Wayne's Random Postings

Felix the Roomba

2009-05-16T15:17:00.001-04:00

Video I made for those who have not seen/heard of Roombas. Plus I wanted to use my camcorder :)

Cooking!

2009-03-21T22:02:00.007-04:00

Since I've been living on my own, I've been cooking. I ate out way too much over the last year so this is a nice change.

Here's some of the things I've made:

Steak with Garlic Pasta and Salad

Omelette with hashbrowns and sausage

Chicken Fusilli with Toast

Creamy Tortellini Carbonera with Garlic Fingers

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The cookies are addictive! I made one batch and I didn't even take any to work... I made another batch the week after and they disappeared when I shared with my coworkers.

I've made some other things besides the above... Pretty much everything I make comes from a recipe found on KraftCanada.com. More cooking/baking to come.

First Post for "Wayne's Waterloo Wander"

2009-02-15T22:50:00.003-05:00

Alright, so since I'm far-and-away from most of my family, I thought I would convert my rarely used blog into something more communicative. I intend to use it as an update board for my friends and family that I don't get a chance to talk to that often.

Okay, so the first thing I'm going to post is this...

Most people will look at this and not get it. Some others might be more intuitive and recognize it to be Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.

Here's another thing most will miss - it is basically a cheat sheet to finishing the game.

Now why did I make this? It started off with me getting an internship in Waterloo with Research In Motion (by the way: no, I can't get you a free BlackBerry). After starting work and realizing the cubicle is pretty plain, I began thinking of ways to decorate. Some traditional things came to mind like plants and photos... but that wasn't good enough for me. I needed something bigger and more unique. This led to the creation of a 53"x25" poster showing the following levels from the original Super Mario Bros.:

World 1-1
World 1-2
World 4-1
World 4-2 (unfortunately missing the bonus area due to size)
World 8-1
World 8-2
World 8-3
World 8-4

By knowing the proper warp pipes to take, a game of 32 levels can be completed through 8.

Time to complete: ~6 hours.

There is the possibility that I may cover my entire cubicle with all of the levels from the game (or possibly another Super Mario game). I haven't decided yet.

Oh, and I'm still thinking of getting a bamboo plant.

OMG: Beijing 2008 in Lego form

2008-08-18T17:20:00.004-04:00

This was too good not to post on here... It's the Beijing Olympics made in Lego.

I can only imagine the amount of time and effort required to make these... I'm in awe.

See the rest at Daily Mail.

Summer of Gaming: Rock Band (PS3)

2008-07-09T12:53:00.003-04:00

After a bit of hiatus from writing, I'm back.

Rock Band (PS3)

Play Time: over 50 hours

Progress:

Completed "Endless Setlist" - gained Legendary status

1 song left on Expert guitar

Over 1/2 done expert drums

Singing... I suck (aka stuck on Medium)

I first played Rock Band back in October 2007. I immediately enjoyed it, even though I only played Bass guitar (I had never played Guitar Hero before either, so I was still pretty n00b). I played with friends a couple more times and starting playing other instruments. I stayed away from drums as they were pretty intimidating. That changed IMMEDIATELY after I tried them. (read: TRY DRUMS!)

I bought the game disc and a generic guitar for my PS2 in November and quickly caught on to the instrument. I went on to finish guitar on hard, and all but 2 songs on expert :( ("Flirtin' With Disaster" and "Green Hills and High Tides" in case you were wondering). In February 2008 I got the full set (for PS2) and took up drumming. This past May I finally upgraded to a PS3. Luckily, all the peripherals transfer to the PS3 from PS2. I only needed to buy a new game disc. I have to say I am very, very glad I did. The multiplayer experience in the PS3/Xbox360 version is so great (they limited it in the PS2 verision FYI).

The gameplay is great. I prefer the Rock Band guitars over the Guitar Hero guitars for their frets and general feel. The drums are great and I haven't broken a thing (...yet, *knock on wood*), unlike most others I know. I think the singing works well... just not for me (or I suck, which is very likely). I'll stick to the instruments.

Final thing I have to say - I (and some friends) were crazy and took on the "Endless Setlist". That's all 58 standard Rock Band songs played in one set. This means no breaks in between (save for loading time). We completed it in about 4.4 hours. I was in pain after playing drums for all the songs. Some of the time was also used to replay a couple songs that we failed (I think every instrument failed the band on a song at least once through all the songs). Final verdict on "Endless Setlist" - it was crazy fun.

Random Video of Rock Band (not us...)

My Recommendation:

Isn't it obvious? INSANELY recommended!

Summer of Gaming: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii)

2008-05-23T20:02:00.003-04:00

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii)

Playtime: just under 4 hours

Rayman Raving Rabbids is about mini-games. Your goal is to try to do the best in each mini-game. These games range from carrying sandwiches to running from boulders to playing music. Each of the games has their own amusing attributes, mainly topped off with the craziness that is the rabbids. They are just goofy, seemingly rabbid rabbits.

Here's a video, but it's not mine. It's just something I found on YouTube, as (again) I didn't have enough time to make a recording.

Here's one thing I forgot to include on my other posts in the "Summer of Gaming" series - my recommendation.

My Recommendation:
I recommend giving this game a shot, but it didn't take too long to finish so I call it a rental (rather than a purchase). However, it would make a good party game, so buy away if you are stocking up on party games.

For those who have been reading all of my "Summer of Gaming" posts and want to know what my recommendations are for those, go back to them as I've updated them.

Summer of Gaming: Cooking Mama 2 (DS)

2008-05-21T01:21:00.004-04:00

Cooking Mama 2 - Dinner with Friends (DS)

Playtime: lost track... somewhere over 4 hours

Today's entry is Cooking Mama 2 - Dinner with Friends for the Nintendo DS. This game involves preparing various recipes - like Meat Loaf, Cake, Cookies, Lobster, and Seafood Cocktail. These all include different tasks like cutting, dicing, sifting, mixing, grinding, boiling, and folding. I've been playing for a while and still haven't stopped unlocking recipes (hopefully soon... I have other games to play!). It also makes a great multiplayer game and I'm looking for a group of people to try it out (so far only played 1 vs 1). Needless to say, this game makes great use of the hardware, the touch screen being ideal for this. It even makes use of the mic.

Video is back. I'm making Macaroons!

My Recommendation:
Fun! Definitely recommended. It takes a good while to completely finish it (still working on it).

That's all for today's post.

Summer of Gaming: Trauma Center - New Blood (Wii)

2008-05-19T00:22:00.005-04:00

Continuing the Summer of Gaming Series, I bring you:

Trauma Center - New Blood (Wii)

Playtime: 3 hours

This game is a follow up from Trauma Center - Second Opinion (which was a follow up from Trauma Center - Under the Knife on DS). The game puts you in the role of a surgeon working on patients with varying conditions. New Blood introduces two new doctors and a new strange virus (that somewhat ties into Second Opinion). It controls well and presents a bunch of different challenges. I would have played it more, but I was busier than I thought I would be after I rented it.

Sorry, didn't get a chance to grab video for it. You'll have to settle for a quick pic:

My Recommendation:
Definitely a worthwhile game. *thumbs up*

Next game will be posted in the next 2 days.

Summer of Gaming: Elite Beat Agents (NDS)

2008-05-13T23:08:00.009-04:00

So seeing as I'll be having some free time this summer (by not being on the SESS Exec and my girlfriend is going on internship for 2 months in Oklahoma), I've decided that I'll start a new "blog series" for myself, and the few people that read this. I'll be writing a sort of mini-review of the games I play through the summer, and include video as well (if I feel like it). Just a little precautionary mention: not all of these games are brand new, but whatever - that's why we have classics.

First Game Up...

Elite Beat Agents (Nintendo DS)
Playtime: over 4 hours

I've been wanting to play this game for a while now after seeing about 1 minute of someone else playing at work. I finally got my hands on it and started playing. I found it a little cumbersome at first (maybe since I started on medium instead of easy). Then I got into it and made my way through. The game is basically a music simulation game, where you are matching beats with onscreen cues. These cues involve either tapping, or scrolling (all using the stylus). I really liked their creative story plots for each mission since they were both loopy and funny at the same time (except for one sad one... yeah, I said it). The graphics are kinda cheesy, but it adds to it. The only thing I don't like about the game is that the songs are not being performed by the original performer. It would have been nice to have the originals, but oh well.

I've included a video below. I'm playing on hard difficulty and was a little distracted by TV (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Partial reason for recording it was to see what kind of things were going happening on the top screen while I was playing. It's amusing.

My Recommendation:
I recommend playing this game. It's quite amusing and provides a good amount of difficulty as you progress.

Next game will be... a secret because I'm not telling (or I'm not sure which one I'll write about next).

Disliking finals and this thing called studying

2008-04-18T00:52:00.002-04:00

So, finals are upon us university folk again. This means we all ditch everything else we've been working on and focus on the activity known as studying. This entails spending many hours with your nose to the paper trying to figure out how to do the question in front of you (or in some people's cases, just trying to memorize what they're reading), or finding someway to avoid studying. After spending a week studying math by doing many problems, I think it might have paid off. The exam could have gone a lot worse had I not put that effort into it. We'll just have to wait and see what the marks have to say about that.

With one more exam to go, I have a strong desire to avoid studying. I'm not sure whether its confidence telling me I know how to do this stuff, or if it's just laziness. Tomorrow should be a more productive day (hopefully) and more studying will occur. Then the exam on Saturday and a week till I go back to work.

