"Don't bang on about your five-cylinder car, ... or the enhanced Java functions in your new mobile. It marks you out as an arsehole. We want to talk about us, not you." - From a *Girl Talk* article in FHM.

Guess I'm quitting Java for the new year.

Surely there must be records for a water bottle cap tower! Our last count was 2 563 caps, and hopefully the coops next term will carry on the tradition. Who knows, we just might make it into the Guinness Book or something.

Now that I think about it, that's 1 281.5 L of water consumed. That's a lot of water.

Blogger has made it to the Seven Wonders of the Web, or maybe it's the whole idea of constantly changing, content-rich web publishing.

Regarding Matt's post, I would just like to make it clear that I'm not a pacifist. But if the US wants to uphold its beliefs of democracy and freedom, then they can't go attacking countries on the behaviour of one citizen. I'm sure the US wouldn't extradite GW Bush for committing acts of terrorism on the Afghan people, and bombing the hell out of what's left of their war-torn country.

It's Christmas, and still no snow on the ground. Pitiful if you ask me. I don't know what's going on with this weather, but I sure don't like where it's going. I'll have to open up a can of whup-ass soon.

I really don't want to write my work report. It just seems so unappealing right now. I don't know if I'll ever get it finished. Maybe one of these days I actually make the effort and get off my fat ass to write part of it.

A detailed map of Springfield. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

I've put up some new pics, including the lester party, the castle at work, limited Sybase party pics (more to come later), some misc. pics, and lots more are added to already existing albums, oh yeah and David Usher.

"It's like we're becoming a police state..."

So true.

It is amazing how you can be in a room full of people and yet feel utterly alone.

I really enjoy Amanda Marshall's new song, "Everybody's Got a Story", right now. Favourite verse:

now who can read the mind of the red headed girl next door
or the taxi driver who just dropped you off
or the classmate that you ignored
don't assume everything on the surface is what you see
cause that classmate just lost her mother
and that taxi driver's got a Ph. D.

Last night was the company Christmas party. We had it at the Waterloo Inn, in the basement. The salad with grapes, nuts and watermelons was interesting; the prime rib roast was tender and satisfying while the vegetarian meal was a little too mushroomy (as some can see, I ate all the leftovers); but the dessert (a chocolate and vanilla mousse cake) was excellent, it was even decorated in an abstract sort of way. Afterwards was the dance, and some people were pretty drunk off the complementary wine. I would like to take this time to reaffirm my stance on my dancing abilities -- I don't dance.

I find it interesting to see all the people that I work with (or see on a regular basis) with their wives or significant others. Some of them were matched up pretty good, others were sketchy.

Afterwards some of us went to the Bomber for the last night of the term. Others were supposed to follow, but they didn't. I am disappointed in them. They were obviously not "representing". Getting a cab from the Bomber at 3 in the morning was also quite a challenge. We must have called in about 4 cabs, and none of them showed up. After a half hour wait, I finally decided to walk home. It was brisk.

"Two U.S. special forces soldiers were slightly wounded on Friday during combat with al-Qaeda forces in Tora Bora's cave and tunnel complex." -- article at cbc

Since when does news about wounded (not even dead) US soldiers in a time of war belong on the headline of a national news website? Do they really have nothing better to report?

Maybe I should look into this service. Anyone got $80 000 US they want to lend me?

Just came across this site that is doing some meta blogging (blogging about blogging). But since I'm blogging about this meta blogging, does it make me a meta meta blogger?

This does bring up the interesting question of why we blog. Which brings up another question of why we read other people's blogs.

People have, for centuries, written journals or diaries, but most of those are personal, non-public material (at least before they died). Recently, there has been an explosion of the online blogging community, of which I am a relatively new member. I have posted before some of my views on blogging, but an interesting point to bring up is why are these journals all of a sudden public?

One of the reasons could be that everyone wants to make a name for themselves. In this day of giant corporation monopolies and terrorist activities, it seems that the only thing that counts on the internet is the number of hits per day you get. Mike Sanders from the site I referenced above did bring up a point about the importance, or the lack thereof, of your ranking in Google. And it's true, why should I really care if I'm the first Ming Li that pops up in Google, why should I be obsessed with how many people actually visit my site, why should I worry that I'm not as famous as Matt or Ming Li on the web? But I am, and it's sad.

