Thursday, September 4, 2003 at 04:18 a.m.
When I read an email yesterday informing me of a training date for a job, I had an outburst of joy because it was a surprise. I had assumed that I failed their test since I never heard a word from them until yesterday. That's one good piece of news. But I should caution myself that it may not work out during the school period. I will have to wait and see.
Second piece of good news...I finally got myself to complete the first of many webpagse for my homepage. I've been nagging myself (mentally of course) since June to make it. Thanks to the completion of the first page, I now have a usable template for the rest.

Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:49 p.m.
From Wednesday, August 27th until today, I was again unable to access my computer. More specifically, the same Windows problem. I am tired and annoyed at this as much as you might be fed up hearing about my recurring computer issue. I brought to my cousin for a little expert help...He suspects several components but isn't sure yet. I'll have to keep living like this.
I decided to stay up here in Scarborough since I could use the GameCube and PS2 as a substitute for my downed-computer. They had a new game, Mario Golf. Although I don't care for golf much, Mario Golf sure lured me into liking it a little. ....That is, the golf in THAT game, not golf anywhere else. I also got to try out the Gundam Seed game on PS2. A bit disappointed by it because it is all action-adventure with really the original story from the show. It had very accurate 3D renderings of the mobile suits and a 2-player fight mode, but it was just not very challenging at all. Still, something to fill the time.
Oh yeah, I played mahjong with relatives as well. I started winning several small ones, then lost two big ones, then caught up by winning a big one myself, but in the end, I just couldn't maintain a win....Lost 9 chips.
Oh yeah, I just remembered...Didn't I mention in an earlier entry that you'd hear about my computer problem again about 2 weeks later? Unfortunately, I was correct.

Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 12:41 a.m.
More than a week has passed since my last post because I was preparing for my economics final exam, which was on Tuesday. I'll briefly tell you how it went: For the final exam, I had absolutely no worries walking into the exam...I think you can guess from my condition, how pathetic my course went. Hee hee hee!
OK, backing up to Saturday now, I discovered that two of my JCSA associates will be leaving Canada. Actually, I think Kanako-san already left yesterday for Japan. And Winnie, who will leave for Hong Kong in a few weeks. Good luck to those two.
My uncle had another BBQ which had the attendance of far more close relatives. To avoid stating everything in detail, I'll simply keep this to the important points: My dad and mom came out for the day; I got to play some mahjong but lost to my mom; had a conversation to get to know one of my dad's uncles; I was able to chat and play cards with some cousins who I've seen before but never communicated with. As always at the BBQs, the food was undoubtedly delicious!
Now to my PC report! Unfortunately, to my disliking, I've re-formatted my computer for the 3rd time within 4.5 weeks. Unexpectedly after an innocent reboot, Windows performs a no-show. To be specific, after the Windows loading screen (scrolling blocks), I was left with a black, blank screen. Yeah, for no apparent reason, it didn't want to start. Since it happened to me not so long ago, I thought it ought to be time I re-install Windows and to backup all my personal files off of the computer so that I'd wipe all partitions clean this time! Even during the file-copying, it managed to incorrectly copy several files and even once could not copy notepad.exe. HOW ABSURD IS THAT?? I proceeded by doing the setup from scratch, which worked and I was ready in Windows. After I customized the Desktop, the colours, buttons, options, features, etc...It was all lost because my profile was corrupt after a reboot. ...Didn't care, just re-formatted again and proceeded with my "routine". As it appears now....I'm fine. Expect another post in, I don't know, 2 or 3 weeks about my PC problem again.

Monday, August 4, 2003 at 12:39 p.m.
Saturday: I had to go up to Scarborough to hitch a ride with my uncle back into Belleville. Since he was schedule to leave the next day, I could go up whenever I wanted to. I used the time wisely and went over to JCSA. It was raining, so I expected few people would attend. Well, it was a small group for the first half, then it became more populated (since it got sunnier). I was surprised when I approached Miwa-san and found out she had actually read this journal! (^_^) I met and talked to her only once back in May. I never revealed my oekaki board or journal URLs to anyone there. So how did she obtain the address? Turns out that she performed a simple 2-word search somewhere 2 weeks ago. I didn't know my page is so simple to find. ...Oh well, can't help it now.
Afterwards, I went to Second Cup with Ryo-san. When we arrived, we sat with friends of his that I didn't know. Since none of them were Japanese, it was much easier for me to have a conversation. We talked about banned commercials (like the Korean noodles) and kinds of foods uncommon to North America (like dogs or live squid). We later proceeded to actually eat some food in Chinatown. Don't worry, just normal Chinese food. And then, they went to O'Grady's for drinks. However, by that time, I decided to go up to Scarborough.
Sunday: I was elected to drive us into Belleville because the primary driver was tired...OK, so I did, I got my haircut, saw my parents, and had dinner with family and Charles' mom and dad. They had steak but I opted for a nice double cheeseburger....Mmmmmmmm. After dinner I was again elected to drive us back to Ssarborough, since the primary driver, this time, had a glass of red wine. After 30s minutes of driving, I felt very sleepy. That was until a speedy Mercury Cougar sped right up behind me and forced me to change to the right lane. Fine, I'll just let him be on his/her way and I'll re-integrate into the left lane. BUT! The Cougar just swirved over to the right lane to pass me as I was signalling and changing lanes to let him through. So I quickly turned back to the left. That maneuver caused some concern from my passengers, but it was okay. From that point, I was't tired any longer. ...And strangely, I wanted to go faster than the other cars.
So here I am, playing video games here.