During the studying, I found a new anime series that's awesome in my opinion. It's called Soul Eater. I think it has the best opening theme song I've heard in a long time after watching many other anime series. The song is called "resonance" by T.M. Revolution. Here's the YouTube video of the intro for the show. Enjoy!

2007 in a Video Nutshell

2008-01-09T01:47:00.001-05:00

Awesome recap of 2007.

New Level of Geekdom Achieved

2007-12-29T19:02:00.001-05:00

Okay... So I got a new phone for Christmas. I got the Samsung U740 (aka the Dual Flip). Anyway, I started off playing around with contacts, wallpapers and ringtones... not much different there from any other time I get a phone. What makes this phone different from last 2 phones is that I can do more - and I did, all in a day.

Okay, first off. I started looking around cell phone forums as to why my wallpapers aren't filling the screen in both perspectives (portrait and landscape modes). After a bit of searching, it turns out Bell (whom Sasktel works with) has kind of a crippled version of firmware and it doesn't do it. The only solution - send in the phone for a firmware upgrade, with a 3-5 week turnaround. Tempting, but no. I just got the phone, I'm gonna keep it around for a while.

Next - Java applications. Amongst my browsing, I stumbled upon a website called u740.ca - a website for hacks found for the phone. I got two applications from this site - Opera Mini and MidpSSH.
Opera Mini: web browser for the mobile phone platform. I can now surf real websites on my phone, not just the mobile versions of those sites.
MidpSSH: ssh client for my phone. It allows me to remotely access computer systems. Here's a photo of my connection to my school linux drive:

This might seem like the limit of geeky has been reached - it's not. For the last few weeks or more, I have been trying to figure out a way to control iTunes on my Macbook remotely. The only thing that came to mind was using a cell phone since I always have that with me. I even knew it was possible since a friend of mine can control his audio system through a web interface. I did a little searching online and found a shell script that I can use through SSH. I log into my computer from my phone, run the script and voila! I'm in control of my iTunes. I'm still kind of in shock that it worked. I would post a video for proof, but it would be tough to show that. Take my word for it or ask me and I'll show you sometime.

Last thing geeky (for now) - new t-shirt.

The answer is on the back of the shirt, but I'm not going to post that. You're going to have to figure it out yourself.

By the way, if anyone has the same phone and wants some tips-and-tricks, let me know. I've learned a lot about this phone already and am willing to share my knowledge, as well as learn more if there's more to learn. Also, for those of you thinking of getting one - I highly suggest it, but only if you're comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard (so try it out first).

Maximum the Hormone

2007-12-05T23:46:00.000-05:00

Okay... if that title didn't make any sense to you - don't worry, you're not the only one.

I recently picked up and finished a new anime series called Death Note. It's an awesome, dark anime involving killing people by writing their name in a notebook and wanting to cleanse the world. Anyway, halfway through the season, they changed the opening them to What's Up People? by Maximum the Hormone. They are basically a Japanese group who are both metal and ska (not sure how they did it, but they did). So, after being enticed by this opening theme, I went and found their album. I found a really catchy song on that album called Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nurururerorero. (Yup, that's really the song title.)

Here's an AMV with the song in it (AMV = anime music video; scenes from an anime shown over a soundtrack chosen by the creator of the clip).

Enjoy!

(By the way, I take no responsibility for anyone getting this song stuck in their head :P ).
PS: In case anyone was wondering, the anime shown in the clip is Ouran Host Club

Back to Kasap

2007-11-19T18:09:00.001-05:00

I am fortunate enough to be taking a class from Prof. Kasap again this year (well, last time he was only filling in for a couple weeks... but still). If you haven't read my last post about him (or know who I'm talking about), Kasap is a very intelligent man... but he does have some unique mannerisms. This includes saying "look", "pay attention", "quiet down", and "okay" more frequently than necessary (and sometimes says quiet down when no one is saying anything). There is one pair of words though that occur much more frequently. Those two words are "alright" and "right". It is what makes Kasap what he is.

As I mentioned before, I had written a post about him. In that post, I included a histogram of how many times he said those two words every minute. Now that I am in his class again, I bring you "Alright"/"Right" vs Time - Chapter 2.

The words were said a total of 323 times over a total of 74 minutes (38 minutes, then after a short break another 36 minutes). The average was 4.36 times/minute.

I think that's all I have for now... there's not much more I can say about it. I'll leave you with a Youtube video...
Daft Bodies - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Godiva Song on helium

2007-09-30T16:20:00.001-04:00

A few engineers having some fun with helium.

Music and Copyrights

2007-08-04T00:54:00.000-04:00

I'll start off by saying this - get and watch Good Copy Bad Copy (torrent link). FYI: this is a legal torrent download.

That said I now want to express my feelings and opinions on this topic. Easiest way to put it - music should be free for everyone. I've made some of my own electronic/trance music (find me here at Podshow) and even before that I was a firm believer that music should be free. Music should be about expressing yourself and being creative. I think that the major music industry (at least in North America) has really lost sight of this point and now focuses on something else - money. I understand that the equipment needed to produce music is not always cheap, as well as going on tour and things like that. The thing is that artists, whether it be visual art, music, or movies, are being held back by the fact that they can't afford access to things like production studios or better equipment. With the advent of computers and modern technology, these things are becoming cheaper. Most music can actually be composed on computers and most people don't even know the difference. Another thing is holding people back is the restrictions on sampling. If someone want to sample a clip from another artist's creation, they have to go through a lot of legal hassel, as well as shell out a decent amount of money just to use it. This really inhibits DJs who mix a lot of different songs in each one of their own creations.

Another thing brought up by the movie was the business model of the music industry. They have to find a way to deal with the new technologies and the effect on music. One of the guys in the movie brought up something about everyone that wants music pays $50/year for basically a global license. I think this is an excellent idea. If you think about it, over 60 million people download music... that equates to over $6 billion every year. According to some information I have found, CD sales in 2006 were around $18 million (source). Cheap as I may be, I would much prefer to have unlimited downloads yearly for $50 as opposed to being forced to pay ~$12/album. It pays itself off in 5 albums (roughly 75 songs)! Of course a lot of work would have to go into setting this up, but in the end it would be worth it.

All that said, I think I'm going to start getting into some mashup type mixing or some other DJ-style mixes. I want to contribute to this era of digital music in hopes of inspiring those in power to make some changes. So if you have any suggestions, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I don't know if all that I've said makes the most sense but I think I got my main points out there.

Again, here's that torrent link... (remember, it is legal)
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3700777/Good_Copy_Bad_Copy_-_XviD

Wayne to Engineering - I'm Back!

2007-07-17T06:18:00.000-04:00

I received a letter last Thursday from the Dean's Office - they felt that my circumstances were acceptable and granted me readmission to the college! I'm going back to school this fall and I'm going to try harder than I ever have.

That's all I really have for now.

iPhone Idiots

2007-06-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

Okay... the Apple iPhone was released yesterday, we all know that. Tons of people went and waited in lines for 10+ hours to make sure they could get their hands on one. In the end, it was basically futile, since even today you could walk into any of the American Apple stores and walk out with one (or two even). According to the Apple online availability tracker, ALL the stores have iPhones in stock.

Now, the title to this entry is "iPhone Idiots." You may think I'm referring to the idiots who stood in line. Not really, since there was no way to know that they would have plenty of iPhones to go around. What I mean by idiots is one thing - eBay. People are posting iPhones on eBay and the iPhone Idiots are bidding. iPhones on eBay have bids starting around $700 (already up $100 off retail value of the expensive model) and they go up to over $2700 (actual bid!)!!! Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe $2700 can buy you a very nice MacBook Pro, or a helluva lot of other things. This I might be a little jealous of since I don't have $2700 to burn.

Yes I may be a slightly bitter Canadian who doesn't have a chance of getting an iPhone for a while, but in all honesty I can neither afford it nor its service plans. It's actually kind of fun to watch all these other people suffer through it (I've heard a lot are having activation problems). Oh, I should also mention that I have nothing against the iPhone. I think its pretty neat and combines a lot of cool features (plus the fact I went to college with one of the people that helped create it). I still think its overpriced, as well as service plans being too much for a college student to be able to afford.

So all to the iPhone Idiots - have fun losing your money :P
I'll be sitting here quaintly with my Samsung cellphone, MacBook, and (the little) money I have.

Life Update

2007-06-14T04:55:00.000-04:00

I've been really busy this last month. The quick summary is that I worked on and submitted an appeal against the faculty action I received from the Dean's Office of Engineering, I've been working ~50 hours/week (just to clarify - I'm not complaining; just mentioning), and working on 2 yearbooks and a handbook for the SESS (done, done, and done :) ). If you want to know more, leave a comment or find me on FaceBook.

Soon I will be done what I need to get done for my extracurricular responsibilities, then I'll be able to sleep, relax, and game. All I have to do is sort out some locker maintenance, write my E^3 final report, look into moving the SESS server, clean up the SESS office, reformat the SESS computer, and work on a surprise for Holly.

Hmm... now that I look at it, there goes July. I least I can relax in August.... right?

Anyway, on top of all that, I'm a news editor and forum moderator on a Nintendo gaming site called Game Usagi. Check it out for upcoming game releases, game reviews, and whole lot of other cool stuff. Check it out at www.gameusagi.com.

