[done] carve an after-the-fact pumpkin, probably depicting Haruhi in completely non-naughty scenarios, but I wouldn’t mind some suggestions from readers (I’m letting it try tonight before I operate on its face tomorrow and post some pics later)
[done] buy after-the-fact super discounted candy from the likes of Walmart, Shopper’s Drug Mart, etc… to dispense and consume at my leisure
[done] avoid dressing up in drag for once
[ ] get to the bottom of my varying and various species of Smoochum dreams
[ ] find a portable mini hard drive (100 GB and up) for my… data storage and migration
Last week I had another dream involving kissing but not of the necessarily romantic type.
Yesterday I figured out the last layer of the Rubik’s cube (i.e. Edward Chu’s Rubik’s cube) and I was thoroughly satisfied. I’ve since been solving the damned thing all day long (through my classes and on the bus). There’s something about the way it all comes together at the end that gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Anyway, that’s one thing I can cross off my “Quirky” list of things to learn to do.
Over the past year or so, I’ve been getting recurring thoughts all lilly-stepping around the theme of updating and changing my surroundings. › Continue reading
There are a few things I’ve noticed as of late and I’m almost surprised I haven’t noted them earlier.
5 things I’ve noticed recently:
I have a strong disdain for the reek of ammonia.
I don’t think most people actually enjoy the flavour ammonia leaves in one’s nose, but I have, for some reason, an extremely negative reaction to the stuff. During a lab in Chemistry class, we had to work with samples of the stuff and it was all I could do to stop myself from coughing endlessly at the smell. It gives off a very distinct and pungent smell that does not play nice at all with the olfactory sensors in my ol’ factory.
I don’t get along with many, many people.
It’s not that I go looking for fights to pick, or that I pick them easily, but I seem to have been cursed (or blessed, if you ask me) with the ability of firstly developing very strong opinions/evaluations of people and their character, and having my predispositions confirmed later on by their actions. This means I’ve got a small set of friends with whom I’m thoroughly content, and a very large portion of the general public with whom I am politely silent at the worst, and then a small sliver of the populace that I hold in contempt. It’s not that I hate, but I just feel absolutely no reason, selfish or otherwise, to be exceptionally accomodating towards any of these people in the last group. Mind you, I get these inclinations far before these people have done anything in particular to set me off, but nearly every time I get these “premonitions” (if you will bear it) these people turn out to be exactly the kind of person I expected them to be.
I hate the cold.
I am not sure if it’s the south-Asian blood running in my veins or just an overzealous love for summer and all its freedom, but I have a very strong inclination towards disliking winter and the cold. I wouldn’t mind the snow and the short days so much if it weren’t for the constant sheets of grey that plaster the skies for the better part of the season and the gusty coldness with gutsy wetness that, together, invade my private parts without paying any heed to my wishes. The only redeeming traits about the cold is that it often leads to cuddling up (with another person or with a toasty blanket) for long hours spent in the comfort of one’s home, and that Christmas (and later, spring) is bound to get here (unlike in Narnia).
I enjoy reading my Bible.
I honestly do. Many people looking in from without may find this a bit peculiar: that a well-reasoned (though perhaps ill-balanced) and mostly logical mind would take joy in ruminating over ancient texts about long past days, heroes, and miracles is relatively counter-intuitive. Nevertheless, it’s true for me. I’d count myself rational (though not always sensible) enough to be able to hold a light to any half-decent debator and anyone who has ever spoken with me about personal beliefs and questions of faith will know that I’m not one to be easily convinced of anything but what I’ve thought out for myself. I do like reading my Bible and I don’t like people writing it off as “dated”, “barbaric”, “boring”, “useless”, etc… without having earnestly read through any extensive portion of the book. That’s like me telling you that your favourite course in school is a complete waste of time and dead stupid without ever having completed the course. So please, don’t be dated, barbaric, boring, or downright useless by trying to convince anyone about anything you don’t know anything about.
I enjoy being kind.
Okay, so anyone who knows me in a very general sense probably wouldn’t list “kindness” as one of my main (or even secondary) virtues, and I am quite regretful of this. Nevertheless, I do strive to be as kind as possible whenever the opportunity is given. Ask me to borrow my book of notes, or a couple dollars, or whatever and I’ll probably lend it to you unless there’s some extremely good reason against it. It’s necessary for any good Christian man to be generous with his possessions, his wealth, and himself to others (who may or may not be at a disadvantage). I wouldn’t count myself wholly or even generally virtuous but I also wouldn’t count myself as wholly or even generally malicious. I’m generally well-adjusted and wouldn’t mind discomforts if it helps someone else, but I don’t appreciate ungracious attitudes from people seeking help.