Thursday, July 31, 2003 at 12:22 p.m.
Guess what! ....Aside from my depressing economics test Wednesday, I was forced to re-format my hard drive again. It started on Monday when I noticed that when IE tried to open links in a new window, it wouldn't show anything. Also, even earlier, I noticed that I couldn't even open the Find window in IE. I tried to reinstall AdAware 6 and it found a probable hijack file which was associated to IE. I immediately appointed that file as the problem. So I had AdAware remove it, successfully removed. To make sure IE would work fine, I rebooted the computer to be safe. However...After the Windows splashscreen (the one with the scrolling blocks) faded away, all I saw was a blank, black screen. After 6 more attempts at rebooting in all shapes and forms, I had to perform the ultimate (and effective) resolution. Gosh, I believe this is the 4th time I've had to re-format this PC. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. ...Except avoid Adaware 6, I'm rolling back to version 5.
I am in no way encouraging the boycott of Lavasoft products. I simply wanted to express my experiences to establish awareness; a precaution perhaps. Go with version 5!

Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 1:33 a.m.
This post is for the weekend that just passed. I was too lazy to make an entry earlier. Let us begin with Saturday when I drove my relatives to Belleville where we had a hot pot dinner with my relatives and friends. It was a dinner for those who helped volunteer at the Waterfront 2 weeks ago. Other friends who didn't participate were also invited because they're friends of my family. Judging by everyone declining food near the end, I'd say they were all really, really full. I know I was. Charles and Andrew for sure.
Back at my home, I was able to show off my Gundam models ^_^ but was unable to show Charles the explosions from Gundam Seed -_-' because my old 300MHz PC was too congested to run a simple task like an AVI file. Okay, well, a 200Mb AVI file. The solution was to play it using Charles' Pentium 4 PC. All I wanted to do was go over, play it, sit around, and return home. But my mom suggested to stay over since it was 11:48pm at the time. I hesitated because I didn't want to pose as a hassle or anything. When I requested it, Charles and his parents permitted it of course. They are such nice parents.
The next day, I woke up from a pleasant slumber. Quite comfortable, it was. Oh, before sleeping, I had already shown Charles the Gundam clips. Damian and Jordan were playing Age of Empires for most of their time there. So, back to Sunday, I just played a bit of GTA:VC but couldn't get my portable HD to work again. Strange, it was.
We left soon after, came back to Toronto.

Saturday, July 19, 2003 at 12:47 a.m.
Yes! I have finally finished assembling and painting Deathscythe Hell Custom. Now I only have two more new models to work on. I think I will have to hold off on those 2 until later because now that Deathscythe has been completed, I can focus a more on school.
Thursday, I saw Stripperella for the first time. According to my observation, the beautiful women were portrayed in exaggeration and underdressed. ...Expected though, since Pamela Anderson was in it. Some of the strippers were censored with mosaics. I think even that kind of exposure is not suitable for PG-13 (in the US). In the cartoon, Pamela's character is named Veronica. To my knowledge, VIP, another show that Pamela was in, her character was named Valerie. I conclude that she really likes names that begin with a "V". The animation, from what I can decipher, was computer animation. It looked like American animation that I have seen before. ...However, I noticed certain fighting scenes that somehow reminded me of some anime. Not the style, but something that seemed to resemble anime. I think it had something to do with the speed and timing of the movements the characters made in those scenes.
Anyway, for a mature person like me (cough, cough) I'd deem the show comical (funny) at times. It tends to not only be a superhero for adults (specifically men), but also a parody of spoof based on other shows, movies, and such phenomena.