I've been listening/watching a lot of Scooter lately, so I'll leave you with one of my favorite songs:
Scooter - Jigga Jigga

Fun and Rough Summer Start

2007-05-24T16:54:00.000-04:00

Okay... here's the story. I started my summer break from school with a week off and in that week off I ventured to Moose Jaw to attend the APEGS AGM with James. It was a different experience, but fun nonetheless. The Monday after that I started my new job at Vecima Networks. My first 2 weeks there were in training and I've been having fun and enjoying my job since I started. This is the fun part of my summer thusfar. Also, I've become a news editor for the Nintendo gaming site Game Usage (www.gameusagi.com).

The rough part... I was still waiting for one of my marks to come in and all I needed was a 50 to keep my average above 60. No can do - I got a 41. It didn't really bother me to think that I failed and it's not that bad of a thought to think that I'd have to retake it. The whole situation sucks and has put a lot of pressure on me to think about what I'm going to do next. I have a couple options, but it all depends on what the administration wishes to do. In my mind, they can do one of two things - either review my performance over the year and look at my extracurricular activities to understand why I didn't do as well as I could have, or simply issue the second (and final) faculty action. If the first is the chosen action, I don't have to do much other than continue on my course. If it's the second choice, then I have some work to do. I would appeal the action on grounds of my over-involvement in extracurriculars and (now) work in the field. I will do all that I can to stay in and, given the chance, will perform better in my academics because this degree means that much to me. I don't think I realized it as much before, but I have come to understand that now.

I'm leaving tonight to Calgary to play golf with UofS alumni... at least its not snowing out there anymore. It should be a fun time.

Here's a video for one of my most anxiously awaited games - Mario Party 8 (Wii)
Mario Party 8 Video

Done Finals!!!

2007-05-01T01:29:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty psyched to be done finals. They felt like they were never going to end and that I wouldn't have time to do anything else but study (without feeling guilty). Sadly, I've only received one mark back, and it wasn't even what I was expecting - 68% in RCM 300 (or GE 300 for the old fogees out there). To those who still don't know what class I'm talking about, its commonly referred to as "speak and spell." I was expecting a better mark. Oh well, its done and now I have to sweat it out as I wait for the other 3 marks to come in. Depending on how I did on the finals, I may or may not be returning to Engineering in the fall. I'm hoping I did well enough to keep myself in - I definitely tried hard.

On Saturday after my last final, I attended the "Done Finals" party, hosted by Bethany and her housemates. It was an awesome time, with many memories made. I posted pictures on Facebook, but I'll post one here too for those of you who don't have the pleasure/addiction to Facebook...

The party girls of the night, along with drinking Jenga (EXTRAVAGANZA!).

Anyway, it was a good time and I'm now looking forward to Monday, where I get to celebrate my two year anniversary with Holly (where did the time go?) and start my new job at Vecima.

2005 GTO Drag Race (10.21sec)
...there go my doubts about the new GTO... that's pretty good for something new.

Gates vs. Jobs

2007-04-27T02:09:00.000-04:00

Note to Self - Always check the fuses first

2007-04-18T13:50:00.000-04:00

Okay... so back in January, Saskatoon got hit by a blizzard. My car became trapped in the snow for 3 days, mainly due to the foot and then some of snow mixed with v-tread sport tires. On the day I finally got the car out, I noticed a check engine light was on and when I took my car in for an oil change, I got them to check what the computer said was wrong. They connected their device and it responded with "fan controls." I had no idea where to start with this, and since I wasn't facing any immediate troubles, I continued on without hesitation.

That day was January 12th. Today was the 18th of April and voila - problem solved. I got my buddy Danny to take a look and he figured out that I probably needed a new cooling fan relay. So we went over to Partsource to get one... no luck, they were out of stock. Instead I buy a Hanes manual for my car, went back to the car, and started flipping through some things. I passed it off to Danny, who flips to the cooling system circuit diagram and says: "it's either the relay, or the fuse......"

Cue lightbulb.

When he mentioned the fuse, it clicked for both of us and a popped hood and flip open of the fuse block cover later, there we had a blown fuse.

Moral of the story: check the easy/small stuff first.

Now to find a way to afford new brake pads, rotors, and new tires.....

Study Break Blog #1

2007-04-16T13:49:00.000-04:00

Facebook - the addictive craze that has hit an enormous number of people. Its a good thing, and is only sometimes a bad thing (such as when finals are about). They have started these personality tests which you can determine what you should have done after high school, or what Family Guy character you would be (amongst others). I took the test of what I major I should be in. The answer was - Computer Science. I wasn't surprised because almost everything I've done up to this point has told me this.

The other test I took was what I should have done after high school. My result - (tie between) going to a private school and staying at home. In my head, I think I'm almost doing that, given their description of private school as basically continuing your education at a well established institution. When performing the test, here's one of the questions:

...very strange coincidence. It kind of threw me back a bit, as it seemed a little too real.

I just completed a survey on my career interests which took longer than I would have liked, but I have a chance at winning an iPod, so why not (plus procrastination is my thing, and math = t3h sux).

Back to the books...

New Things

2007-04-11T01:13:00.000-04:00

New Job!
After waiting nearly 2 weeks to hear back, I finally found out that I got the job at Vecima Networks. I'm really psyched for this job, as I'll be able to gain experience in the field I'm trying to get a degree in. The same day I found out I got the job, I put in my resignation at McDonalds and now have one shift left before I head into finals, then my new job. Apparently a lot of people are going to miss me cause I was either the best, or one of the best managers at the store. It feels good to get those comments, and I'll definitely miss them in return.

New VP Position
I've been elected the VP Administration for the SESS. I've also completed my transition with the new VP Finance, and all I have left to do in that position is to complete the final budget. Already as VP Admin, I've created a new look and feel for our weekly newsletter, with positive response. So far so good - let's hope I can keep this up.

New T-shirt
Okay, so not quite as important as the last two, but in my opinion worthwhile. Here's the picture:

I find that the last line is the best... for those who can't make it out "If you can read this, ur eyez r teh 1337. ttyl."

Anyway, trying to finish watching a series of anime before I have to really start studying... so back to the show. (FYI: I'm watching Initial D, 4th stage)

Preemptive Apology

2007-03-19T11:47:00.000-04:00

For those people around me currently, I would like to extend a preemptive apology to all of you. Due to multiple factors of stress in my life right now, I may be more easily agitated and may react in a way not very forthcoming of myself. As I work through the various tasks, I might come off as uninterested, irritated, or even angry to any of you... This is not intentional and you should not take it personally. I say these things because I know in the past, when such stress is impressed upon me, I tend to react without any consideration. I don't want my actions to sever any current relationships with anyone.

Factors affecting me currently:

Class assignments
Class exams
Work occurences
Financial standing
Extracurricular responsibilities
Over-active thought

I should be back to 'normal' sometime after April and all my classes are done. But until then, please take these things into consideration, and I will also try to behave myself as I go through these events.

-Wayne

CEC and Jobs

2007-03-16T00:08:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was the Canadian Engineering Competition (aka CEC) held in Saskatoon. Kevin, Jason, Rob and I took our team and attempted Boots' challenge. Let's just say overnight design challenges can be really difficult. We did the best we could with the time and materials given. We didn't place, but we all felt pretty great for even getting to CEC.

After staying up till 5am to condition myself for the upcoming overnight design, I went to bed and was awakened about an hour earlier than I wanted when my phone started ringing. I picked up and it happened to be Vecima Networks calling me in for an interview. I was pretty pschyed, especially since I haven't really looked for a job in a long time (stupid McDonalds......). I had the group interview last night, and wasn't sure how well it went - but I moved on and waited for their call. Today during one of my classes, my phone (set to "beep once" luckily) beeped and I noticed it was Vecima networks. Luckily, I was able to jump out of class and answer... they wanted me to come in for a face-to-face interview. w00t! Tomorrow I go in for the interview between classes and hopefully don't screw it up too badly. This is after I realized I left a partial reference on the resume I submitted to them:

Frank (last name removed for net privacy)
(306) 555-5555
**what does he do
Vecima Networks

I almost lost it on myself when I reopened the file and discovered this after the HR lady pointed out that I knew Frank. But seeing as they asked me to come back in, I don't think that mattered too much.

I still have a few more places left that I want to apply to, and maybe get a response from some of the other places I applied. I think of all the jobs I applied for, Vecima is the one I'm really after.

Wife Googles 'how to commit murder' before killing husband (News link)

Open Letter to Yoplait

2007-03-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Yoplait,

I am writing this letter on behalf of myself and the rest of the people out there who are completely irritated by your attempt at marketing for the Tubes product. The commercial I am referring to is "Volcanoes," where 2 students are presenting to the class about volcanoes... but "cleverly" use it as a way to demonstrate the product. I perceive that the target audience is something around grades 6-9, but this is no excuse for the problems I see everytime that commercial comes on (which, might I add, is much too frequently).

The first problem I would like to address is the name of the flavours of the new product. "Fshhf Shhhh" and "Glupf Shglup" are not, in any way, a good idea for the name of a product/option. These names are very immature and do not make any sense. I am not forgetting about your audience, but I'm quite sure that no one over the age of 7 would find these amusing. I also do not understand the horrible use of the reverb/tunnel sound (other than the fact that the product is a "tube" and when you consume the product, you begin speaking through a tube apparently). It is intensly distracting and irritating, and very hard to understand.