Maybe our lives are just so boring and monotonous that we have to challenge and excite ourselves through other means.

Stats is finally over (well, not so much, I think my work report is going to involve some stats), and I can finally watch television at night again. I got my fill yesterday by watching nearly 3 straight hours of it. Oh, what would the modern civilized world do without overbudgeted and overpriced entertainment?

Yesterday I got an email saying that I shouldn't send out emails about bottle caps to the coop alias anymore. (Just to fill people in, we are building a water bottle tower at work, and intermittently, I, or some other coop, send out emails asking for more bottle caps). Apparently the emails were inappropriate. Personally I don't think so, but since I don't really want to make any enemies, all I'm going to do is gripe about it here. I guess my main concern is the purpose of the coop alias. It's not like us coops have much business to discuss, so what do we send? Surely a few emails about bottle caps can't hurt. If you don't like it, then delete it. We get non-business emails from full-timer's all the time, and I don't really care for those product new-feature emails either, but I still get dozens a day. I just see the subject line, and press delete. I don't understand what the fuss is about.

So, on the three month anniversary of 09/11/01, they still don't have bin Laden, only a toppled Taliban government, to be replaced by probably a just as corrupt, and just as oppresive government. But they did charge ONE person with some sort of crime related to the suicide terrorist acts. The majority of the American casualties in this war has been from friendly fire, and they've probably spent enough money ($60 billion) bombing the empty buildings in Afghanistan to rebuild 10 world trade centres.

Note to self: remember to write about conspiracy theory on how aliens created mankind and religion (more on this later, after exams).

http://www.levitated.net/

Knitting is hip (via metafilter or MeFi as they say). My friend Heather would love this story.

Moving ... it's not much a task for us students who move every 4 months ... but for my parents, it's a whole other story. This weekend, I helped my parents move from Guelph to Guelph, and I don't think I can move a muscle now. We had about 7 or 8 people and a Ryder truck through most of the move. Before they moved to Guelph, my parents said that they had about 10 500 lbs of stuff (that's almost 5 metric tons). We had to do three trips, and we filled up the huge truck every time. But look on the bright side, I have a permanent address again.

I'll be looking forward for the holidays, when I have a real house to stay at. Now I just need to make some friends I can hang out with in Guelph.

Anyone out there want to do something at New Years? Let me know.

Everyday I go looking at other people's weblogs, often several times a day; and when I don't see an update, I often wonder what's going on. But I guess I don't realize that people could be busy with school, studying, other commitments, other relationships (than the computer), or they simply have nothing interesting to blog. Sometimes I feel an obligation to write here, even though I have nothing to write about (like now). Maybe it's just my way of procrastinating my own studies, speaking of which...

"it" is finally here. Also called the Ginger, or the Segway (it's official name). What is it? An electronic 2 wheeled scooter thing-a-ma-jig that works like magic. Want one? Only $3000 US. Oh, and you'll have wait at least a year or two.

Three U.S. soldiers and five Afghan fighters were killed Wednesday when a B-52 bomber missed its target near Kandahar ...
There have been no sightings of bin Laden, but the wife and daughters of his top strategist were reportedly killed by U.S. bombs.
- article from CBC

Is this all the Americans have to show for after 2 months of bombings?

This is the best animated fight sequence I've seen. Take that Jackie Chan.

It could take a while to load, so I've copied it here.

Have you ever not been invited to your own birthday party? That about how I feel right now. I don't know what my friends are doing, I don't know what I am doing, I don't know where my life is going. I think I'm at a stage of my life where I should be making some big decisions, but I just can't see them.

(update: apparently the site is no longer there.)
Bill Gates is DEAD!

Well, no, not really, but they did do a pretty good job.

Do you own a hacking program such as "Bonzi Buddy"? This is hilarious.

I believe I have hit a lull in my life. But then again, maybe my whole life have been a lull. Work is just that, work. I don't feel the excitement that I should be, and everyday when I sit down at my desk, all I look forward to is foosball, lunch, foosball, and home. But home isn't all that much more interesting either. I come home, turn on the computer and check my email, hoping to see something interesting, but all I get are spam telling me how I can extend my penis size. I am yearning for something new to happen, but nothing ever does. I am frustrated, and yet I don't have anything to say. I hope this is not all life has to offer.