Monday, July 14, 2003 at 02:14 a.m.
Hmmm, where do I start off for this entry? Well....Better go with Friday. I went back home to help out at the Belleville Waterfront because our restaurant supplied the foods for the Chinese foods tent. There were other ethnic foods there. So anyway, all 3 days (Fri., Sat., & Sun.) I was there to help out. A great deal of help came from Charles' family. Thanks, you guys!! Yes, so Andrew was there with me so I wouldn't bore to near-death. While I was at the event, I met (and just saw) some people I knew. Who? ...Rinchin, Mr. Marson, Madame Reskellah, Brandon, RJ, Mr. McFarlane, etc.
One point that I must make is that I felt like one of those cooks sitting in the back-alleys of Chinese restaurants. Most of us in the tent wore white aprons and most of us ate some of the food during our breaks. Where did we take our breaks? ...At the back of the tent.
Also, my knees and toes hurt after every night. Finally over now. Yay!!!

Friday, July 4, 2003 at 03:29 a.m.
Yesterday, I went over to meet up with Melanie for dinner. Actually, I walked over to campus and she drove us all the way up to Finch and Yonge. There, she brought me to this small restaurant which makes there own noodles and dumplings. I'm not too big on Korean food (too spicy most of the time) but the noodles and dumplings were really delicious. So I've tasted another style of Korean cuisine.
As for today, I assembled a new vaccuum cleaner and started building an SD Gundam. Uhh, Gundam V2 Assault I believe. Anyway, with precision-sanding and painting, I have yet to complete even 10% of it. By the way, SD models are those small "chibi" ones. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 1, 2003 at 03:40 a.m.
Since I have a test coming on Wednesday, I joined a study group with some of my classmates at a Tim Horton's up near Kennedy and something. There was Marcus, Leslie, Flora, and a guy called Ah Bo (Chinese name) who I met for the first time. I don't think you could really call it studying since we all avoided searching for an answer to some queries about the practice questions. I guess we were all too lazy.
Afterwards, I hitched with them to eat dinner at a Chinese place located at Highway 7 and Warden. I was unaware of the actual distance between that place and my uncle's. Why would I want to know? ....'Cause he was the one who would pick me up. Marcus and the others went westward to Markham and Mississauga.
Back at my uncle's I didn't really do much. I knew I was going to study a bit more on my own but I eventually ended up playing mahjong for my mom. Time well wasted once again. G'ugh. So I must TRULY cram it all in for Wednesday. Benkyou!!!

Thursday, June 26, 2003 at 07:44 p.m.
It has been at least 2 days since my last post because my computer was once again down. You may or may not recall that I had just reformatted my primary partition a few weeks ago and now I did it again because of the same problem. This time, I was certain of the cause...Real One Player. I know it works well with others, but not for me. I'm not trying to dissuade you from using it or anything, I have no grudge against Real One. So anyway, this time, I proceeded to the deletion of the partition, recreation, and formatting of my hard drive. I was stuck at several points, but fortunately, I had my cousin to answer any of my troubles. So I got to as far as installing Windows yesterday night.
Today, because of a small but important Windows malfunction I found, I had to reinstall Windows. When that issue was fixed, I started reinstalling all critical drivers and programs and not so critical programs. I restored all programs that I had before. However, when I tried to install WordPerfect, none of the core files and programs were in the Corel directory. Also, it was not even present in the Add/Remove. I finally got it installed after 2 more tries. ICQ was a problem too, but it was my fault. It installed and ran perfectly until I replaced the database folder while ICQ was still running. That was indeed my fault, I simply forgot to turn it off. So I had to reinstall that twice. Finally, as soon as I installed AdAware and scanned for junk, my physical memory was dumped twice. When I finally got back into Windows, I immediately uninstalled it and decided not to try that until a later date.