Second - the X-ray. Okay, I may be getting technical on this, but I believe an advertiser should not lie (lying actually infringes on proper rhetorical communication by destroying the speakers ethos with the audience). Back to the point: the x-ray is wrong. The X-ray shows the bones and partial outline of the student's skin, then shows the Tube yogurt as he is supposedly swallowing it. The part of showing the skin is understandable to use given the target audience, as it feeds them the image that the advertiser wants. The yogurt swallowing image is incorrect on one major level. This is the fact that in the X-ray, you cannot see the human's bodily fluids, yet you see this yogurt. Also, The yogurt spreads out in a general volcano-type cone. When a person swallows something, it generally goes down the esophagus, then into the stomach. Even when the student pats his stomach in enjoyment, his hand is nowhere near wear the yogurt stops flowing into his body.

The third thing I would like to address is the image of the nerd of the class. This student is horribly stereotyped as having an encyclopedia open and browsing through it as the students present to the class. A good nerd would be taking notes and bring up abnormalities after they are done the presentation. In this case, he wouldn't even need an encyclopedia to tell him that such "volcanoes" do not exist, and that the pair's presentation is invalid. Being of a generally intelligent nature, I am mildly offended by the use of the sterotype in this situation. I am not completely offended in general, as I even find Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" song/video quite amusing.

I would like to conclude that unless these falacies are corrected, this commercial should not be aired. The invalidity of the students' presentation, the incorrect x-ray, and the horrible product names negate the effectiveness of this commercial. With proper corrections, this commercial may indeed be effective and allow Yoplait to increase its profits. Good luck.

***NOTE*** This "letter" is simply a way of complaining about the commercial in question and is meant to be comedic. ***NOTE***

2007-02-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable Origami

The Japanese really know their way around a piece of paper.

No More 292

2007-02-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

Today marks a big step in my college career... dropping a class and extending my term here to a minimum of 6 years. If all goes well, it will likely be 7 years, due to the fact that internship would be wicked-awesome. So now after dropping EE292, I have potentially gained 6 hours a week that I will not have to spend in that lab that doesn't seem to like me anyway... As clarification, it is a 3 hour lab once a week, but due to some unknown reason to me - it always involved at least another 3 hours of work in the lab, plus however long to finish the lab writeup.

Challenges I faced while deciding:

Searching for information on whether or not it was a prereq. for another class.
Finding out from the department head that the University Calendar is wrong, and the EE292 is a prereq. for one of my labs next year.
Dropping 292 = adding another year for sure (due to the fact I am likely not going to do a double degree with comp sci)
Money = gone
I'll have to take it eventually.

Besides these challenges, I came up with reasons why I should drop it:

More time to focus on other classes.
Working part-time + school full-time = dead Wayne (or at least eternally with some kind of head cold)
Only have one "long" school day (done Tuesday at 2:30pm, with an 8:30am start).
Wayne = stressed beyond measure at this point

Now, before people go leaving me angry comments about whining and complaining, understand that you're not the only ones that read the blog, and some people out there actually care about what's going on in my life... Most of which I almost never see or talk to - thus why I post personal news on my blog.

One last thing for today - I didn't get the SCI-FI Summer Camps Instructor position, so I'm still looking for a summer job. Anyone out there with any ideas where a computer engineering student should apply, let me know, please.

Little Gamers - Got bandwidth?
(not the real title, but the real one doesn't quite seem as funny)

2007-02-08T01:13:00.000-05:00

MS Paint God Draws Sports Car

This guy puts me to shame... I can't even do something like this in photoshop.

The Knack!

2007-02-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

WEC-tastic Weekend

2007-01-28T23:17:00.000-05:00

The past 5 days I spent in beautiful Vancouver at the Western Engineering Competition. I competed in the Senior Design team competition, with Rob, Jason, and Kevin. Here's some highlights from the trip...

We managed to drink the plane out of rye, and possibly rum (on a 1 hour flight), with some help from U of R
Had an awesome view of the harbour and mountains from my hotel room
When going out for a burger and a beer, always bring your ID (too bad Scott, it was great food and beer)
Hotel beds are amazing
We got Greg to jump naked off a 10m outdoor diving board at UBC, which he cannonballed
Some guys in Vancouver will randomly grab a girl's ass as he walks by
A boat cruise around Vancouver is great... and makes you wish your girlfriend was there with you
Lego Mindstorms can be used to great extents
Jason doesn't work well if he's "hungy"
Charter bus drivers won't wait more than 30 minutes without someone coming to talk to them
Jason doesn't know how to navigate curbs, and prefers to tuck and roll
We got 1st place in our competition
Our innovative design team got 1st place
Allyse and Brett got 2nd in debate
7 hours in front of a computer, programming a robot pays off
4oz of hard alcohol in 20 minutes takes a little time to show its effects... its all good from there
My body can somehow last without much sleep (nor energy drinks)

So all-in-all, it was a great weekend. The U of S now has 10 competitors (including our team) invited to C.E.C. coming up in March here in Saskatoon. I'm glad its here, since I'd have to pay for travel if it wasn't. Pictures from WEC should start appearing on the SESS website soon (www.sess.usask.ca/coppermine).

Me, Rob, Jason, & Kevin with our winning robot

Wii + Spectrum = Goodness

2007-01-16T11:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't heard of Spectrum (or more properly, Cameco Spectrum 2007), it is the largest student-run exhibit of science and technology in North America. We have been preparing for the even for about 2 years now, and it happens every 3 years. Anyway, while I was working on one of my duties for the show, the coordinator asks me if I want to enter my Wii into the show. Under the condition that I do not have to use my own personal Wii Remote for the show, I accepted and now have a display in the show.

Anyone in the Saskatoon area Jan. 18-21, 2007, you should come out to see Spectrum. There are awesome displays suchs as the Wii, Segways, hybrid cars, human computer interaction, STARLAB, and da Vinci Project DreamSpace. Also, anyone who is a student at the University should get on the Spectrum website and volunteer.

Spectrum Website

Last Day of My Break from Classes

2007-01-03T00:38:00.000-05:00

What else should a person do on their last day before going back to classes for another term?....

Buy textbooks.
What? Did you think I was going to say drinking? I don't have money to do such a thing. Instead I spent my money on textbooks, and killed some time (okay, the rest of the day) playing video games. Red Steel is about 50% done, and I made my Wii Fitness age better - 28. I will have to part with my dear friends from Nintendo soon as I'll have to focus on the studies. The average definitely has to come up if I'm going to have any chance of getting an internship.

Also, I won't be posting daily anymore (well, no more promises about posting daily). It might happen, but don't count on it.

One last thing: What's up with TV channels deciding to be "cool" and blast the commercials at you. I just noticed today that my beloved Teletoon (I only watch TV from 11pm on usually) has decided to join some of the other stations (like Comedy Network) have their shows' audio quieter than the commercials. If you haven't noticed it before, imagine this: you turn up your TV/stereo to listen to your favorite show, and when it comes to the commercial break *WHAM!* you're being blown away to the tune of the Pepto-Bismul tune. This is probably one reason I stopped watching Comedy Network, since it just became too irritating. If anyone in the media industry is reading this - Stop The Madness!. Also, stop the drama over going to commerical breaks in game shows - it's not dramatic!. Same goes to anyone in an audience at a game show that like to do that (I'm talkin' about Deal or No Deal, 1 vs 100, and Identity). You're only making it worse.

Operating Buddy (VG Cats Comic)

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T00:59:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all, and may your gaming be Wii-markable! I'l try to share the Wii experience with people if they want. That could require me aquiring more remotes first though... eventually I will.

Mario Party 8 teaser

New Year's Eve

2006-12-31T11:57:00.000-05:00

Played more Red Steel before work today. Work wasn't as much fun as playing Red Steel though, especially since 2 people called in sick and I had to cover both of their positions. We managed to get the store closed down pretty quickly and I was home just after 10pm, which was nice since I was scheduled until 11pm. Going over to Holly's aunt's house right away to celebrate the coming of the New Year. Should be fun.

Preview of 2007 Wii Games
(Can't wait for Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Mario Party 8!)

Redsteel

2006-12-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

After shipping yet another textbook I sold on eBay, I went over to VHQ and rented Redsteel for the Wii. I'd been dying to play this game since I heard about it. Seeing the previews only made my angst worse, even if they were corny (dramatically turning a gun sideways isn't that swaying to me). The game is really fun and could be my next Wii purchase, besides maybe another remote to play Wii Sports with other people. Here's an idea, if anyone else out there has a Wii, let's get some multiplayer going (Seriously! I mean it!).

Wii gameplay movies possibly coming soon, but not sure when since it takes effort to hook that up properly. I'd really like to get a video of the Wii Sports Baseball game, as its hilarious and I almost couldn't bat again after some of the scenes.

Redsteel Trailer

A "Wii" Bit of Excitement

2006-12-29T12:53:00.000-05:00

I'll admit, the term "Wii" could be used frequently in the next little while. Get used to it.

After work, went to Holly's house and met family from her dad's side. Interesting people, but they didn't show how crazy/weird they claimed to be while I was there. Went home after that to the Wii gaming that was waiting for me since I left for work in the morning. I returned to the fishing attempt in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and finally figured out the secret to catching fish. Now the cat has its fish and I can continue in the game. Also, I impoved my Wii Fitness Age from 50 yesterday to 29 today. Pretty good improvement, considering the best age you can get is 20.

