has gone in for several tests. This really isn't the best time of year to get sick but unfortunately you can't plan for these things, they just happen. I'm a bit worried about her actually. She'll be visiting my grandpa and uncle over Christmas, which she should enjoy, so that's good. On Thursday and Friday I will be thick in the middle of preparation to leave on holidays. And with no time to spare because on Saturday my plane leaves and I will be in Italy with my family for the following two weeks!

I'll fill everyone in on how my trip went when I get back (and share pictures!), but until maybe the weekend following Jan 5th I will be without internet. I'll see you all after the break, then. This is me signing off. Try not to miss me too much :)

Weekend whatsit

2005-11-21T09:39:02Z

At 11:57 PM on Sunday, November 20th, 2005, I saw a spectacular sight. A bright meteor plummeted to the horizon northeast of Saskatoon. A split-second later there was a brilliant burst of light where it touched down. I haven't seen anything quite like that before.

I spent most of this weekend leaning over my keyboard programming a simple little program that explores procedural spheres. Pick the shape you want to start with then mix and match iterations from two different functions until you have the sphere you want.
Can be downloaded from my website http://ra.orar.ro/blog/spheredemo.exe

This week I will catch up with LJ I promise.