I was running late for work,
So I didn’t change my shirt. The evening’s drinks left a
Lingering taste in my mouth.
And when I left,
You were fast asleep–
Tangled in the sheets–
And on the bus I could have sworn,
“It was all a dream,
And it didn’t happen to me.”
And then I felt the scrapes,
From the slippery subway grate.
Oh how you laughed
At my complete lack of grace.
But I could not recall
A more perfect fall, ‘Cause when I looked up into your eyes,
It didn’t hurt at all.
And I thought, “Be still my heart.
This could be a brand new start… with you?”
And it will be clear,
If I wake up and you’re still here,
With me in the morning.
- The Postal Service, Be Still My Heart
Today I spent my second-period spare doing research and gathering ideas for my first World Literature paper for IB. I don’t really find this worth reporting, but I did have a neat conversation with Shivon about doing historic versus scientific research. More directly, we were talking about the Bible’s historical and scientific accuracy. If you’ve gotten to know me over the years (or maybe even just met me), you will know that I am someone very much concerned with being right. I don’t mind being wrong, but just show me how. I also like being right, especially proving and explaining how exactly it is just as I say. Don’t get me wrong, things are not true because I say they are, but if I say something is true, I’ve got good reason(s) to think and know so.
It’s been awhile since I’ve used my Vista boot but I’ve been on Vista almost constantly for the past week or so due to gaming needs (there is no Half Life 2 on Ubuntu to my knowledge) and yearbook work (I’m a Photoshop user and will probably continue to be until I die). As such, I have finally started accumulating applications on Windows for my day-to-day clutter/use/life, only I decided I’d be looking for open sourced/free software (that actually works better than many “brand” name wares in many cases). Here’s my latest roundup of applications for just about everything:
Virtual CloneDrive
If you’ve ever needed to mount those “application” (i.e. video game disk) ISO and DAA files (disk image files) but didn’t have the tools (e.g. PowerISO, UltraISO, etc…) this app is for you. It’s lightweight, simple, and gets the job done. It adds an extra drive icon under My Computer which is treated as a normal CD/DVD drive, but loads digital files instead of plastic.
winLAME
This piece was suggested to me by Herman but I never used it until now (I don’t think there was a Vista compatible one way back then). The lamer is an MP3 conversion tool (i.e. from “X format” to MP3, not from Buddhist to Christian) that runs decently enough. In the past, I’ve used many converters, like Xilisoft’s “WMA MP3 Converter”, COWON’s “jetAudio” media player/manager, and even resorted to importing and exporting with Audacity (for the tricky formats not supported by anything else). So far, winLAME’s been simpler than the rest (no extra crap, unlike jetAudio) and stabler (I ditched Xilisoft because it would crash frequently) than anything else. This is a good investment (small and useful) if you’re someone, like me, who is very obsessive compulsive about the way their music is formatted, tagged, and organized.
XdN Tweaker
If you’ve ever felt the urge to fine tune your Windows system, but haven’t the time to Google up anything, fancy, this tweaker is a good place to start. It’s hard to grasp all the different little things this application does (mostly through changing your registry in safe, reversible ways). XdN lets you add or remove options on your context (read: right-click) menu, change the way files and folders are treated, and many other options you probably never knew existed/could be changed. I’d say get this for quick and convenient access to changing options (many of which would require manual registry hacking without XdN).
UltraDefrag
My father was the one who told me about this application (he knows his way around computer maintenance). I used to use programs like O&O Defrag to clean up my drives. Defragging, for you less hardcore computer users, basically takes your hard drive’s collection of data and rearranges it so that 1) file splitting is avoided and 2) data and empty space are sorted nicely. It’s sort of like cleaning your room from time to time, but for your drives. This makes your hard drive’s life a little easier and speeds up read speeds. Anyway, UltraDefrag is like a normal defragger program, only extremely simple. Analyze, defragment, compact, rinse, repeat. Very nice, very small, very stable, and very fast. The download page may look a little n00b/sketchy but I assure you, it’s all good and safe to try.