I have to include another Wii picture today. So here it is, after receiving an update through WiiConnect24 (notice the glow, which, unfortunately, does not stay on during regular operations):

Its such a shame that the light isn't always on. It is such an awesome shade of blue, not to mention I love that whole glowing LED thing. Maybe someone will find a way to do it (hopefully in such a way that doesn't void the warranty).

Super Mario Galaxy preview from E3 2006

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

2006-12-28T12:32:00.000-05:00

The dead pixel story continues... with satisfying results. This is how the story goes........

Get up half an hour before Futureshop opens, get there and join the 12 or so other people there. They crack the doors a bit and ask if anyone is there to get a Wii. 3 people said yes and they were let in and purchased their lovely merchandise. Then they let the rest of us in to do our bidding, most of which seemed to be returning/exchanging things. I returned my "dead pixel" diseased DS Lite, and got a new one (I stuck with white for those interested). First thing I do is pull it out in the car to make sure he didn't just give me the same one back. Turns out he did. Went back in, got a new one. Making note that they had asked if anyone else was there to get a Wii that morning, I stopped by mom's work on the way home. I told her that they had a few and she pipes up: "Wanna go buy a Wii?". Without thought "Yes" can out of my mouth and we headed back to Futureshop. We managed to get a Wii (with 2 remaining in store after us), grabbed Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and a (cheap!) 3 year warranty. The sales associate who helped us out also escorted us to the car (mom's idea). Took mom back to work and she told me to leave it in her closet for her to wrap up to give to me on Ukrainian Christmas (and not to tell anyone). Partially saddened (but not deterred as a Wii was in possesion) I parted with it and went to work.

Story doesn't end there. I get home from work, open the door, and *poof* sitting next to the door to the basement is a bag with a note on it:

Notice the arrow on the bottom of the paper, motioning to flip the paper over...

So here I am just exstatic that I don't have to wait the week plus 2 days to enjoy the greatness of the Wii. This was great because I was worried that I wouldn't have time to play it since term 2 classes start Wednesday. Anyone want proof that I own the Wii? Here it is:

Oh crap, was that actually a picture of myself... *must delete*.... but must provide proof of Wii ownership. Oh well, it will remain (for now). Anyway, Wii Sports is loads of fun, even boxing. Zelda is pretty cool, and the controls are wicked. Now, if I could just catch a damn fish. Eventually I may post video of some gameplay or internet browsing from the comfort of the Wii's Opera browser. Okay, okay, I'll stop for today.

Family Guy PTV Episode - Stewie's Cruise Intro

The Dead Pixel

2006-12-28T00:20:00.000-05:00

I am in a dilemma... a pixel is dead on my DS Lite, and now I am likely going to exchange it for a new one. The thing is, I'll have a choice - white or black (yes, there's pink too, but then I run the risk of Holly swiping it from me). Originally, my dad was going to get me a black one, but they were sold out, so he got me a white one. When I first considered buying a DS Lite, I was going to go for the black one. Now that I have the white one, I don't mind it. Holly is partial to the white one (besides the pink one that they make). Another argument toward getting another white one is that I already have a black iPod nano and a black MacBook.

Decision: I'll see if I can see/try a black one first.

Also, I picked up Mario Kart DS today too. It's pretty awesome.

Cool Ping-Pong Ball Shots

Early morning

2006-12-27T00:45:00.000-05:00

Didn't sleep... went to work at 4:30am. The plus side was that Holly and I were off really early in the day and got to spend some time together. After dropping her off at home because she figured I needed sleep, I went back home and played some DDR. That woke me up for a while, then I spent the rest of the evening half watching TV, and half dozing off in an (uncomfortable) sitting position. After eating around 9pm, I continued the evening by playing Need for Speed Carbon (80% done career mode now).

The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Pixar Style)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-26T00:38:00.000-05:00

Not much today... Got more candy in my stocking this morning, and we're not opening our gifts until Ukrainian Christmas Eve on Jan. 6.

Need for Speed: Carbon is awesome (thanks again Holly!), and so is Super Mario 64 DS.

No sleep for me tonight, since its 11:40pm and I have to pick Holly up at 4am to go to work. I'll just stay up playing NFS Carbon, and sleep for a bit after work.

Apple Easypay video (aka "What is Love" parody)

Holly's Family is Awesome

2006-12-24T12:42:00.000-05:00

Went to Holly's family thing for Christmas tonight where they each brought their own supper (take-out) and presents for the rest of the family. Little did I know that I would receive a gift from pretty much each household. It caught me completely off-guard, but not in a bad way. They were just little things like candy and cashews, and a shirt and bunnyhug from her immediate family, but these were all very nice and completely unexpected. Holly got my Need for Speed: Carbon, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Thanks Holly!

I picked up my first Nintendo DS game today - Super Mario 64 DS. I am amazed at how you can pretty much have an N64 in your hand, and more. Also notable is the fact that the game itself is about a 3cm square with more content than the original N64 version, which was a fair size larger.

Forgot to mention yesterday that my car finally broke 50,000km. Pretty good for a 2002.

Amazing Christmas Light show

Last marks are here

2006-12-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

The last of my marks are in - 60 in Electromagnetics, and 63 in Analog. Averaging all my classes this term, I have a 63% average. Not bad, but could be better. I feel good knowing I got at least 60 in all the classes. Next term, the stakes are higher (says me!) and I'll need 70s or better. These goals are self-set, but they will help me get on an internship after "third" year.

Had supper with my dad and step-mom today, as well as a gift exchange. Now my dad has enough socks to last him at least the next year without having to use any worn out ones. I received a folding shovel for my car (useful since my tires suck on snow), a nice holiday/winter hot chocolate package, some Sno-balls (candy!), and a Nintendo DS Lite in white (note that it has been crossed off my Wishlist). I need to figure out what game(s) to get for it now, so any suggestions would be nice. I'm pretty sure I'll grab New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Super Mario 64 DS, and maybe Warioware. As you can see I miss my Mario-based gaming. Until I have the money, I'll have to stick with my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and my Japanese racing game (don't know what its called).

100 Impressions in Less than 5 Minutes

2 Marks Back in 1 Day

2006-12-22T20:30:00.000-05:00

Exciting stuff - got 2 of my marks back today. I got my 62 in materials (officially now), and a 68 in MatLab. Not the highest marks and I know I could have done better, but these marks will keep me in for now. Its a positive push for me to do better next term. This way, I know I can stay in (and still have prerequisites ready for next year) and I have such a great opportunity to bring up my average next term.

If anyone has noticed my MSN display name today, I'm only kidding about selling it. (FYI: It's "Any bids on my 271 Bible, cause I don't need it anymore!"). I will be passing it on next year to a deserving 2nd year CME or EE. Leaning toward CME (hehehe, no bias there ;) ).

I managed to catch up on a lot of the VP Finance stuff I've been putting off for such a long time. I know its been a while, since the last entry in my logbook was Dec. 11. I haven't even set foot (or tire) on the university since then since I've been working so much. I have still have to do a bit more like finishing a reconciliation on the bank account and paying everyone back. Somehow have to find some money so that everyone can fly to WEC (me included!).

Oh, and I found this a while ago, but never posted it (can't imagine why though, it's awesome!)
The Simpsons Movie trailer
(Trailer 2 isn't working yet)

Shopping

2006-12-22T00:49:00.000-05:00

Today shopping was done in full. I have no Christmas presents left to buy, but I have come to a slight realization - I have no money left. Actually, I need to get a little more into my bank account before my car payment and phone payment come out. This isn't a good time of the year for the poor little bank account.

Oh, and I still haven't met Anastasia yet, even though she's been staying at our house for 2 days now. I'll chalk that up to the fact I was out shpping with Holly almost all day.

Tomorrow will involve shipping eBay sales, catching up on some VP Finance and Spectrum stuff, and regretfully going to the mother parental to ask for a quick loan until PayPal deposits my money into my account.

Tenacious D - POD (official music video)

Blogging from the Bedroom

2006-12-21T00:40:00.000-05:00

After a long morning of cleaning, I think I'm finally at least a little satisfied with my basement. Just in time too, since Anastasia arrived today.... I haven't met her yet since I was at work and didn't get home till 11:30. I won't even see her till probably tomorrow evening since she goes to school with my sister and I have shopping to do.

In lieu of her arrival, I have chosen to seclude myself in my bedroom for the sake of keeping it quiet in the living room. Otherwise, it'd be hard for anyone to sleep in the basement.

Another mark came out today for me, but its unofficial - 62 in materials. Again, I'm pretty happy with it, even though its not a great mark. But considering I handed in Part A of the final expecting very few marks, then almost not finishing Part B (but I did in the end), I feel pretty good about the mark.

Will It Blend? - McDonalds BigMac Meal
(If anyone tries this, let me know how it tasted)

Stats is done!

2006-12-20T00:44:00.000-05:00

I finally got one of my marks back from finals - a 67 in stats! I'm pretty psyched on this, since I was expecting something much closer to 50. I know its not an awesome mark or anything, but in terms of marks I've been getting in previous years, this is great (well, not Comp Sci great). I find it weird that the mark I first got back was the same first mark Holly got back - stats. We've had way too many similarities between the classes.