Friday, June 20, 2003 at 12:04 p.m.
I am not sure if I had previously mentioned my router always dropped connections whenever it didn't have anything to do, but that's what happened. I had tried many solutions from me and from forum people. Nothing had worked. Luckily, there's this thing called return/exchange and retail establishments perform. I got the new one Wednesday and it now the router hasn't been down once. Yippy!
Freedom is sooo good! I love it! That is, the Gundam called Freedom from Gundam SEED. Heh heh.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 11:42 p.m.
Finally, I went to see The Matrix Reloaded today! I had planned to go see it for 2 weeks but didn't expect to see it so late...4 weeks after its opening. I was supposed to go with Stuart to see it but unfortunately, he was very sleepy because he was helping someone move things. But I didn't mind, I was willing to go watch it alone...And I did. I agree, the film included many exhilarating fight sequences and special effects. I think it lacked the a bit of fascination that the first one had. It did expand upon the theory of the artificial world and more details. I found it confusing at times, but at the same time wanting to know more. ...The "reasons". Oh, and there were too many sexy scenes in the film. Quite unnecessary for a story describing the doom of mankind. Oh well, I still enjoyed it!!
Once the credits started rolling, several people immediately left while about 91.7% of the audience remained for the entire thing. I was one of them. Lucky for us, after the credits, we got to see a brief trailer for Matrix Revolutions. Speaking of that, I will definitely watch that in November.
Also, one more note, I am certainly going to find some people to go see The Last Samurai later in the summer.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 11:42 p.m.
Finally, I went to see The Matrix Reloaded today! I had planned to go see it for 2 weeks but didn't expect to see it so late...4 weeks after its opening. I was supposed to go with Stuart to see it but unfortunately, he was very sleepy because he was helping someone move things. But I didn't mind, I was willing to go watch it alone...And I did. I agree, the film included many exhilarating fight sequences and special effects. I think it lacked the a bit of fascination that the first one had. It did expand upon the theory of the artificial world and more details. I found it confusing at times, but at the same time wanting to know more. ...The "reasons". Oh, and there were too many sexy scenes in the film. Quite unnecessary for a story describing the doom of mankind. Oh well, I still enjoyed it!!
Once the credits started rolling, several people immediately left while about 91.7% of the audience remained for the entire thing. I was one of them. Lucky for us, after the credits, we got to see a brief trailer for Matrix Revolutions. Speaking of that, I will definitely watch that in November.
Also, one more note, I am certainly going to find some people to go see The Last Samurai later in the summer.

Monday, June 16, 2003 at 12:57 a.m.
I start off this entry from the beginning which was Friday: My mom came out to Toronto to prepare some foods for BBQ the next day. So me and my sister went up to Scarborough to have dinner with the bunch. Besides the delicious meal, I had a great time playing my cousin's PS2. Games like Zone of the Enders 2 and Soul Calibur 2 are irresistible to me! I think I had already pointed out who much fun I had with those games in a previous entry. I even played mahjong for a full 4 rounds (north, east, south, west) and won a total of 4 chips...Woohoo! But in the first two rounds, I had won probably 20 or so. Anyway, so I returned to Downtown because the next day, I had my JCSA to attend to.
While I was there, I interacted with someone who came to Canada with a working visa. She went to 2 months worth of English school. Like all the others, she speaks it well enough to comprehend, but not fluent. It's difficult, I know. We've had SOOO MUCH experience with English just as she has with Japanese. She came over to work and live in Toronto for a pre-determined period of time but she still needs to look for a job. It's tough times here in Toronto (partially due to SARS) but on top of that, most places require at least a proficiency in English. That is why she's going to try Japanese-related areas of business. So good luck to her on finding a job. Ganbatte!
Right after, I headed to Scarborough again for that BBQ. As always, good food when my uncle does the flipping. It was my aunt's birthday, that was why we had a BBQ. Many of her friends and co-workers had attended to celebrate. Of course, I think they mainly wanted to play mahjong together. Charles' parents were there too.
I stayed the night and for the entire day today (Sunday), I played more of the same video games, played only a small bit of mahjong, and participated in Chester, Kevin, Kinsie, Damian, and Jordan's 6-way Yu-gi-Oh card game duel.
So much fun had passed that I neglected to do my requried homework for the weekend. AHHH!!! Gotta start now!

Wednesday, June 11, 2003 at 11:50 p.m.
Today I went to eat at Pizza Hut with Melanie because we couldn't meet up before during her birthday. So that was the best I could do for a present. She ordered the Stuffed Crust pizza because she hasn't eaten it for a while. Plus she was really hungry after class. But it was the same for me, I have not tried the Stuffed Crust in ages. She also ordere a dessert pizza....Half apple and half cherry. It was very good. However, it appeared that the quality of the pizzas they serve now cannot possibly compare with the pizzas they dished out 5 or 6 years ago. But it was still edible. Heh heh....Nah, it was good. Just not as good as before.

Wednesday, June 11, 2003 at 01:29 a.m.
Yay! Today I walked to Canada Computers and got that 60' cable. I then walked back and connected the 2nd computer to the router! Ahhh, the wonderful feeling of an accomplishment. I don't have to switch the network cable to different computers anymore. Woohoo.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 12:26 a.m.
Yippy! I installed my router today and both computers work! ...While connected individually. I'm basically rotating the connection to whichever PC needs to be used right now. But the important fact is that each computer can connect to the Internet while hooked up to the router.
I could have connected both computers simultaneously because I have a second RJ-45 here. However, I can't use it. The story goes like this: I was intending to buy a 60' cable but one of the salespersons said that I should buy the next larger incremental size to my desired length. I didn't measure the actual length I needed so I just played it safe and bought the 75' cable. 'Cause I would not be able to return the cable if I opened the packaging.
So after coming back, I measured the distance my cable would need to be and it was actually 52'. Right now, my plan is to exchange the 75-footer to my desired 60-footer.