My boss gave me my Christmas gift/bonus/whatever today. I was kind of surprised, since I didn't know what to expect being a swing manager. I knew it would be better than the things that crew get. Here's a pic of my stash:

If you can't tell from the picture, there is: a pretty large, cool travel bag (with wheels and handle), a couple chocolates, a couple cards (one from the office, one from Doug himself), a $10 Starbucks giftcard, and 50mL of Bailey's Irish Creme. I have a feeling the Bailey's will have to meet some coffee one of these mornings.... maybe Christmas morning. How special!

Also (while I had the iSight on), I took a picture of my cleaning list:

As you can see, I have a lot to do in the morning (since I don't think I really want to vacuum at this hour. I'll just have to get up early. If you notice under Bedroom, I have "Dayne's stuff?"... well, that's there because I'd like to get his stuff out of there already, considering he's been out of the house for over 2 years now. You'd think that after 2 years you could get all your stuff out, but I guess in his case not.

To reiterate yesterday: I really want a Wii. To those of you shopping for Christmas presents for me, I'm aware that they are very hard to come by, but this isn't about accentuating the fact that this is what you should get me. This is just my feeling right now.

Here's a preview for the new Super Smash Bros. game for the Wii (don't know when its coming out yet though):
Super Smash Bros: Brawl - preview

Long Day

2006-12-19T00:25:00.000-05:00

I'm just gonna say it - I hate 6:30am shifts. Sure, you get the rest of the day off, but by the end of the day (usually closer to midnight for me) I'm exhausted and/or suffering from tired headaches.

During the rest of my day, Holly and I hung out to celebrate her finishing finals. We rented "Accepted", which was pretty funny, but it was hard to find inspiring since I am in a real college. (Watch the movie to see what I mean)

Oh, and since I haven't mentioned it in a while - I want a Nintendo Wii sooooo bad its almost starting to hurt.

Wii Montage

Stressed from work, relaxed with Holly

2006-12-17T23:54:00.000-05:00

Not much to say today... work sucked, and I still have 3 more in my string of 8. At least I got to see Holly for a bit.

Cleaning is put on hold once again, but time is closing in on me and I only have until Tuesday night to finish. Apparently the Ukrainian exchange student that is coming to stay at our house (name: Anastasia) is coming on Wednesday... I only found this out like a week ago, otherwise I probably would have been cleaning during finals too!

For the Ukrainians out there reading this (and for the non-Ukrainians too, I guess):
Ruslana - Kolomyika

The Cleaning Continues

2006-12-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

I resumed my cleaning today after stalling out yesterday. I managed to make some order out of the mess that was my miscellaneous computer parts (3 monitors, 1 PowerPC, a motherboard, power supply, and a couple CPUs). I also put away some random glasses that were taking up valuable real estate in the china cabinet. Now when I sit on the couch I'm a little more comfortable at what I see. There's still more cleaning to do (getting closer to the point of simple, final cleaning such as vacuuming and some dusting.

Crazy Frog - Last Christmas

Waiting

2006-12-15T12:45:00.000-05:00

Here's something that sucks - waiting for test results. No, I don't mean some kind of paternity or cancer test (haven't been through any of those). I mean final exams. They pushed us to write them all in such a small timeframe, and then they can't even get us the marks back a week later. Or there's the case of my lab final which was on Dec. 4, which I still haven't seen a final mark back yet. Holly already found out her (amazing!) mark for her stats class that she wrote last Saturday. I really would like to know at least one mark, (maybe) more. I'm usually pretty patient, but when it comes to marks, I usually require them a little sooner than later.

Grand Theft Mario (from Robot Chicken)

The Cleaning Begins

2006-12-15T00:15:00.000-05:00

Today I started cleaning my basement. This isn't just an ordinary tidy up, this is a whole reorganization. I started by removing my DVD player from the electronics that are my own home entertainment system. Crazy? Not at all. Here is a list of the components in my entertainment system:

TV (old 21" Sony, but still pretty good)
TV (13" in the bedroom)
Shaw cable box
RCA bookshelf stereo... somewhat modified, such as adding 3 speakers and a subwoofer
Subwoofer... powered by an old PowerPC and an Alpine amp (yes, car audio within the home)
Playstation 2 (Thanks Holly! (It was an anniversary present)), this is my DVD player
Xbox (mostly for DDR)
Desktop computer (connected to TV via S-video cable)
VCR - the backbone of the system in part with the switchbox
(optional) MacBook (I have the necessary cables, ready at pretty much anytime)

Thus why I don't need my DVD player, which wasn't great to begin with. I may just try to sell it on eBay. For those of you wondering how a VCR can be the backbone to any entertainment system anymore, especially for those who only own one VHS movie, here it is - The RCA input/output jacks prove to work perfectly along with a coaxial out. This is how I can watch anything that I can watch in the living room in the bedroom. By the way, I'm not bragging, just flaunting my own ingenuity on this issue.

I mentioned eBay in the last topic, but I have another thing to say about it. It Is Cool! I threw my Gameboy on there yesterday not expecting much, and yet today when I got home from work someone used Buy-It Now and now I have to ship it tomorrow. Made a good $40 off of something that was just sitting around, and kind of outdated now too.

Nintedo Wii vs Sony PS3 Ad (PC vs Mac style!)

Work - It Begins...

2006-12-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

Didn't do a lot today other than work, then got to see Holly on her study break. It was that, or clean my basement. The basement can wait another day. I'll have a few days to work on it, but I have to get it clean before my sister's Ukraine Exchange student arrives on the 21st. I'm not just cleaning for that reason, I've just been putting it off since school was a higher priority.

For those of you that haven't yet seen Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny - go see it! I loved it. I almost watched it again today but I went to Holly's instead.

Oh, and for those of you eyeing my Thinkpad, there's already a bid on it so act fast! Also, I have a Gameboy Advance for sale on there.

Tencious D trailer (warning: explicit lyrics)
Anyone interested in the title of the song, it's called Classico.

Relaxation

2006-12-13T00:19:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day in... well, I can't remember how long that I slept without setting an alarm. It was so nice to just be worry free for a day. I tried selling back some of my textbooks from 1st year, but had no luck. I managed to sell my useless stats text from this year for 1/3 of the price I paid for it (and I didn't even use it), and my classics myth "textbook" (more like a useless paperback greek person/deity dictionary) for less than $5. So now the rest of them are on eBay so hopefully someone out there is looking to get these texts for very cheap. If you are interested, here's the list and their links:

While I'm on the topic of selling things, I finally have my Thinkpad for sale on there. I think I'm being rather generous, as the bidding is starting at $240. Come on, that's gotta be a good deal for something I paid $400, plus the battery, wireless card, and RAM upgrade. Here's the link to it (aka click here!). I still have one other thing I'm selling, but I got distracted by Tenacious D so I'll post it tomorrow.

Back to the movie for me!

Awesome stop motion music (video)

Finals Are Done!

2006-12-12T00:50:00.000-05:00

Wrote my last final this morning. I'm totally excited just to be done. Marks are a whole other story.

So after grabbing lunch, I proceeded to try to sell back some of my textbooks from first year. I first went to Place Riel, across from the Info Booth where they usually are, and according to the announcement, they were supposed to be there today. Turns out there was a date error and they never bothered to change it anywhere. Rather, I get to a table that has a couple of papers saying that they'll be there tomorrow. So I head up to the bookstore and see if they might want some of them. No luck, I have to wait until tomorrow. The worst part is that I did all this running around with a backpack filled with 4 textbooks, and a novel-type book that was used in one of my classes.

I got a surprise phone-call from Holly today and we actually got to spend some time together. Its really tough this school year to find time for each other: I'm over involved, and she studies really hard (and it shows). We'll see if we can't spend a little more time together next term.

Today's Entertainment: iAlertU video (MacBook alarm system. Do I have it installed? You bet I do!)

Studying and Stressing - Day 6

2006-12-11T00:36:00.000-05:00

Today can also be called my last day of studying, as my last final is in about 9.5 hrs. I just finished compiling, organizing, and labelling my EE271 bible. I say bible because it is a lifeline to passing the second part of the test, which is open book. I focused mainly on this because I have no clue as to what is going to show up on Part A. I have a few guesses for Part A, but no idea other than that. I just hope its something I can get through. I also hope that it is Koughia (our regular prof for the class) who is writing our final, and not Kasap (the awesome replacement)... I've heard Kasap writes some pretty brutal exams. I'd like to save that experience for next year.

As a way to wake myself up, I played a little DDR. To my surprise, I think I'm actually getting a bit better at it and managed to improve on most of the songs I played, including a couple I never even made it through before.

Oh, and I removed the requirement of having a Blogger account for posting comments, so more people can leave comments on my posts (I realize not everyone is as geeky as I am and that they don't have blogs, they just read them.)

Stress Relief (Part 6): George Carlin - Losing Things

Only 1 More Left

2006-12-10T00:39:00.000-05:00

Another final down... wish I could say it went better, but it could have been worse. I kicked ass on at least a few of the questions (not bad, out of 12), although one was left empty unfortunately. I just have to wait and see on this one too.

Work sucks. I haven't worked for a week, and in between now and then we switched over to a non-paid break system. Worst. Idea. Ever. Think about it this way... when people get off 15 min before the end of their shift as a break, how do you cover them? A good example of this happening was today when 15 min to 11pm, 3 people were off and the next people didn't start until 11. This is where I had to cover for all three, which is not an easy feat. Also, having to send 3x 30min breaks all before a certain hour sucks too, especially because you can't hold off on each one due to legalities. The next few weeks of work could be.... interesting.

Stress Relief (Part 5): George Carlin - Owners of This Country

3 Down, 2 More to Go

2006-12-09T00:29:00.000-05:00

As the title suggests, I have conquered another final exam. This is mainly thanks to staying up until 3:30am working on my formula sheets. Thanks to those, I flew threw most of the problems, and got stuck on the multiple choice stuff... which was only worth 25% anyway, so I don't think I lost too much.

I finally got to see Holly today, as her aunt & uncle were having family over for their tree-trimming (see "Studying and Stressing - Day 1" for an explanation). We went and had supper, then we went back to her house to study for tomorrow's exams. The funny thing is we're both writing a stats exam tomorrow which we are both dreading, but they each have their differences:

Mine is EE216; her's is PLSC314
Mine includes numerical methods; she has to learn different distribution curves
I write at 2pm; she writes at 9am
My formula sheet was made by the prof; she gets to write her own (lucky her!)
I should be studying beyond all measures of extremity; she is studying beyond all measures of extremity

Anyway, my sister's boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend, I'm not sure what's going on there) needs a ride home since he missed his bus, so I need to do that and then dive into some more numerical methods (a.k.a. the evil).

Stress Relief (Part 4): George Carlin - Airport Security

2 Down, 3 More to Go

2006-12-08T00:48:00.000-05:00

Well, my 201 final is done and over with, and didn't require the vaseline that many people suggested to be brought along. I still have to wait and see on the results, but I don't think I did terribly bad. After eating and a quick round of DDR to warm up from sitting in the cool basement, I started the seemingly-endless task of creating a formula sheet for EE 221. The prof essentially let us bring in four, double sided letter-size pages. Think that can't be filled? It can with the amount of material from this class, plus the key to most exams is to have solved examples, because sometimes you'll end up getting the same one on the exam. I'm trying not to use all four pages, since I'll end up getting myself lost when I go to use them. Currently I'm at 1 full paper, and 1/3 of one side of another. I have enough material that I want to include without examples to fill at least the one side I'm working on. (Note: This is my blog/neck-stretch break). That's another thing: writing an exam in a room where your neck has to stay at a 90 degree angle downward to a piece of paper is not pleasant at all. I can't imagine that its too healthy for the neck either. The pain continues as I piece together the newest formula sheet.

Stress Relief (Part 3): George Carlin - Playin' With Your Head
(warning: 58min long, but any length of it is awesome, or just listen to it while studying... and if you are one of those people not in school right now and don't need to study - I'm jealous)

Studying and Stressing - Day 2

2006-12-06T23:50:00.000-05:00

A full day of working on a formula sheet, and I still have almost a full column empty on my sheet. Still, I feel like it might keep me fairly well prepared for the exam tomorrow morning. Likely going to be an early morning or late night doing problems to hopefully keep myself well oriented with the material. The only thing that's bothering me right now is that I have to perform the same process immediately after finishing the exam, but with one less day, to prepare for the exam the day after. Seclusion could be the key to that problem.

Oh yeah, and George Carlin has got to be one of the greatest stand-up comedians ever.

Stress Relief (Part 2): George Carlin - The 10 Commandments

Studying and Stressing - Day 1

2006-12-06T00:51:00.000-05:00

Today started off very slow. I dragged myself out of bed nearly and hour after my alarm started going off. Before I knew it, I was in a rush to get to work for a meeting, and couldn't wait to get out of there due to the looming finals.

As much as I wanted to study, just having a 2 hour meeting at worked drained me enough to slow my productivity to a halt until I finally dragged myself to school to start studying. 3 hours later and I think I have a good start on some notes to make my formula sheet.

I think I'll have about 30min relaxation on Friday as I've been invited to Holly's aunts tree trimming (basically a family party right after that household has put up their tree and decorations... I think). We'll make a brief appearance, and then disappear again to study more.

I've also been stressing myself out, not only due to finals, but by looking at my calendar for January... It's going to be a high-paced, low-income month. There is Spectrum and WEC, both of which take up about 5 days each, and they are back to back. Add on top of those On-Campus Day which is the Friday after WEC, which I have to organize (along with my 2 fellow committee members). I just generally feel stressed out at this point but I'm trying not to think too much about it and just get through the next 6 days.

Stress Relief (Part 1): George Carlin - Stuff

Last Day of Classes 2006

2006-12-05T00:31:00.000-05:00

Well, today was the last day of classes for 2006. For me, it started off with the usual (annoying) 7am exec meeting, then some craming for my MatLab final... Let's just say I'm not holding my breath for a 90+% in that class. After finishing my classes for the year, I came back to the office and started serving some alcohol at our Last Day of Classes Pub. 2 hours later, I announced I was done, jumped the table and got my drink on (its only fair after serving so many people). I didn't get plastered, but I had enough to warrant me sitting around engineering for a few hours to sober up. During my sobering-up period, I also found out that if the "rubber-band racing" is turned off on Initial D (racing game at the Campus Cove arcade), I can actually kick Danny's ass. Rubber-band racing (aka Boost mode) is enabled by default, and allows the person in 2nd place to gain speed and actually get ahead of the other player if they are falling behind too far.

Between finals (or maybe tonight), I'm going to plan what Holly and I can do to celebrate being done finals... that could even be done after my finals, since Holly isn't done till the week after.

Anyway, if I don't post for a while, that's because I'll be in the middle of finals and trying to study, which might involve cutting myself from all outside sources. I'll start posting again for sure after the finals if I don't continue posting through the finals.

Neat video involving sticky notes

Let the studying begin!

2006-12-03T23:19:00.000-05:00

Surprising enough, work today didn't suck. I did some random stuff for the first hour, then I got to assemble and use a roof rake to clear the snow off, well - the roof. An hour and a half later I came back inside and more random tasks, and a bus came in to pass the time for me, so not too bad of a shift.

Besides somewhat forcing myself to study for my "lab" final tomorrow, I also watched Pirates of Silicon Valley, Death to Smoochy, and the Tenacious D HBO Specials (again). Yay boredom.

Not much else for today, too much studying.
I miss you Holly (see you in ~2 weeks).

Hold the Future (VG Cats Comic)

Progress & Tenacious D

2006-12-03T00:57:00.000-05:00

Today I finally caught up on three of the four assignments I fell behind on, so it's felt like a pretty productive day. Then I got to Holly's house for her birthday get-together, and her brother mentioned something about me not being at work today... Sure enough, I was supposed to work TODAY, and not tomorrow like I had thought for the last 2 weeks. So now I really do work tomorrow morning. If anyone givs me a hard time about it, I'll tell them to screw off and ask them how their finals are going... then I can say immediately "Oh wait, you're not writing finals!" It really sucks that I'm considering resigning and/or finding a new job, since I don't have time or money to do so (money to carry myself from one job to another).

Another thing I noticed today - Tenacious D is awesome. As I was catching up on my homework, I listened to their self-titled album, then watched their HBO specials and some other videos I had of them. I don't know what it is about them, but their music is really good, and their content is pretty funny too. I can't wait to see the movie.

Here's the music video for my favorite Tenacious D song - Tribute

Happy Birthday Holly!

2006-12-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

Today is Holly's birthday, she's turning the big 2-1. I think I've convinced her not to run away to Vegas (without me). For her birthday and Christmas, I bought her an engraved pink iPod nano. Needless to say, I left her speechless. Holly, I knew you'd love it. Let's just hope the case I ordered with it comes soon...

Today was the first time in a while that I got one of my EE 201 assignments handed in "on time".... by that, I mean that I actually handed it on Friday before midnight (the announced due date/time), rather than Sunday night sometime just after midnight (where they pick it up around 8am Monday morning). It felt pretty good, especially since the assignment left me feeling a little better about the class. Now just to catch up on the other assignments I missed (whoops).

The Lost Episodes of Tom and Jerry (VG Cats Comic)

Back to "normal"

2006-12-01T00:45:00.000-05:00

I "decided" that since my last post was almost as long as two, I would just not write one yesterday (or I forgot to write one yesterday... you choose).

Anyway, today was my last day with Kasap.... for this year (I think he's teaching EE 372 next year). Anyway, the last count for 2006 is.................... 315 in 71 minutes! Average = 4.44/minute (new record by my counts!... okay, not impressive since I've only counted 3 times now). And for those people wondering if I actually take notes in that class - yes, I do.

Besides that, I counted a bunch of money in a period of 4 hours for the SESS... after you get over a count over 100 of any single bill, you can really start to feel it in the wrist (that, or I'm developing carpul tunnel syndrome). Once I was done counting, I distracted myself from the homework looming above me. Finally, I started the assignment halfway through writing this, I'm not sure why so don't ask.

Also, for anyone reading this that is wondering what to buy me for Christmas (I'm not saying anyone who reads this has to buy me a Christmas present), I made a wishlist on the right-hand column for you to get some ideas... but be warned that you may want to consult the other people who are buying me gifts such that everyone doesn't buy the same thing.

Lastly, I've been meaning to mention for a while that I'm selling my Thinkpad laptop. It's an IBM Thinkpad T22, has a Pentium III 1.13GHz processor, 14.1" screen, 30GB hard drive, 640MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, brand-new battery, and a wireless networking card (WiFi). I'm looking to sell it for $450 o.b.o. - first one with money for it gets it, as I could really use the money. I might be posting it on eBay right away so if you're interested let me know.

Joy of Tech comic: Taking a Nigerian 419 scam to the bank

A Good Day

2006-11-28T22:49:00.000-05:00

After missing one of my 271 classes last week due to Pi-Throw, I went to class today to listen to the amazing Kasap and his two favorite words ("right" and "alright"). I have previously counted it before, and he said them 283 times in 66 minutes, that's an average of 4.3 times per minute. Today's count: 312 times in 78 minutes, which falls a little shorter of his last average at 4 times/minute. Now, for those wondering why I spend the whole class listening for those 2 magical words, its because once you here it and notice their frequency, you can't stop. It caused me to crack up laughing a few times as I believe he said them around 5 times in less than 10 seconds at some points.

Some good news came today - I passed my second Stats midterm. I knew that I would, but it was good to know that at least I could pass one of the finals. So all in all, I only failed 1/5 midterms. Hopefully it'll be 0/5 for finals (unless I can somehow still magically pass the class, given my final mark is above 58%). Okay, that didn't make a lot of sense, but it also didn't make a lot of sense when I felt dead tired, and when I looked at the time it was only 8:30pm. I really don't get it since I only got up at 10am.

More good news when I got home. I got some mail; first was my free student beta of MatLab for Intel Macs. This is good timing as I'll have to do some studying for my EE 290 final (MatLab class) on Monday. It's always good to get free software. The other piece of mail I received was from the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood. It turns out I won some money from their calendar lottery... I'm amazed, even if I did win twice in one month before, this one is worth $100! This is really good timing as I was just thinking to myself that I don't even have money to go get my haircut.

So here's something messed up... the MPAA is pushing a bill that would cause many home theatre systems to be considered unauthorized and illegal (see this article). Basically, if you have a TV larger than 29", stereo sound, and at least two comfy chairs/couches/futons - you have a theatre, and are breaking copyright laws by inviting friends over to watch movies. They also want to fine people up to $500,000 per movie shown. People would have to register their home theatre for $50 to avoid fining. The MPAA should just invest in some pyramid scheme if they're getting this desperate for money.

Lastly, Blogger is freakin' sweet, as Safari crashed on me when I was browsing Newgrounds, and yet when I came back and hit "Recover Post," it recovered everything! Yay, don't have to remember all of that now.

So here's an video for one of the greatest Weird Al songs - Polkarama. The video is a mix of all the videos of which he melded together in his polka-themed song.

Too... much... 271

2006-11-28T00:08:00.000-05:00

After spending around 4 hrs working on a single assignment (and not even getting all of it done), I have come to the conclusion I have seen too much EE 271 for the day. Also, the plan of getting the other 3 assignments done tonight has just flown past me, just like the last however many hours I was working on the 1st of 4 assignments. The joy is that I still need to get more assignments done, and catch up on some ones that were neglected during Pi-Throw. I guess I should also do some of my VP Finance duties soon too, as companies generally like it when you pay them on-time.

Went to play In The Groove 2 today and found that my memory card is being dumb (only saving some data...really weird)... I reformatted it tonight, and I'll try it again when I feel like paying to play DDR. After all, why spend money on something that I've already payed for at home.

Also, for some reason, I've fallen back into listening to rap music, but only Ludacris at the moment... I'm not too sure why, but I think mostly since its something different from the playlist/library I've been listening to since sometime in the summer (save for <20 new tracks, added once in a while). If you don't like Ludacris, I won't force it on you, but don't give me a hard time about it... unless maybe I'm being a jerk for excessively making fun/antagonizing country music.

Fun live action shadow video (from Japan, of course)

Doing Too Much

2006-11-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

It is starting to come to my attention that I am doing too many things. Besides being a full-time student, I have my part-time job (approx. 24 hrs/week), I'm VP Finance for the SESS, Encouraging Enrollment in Engineering Chairperson, and Facilities Assitant director for Cameco Spectrum 2007. I am also starting to learn that with all of these things, my schoolwork is suffering. Most people tell me I'm smart (which I generally accept since I did get into Engineering), but if you start looking at my marks, it's not going to hold out for a whole lot longer. Another scary thing is that finals are upon me within a week tomorrow, and I don't feel at all ready for any of them. Luckily I managed to get off of work for the most part up to and through finals (although not completely, which would have been nice). This week will probably consist of late nights and (hopefully) a lot of learning, as opposed to the more-recurring falling asleep while trying to finish an assignment.

I really miss Holly... I've been able to see her very little, especially these last 2 months. It is getting bad to the point where I skipped a class just to see her for an hour. It'll be nice when we're done finals and will finally be able to spend some time together... maybe even go out on a date for the first time since... well, I can't really remember right now when the last time we had an actual date. Most of the time we are spending time at either one of our houses (which is great nonetheless), but it is nice to go out once in a while. Oh, and if you're reading this Holly, I'm still not telling what I got you for your birthday/Christmas, but I think you'll love it.

Random Japanese Gameshow (don't need to understand Japanese to enjoy it, but a lack of sleep helps!)

Procrastionation (Part 2)

2006-11-23T21:52:00.000-05:00

Again today was another day of not getting much done in terms of school work. Todays accomplishments include: raising a crapload of money during Pi-Throw (with even more coming tomorrow), fixing a co-worker's car stereo wiring, and fixing my family's computer. Next on my list of things to do is to at least do one of my assignments (maybe 2), then maybe a few rounds of DDR*.

An unexpected consequence of replacing the other router yesterday was that I managed to get my FTP to work again and can now remotely edit my website. This will help since I'm almost never at home, and therefore unable to update my site (even if there isn't much to update, mostly stuff to create).

Awesome video, I think its a compilation of commercials from a Japanese company.

*If you weren't aware, they make DDR (aka Dance Dance Revolution) for consoles, thusly I have it for Xbox saving me a bunch of money that I probably would otherwise spend at the arcade.

Procrastination & Pi-Throw

2006-11-23T00:55:00.000-05:00

Procrastination is the understatement of the day for me... I managed to find anything and everything to do besides the homework and/or studying that I should have done today (I guess writing this blog entry proves this point further). As I write this, I am waiting for the installation of Norton AntiVirus 2006 to complete on my family's computer in an attempt to repair the failed internet connection. Prior to that I finally got rid of the rather dumb "router behind a router" setup I had going, and used my wireless router in place of the other wired router (which has at least 1 dead port). It may not feel as high tech in the basement now without my precious wireless router, but I still get the perfect signal even if the router is floating somewhere above my head. Before I started on the router project (which was a project in itself to remember how to get the WEP security to work on the WiFi), I was watching the "Madonna Confessions Tour," only because there was absolutely nothing else on (how sad is that?). Mix in some laundry and that's how I procrastinated at home.

Now, before I got home, I managed to kill some time at the arcade with Danny in some Initial D racing, and some DDR dancing (well, not really DDR, more like "In The Groove 2," but same thing). Before this I was helping almost all day with the "Graham Construction Pi-Throw." At least this procrastination was somewhat productive and in one outing we pulled in $230 for charity. If you're interested in Pi-Throw, visit www.pithrow.org (you can even order a pie online!).

So there is my "little" rant on my day and how I basically got nothing done to further my education. Oh well, crap happens. I'll just have to try harder tonight/tomorrow.

Finally, the link to the ever popular "Weapon of Choice" video (I was the camera man): Weapon of Choice (at the UofS).

Three Words - Kasap, Right, & Alright

2006-11-21T16:35:00.000-05:00

One of my current classes right now is an electronic materials class, otherwise known as EE271. Our original instructor had to go back home to Russia because of an unfortunate death in the family, so now we have a substitute... who also happened to write the textbook we're using. His name is Kasap and is a very bright man (although he comes off as a bit loopy). Another thing about Kasap is that he tends to say either "right" or "alright" very frequently. No, its not every other word out of his mouth... rather its more like every 5th word at some points.

During class today, I counted just how many times he said either word. It was very fun and kept me busy for the whole class (somewhat challenging too, since I was somewhat trying to take some notes). The results were surprising:

Click on the graph to see larger version.
Stats:
Total Count: 283
Total Time: 66 minutes
Average: 4.33/minute
Minimum: 1/minute
Maximum: 8/minute
Median: 5/minute

I can't take full credit for noticing this trend. Brahm originally posted this data on this occurrence on his blog (click here). He tracked it over multiple days in his EE372 class.

Anyway, closing for today, an awesome comical summation of the Sony vs. Nintendo marketing strategies.

Competition Awaits

2006-11-20T16:10:00.000-05:00

The last few days have been jam packed between work, homework, and a Christmas Formal. So far, the assignments are being handed in late, the amount of sleep I've had is next to nothing and the Formal.... well, nothing to complain about there.

Good news today though... I was selected to compete in Senior Team Design at WEC 2007 in Vancouver. I was rather surprised to be selected for it, since writing applications seems usually gets me rejected. I also put a lot more effort into this application than I did in past years and was almost satisfied with it myself. It helped that I had already been on a couple selections committees this year, so I knew what I look for in my own application.

The rest of my team consists of Rob Hewitt and ...... that's it so far. Applications have reopened for the remaining delegate positions for the different competitions, and hopefully we'll be able to find some other people to help bring victory to UofS Engineering! Last year, both Rob and I competed in Junior Design at WEC 2006 in Calgary. That said, I'm aware of the difficulties that arise in Senior Team Design. If anyone reading this is interested in Senior Team Design, applications close on Friday (Nov. 24).

One final thing for today.

If you thought all iPods do is play music, read this article.