Friday, September 10, 2004
#
Okay, Andrea finally convinced me to blog again after my long absence. Anyway, today my brother told me this interesting thing that happened to him. Well, today, my brother had this 200 level geometry class at CAB. So he walked into the room, sat down, saved a seat for his friend, and waited for class to start. When the bell rang, in walked his prof, who is this white guy. My bro was a little surprised at that since on his Beartracks thing it said his prof's name is supposed to be Andrew Liu, clearly an Asian prof. He credited that to Beartracks putting the wrong information. However, then the prof started talking about the textbook being used for the course. The prof told the class that the textbook for the course can be used for Math 113, 114, 115 and so on, which are ALL calculus courses! So there was my brother thinking, why does a geometry course need a calculus book???
Suddenly, at this point in time, he just realized he's in the wrong class! Instead of his Math 200 something class, he went into a Math 113 class! But did he leave??? NO! He told me that he was sitting in the middle of the second row of the room, with all his stuff spread around him, and his bag in the next chair saved for his friend. He was too embarrased to make all the noise of packing up his stuff, then go through all the people in the row to get out of the room. Haha, on top of that, he told me he didn't want to sit there looking like one of those "know-it-all" geek types, so he started taking notes with the rest of the class! So in the end, he sat through the 1 hour class and copied a few pages of notes on absolute values!
I cracked up so bad when he first told me the story that I laughed for about 15 minutes straight! But then since I'm such a nice sister I stopped laughing because I can see that he was embarrassed. But it got me thinking, would any of you have left the class? I told my brother that I would have. However, later, I talked to Andrea and she said she wouldn't have done it. I know I'm not the type of person with the most guts, but still, I wouldn't have sat through a whole hour lecture that's not my course!
I think I must stop now, I've embarrased my brother enough as it is. He's probably going to kill me if he knows I blogged about this.
BTW, initially I typed this blog up on my Mozilla Firefox broswer. But when I looked back at my blog, I realized none of the formatting stayed! In fact, in the Firefox browser, I didn't even get the formatting options! So a word to Dickson and Mack, configure the blog engine to be used for Firefox! I had to start IE just to format this thing!
Monday, June 21, 2004
#
After waiting for so long, I got an invite to try out the new Gmail email service from Google. After only trying it out for half a day so far, I have to say I'm very impressed. I have been looking forward to getting away from my spam-infected Yahoo account, and this invite came just in time. Also, as one of the testers, I'm guaranteed to have a good username, none of those email addresses plauged with underscores and numbers for me anymore! This definitely made my day. Notice that I'm not the most knowledgable technic out there, so my review will be from most average user's point of view.
The good things: 1) Speed. I've previously tried Hotmail and Yahoo Mail before, and from those experiences, I have always been frustrated by the speed of their services. Unlike those two, so far all of the times I've tried Gmail it has been very fast to change between interfaces and shifting through emails. I don't know if it is their technology, or just the fact that there aren't many users right now, I'm not complaining. 2) The Ads. I know there has been a lot of privacy concerns about Gmail, but I personally don't mind them. Their ads are generally not very accurate to your email content, and they're so obscured on the side that I didn't really noticed them at all. I applaud them for adapting their popular advertising style from their search engine into this. It's really nice to finally have a free email service that isn't plauged with graphical ads that I don't want or read. 3) Labels. Unlike other emails, Google has started a new technology that instead of putting your emails in folders, you assign labels to them and put them all in one folder. And I think the most amazing thing is that you can assign multiple labels to an email, unlike folders. It definitely faciliate searches and archiving purposes. 4) The search tool. Not that I have that much mail right now to really play with it, but the serach tool for Gmail is awesome. I would compare it to the line of the Outlook search tools, but on a web mail service, something that Yahoo and Hotmail definitely don't have. You can pretty much serach for any fields in an email, and their searches are very relevant too.
There are many other good things that I like about Gmail, however, I only listed 4 of the most important ones I feel sets Gmail apart from other email services. Now, even with all the good things, I have a few suggestions to make in terms of improvements.
1) Format. So far Gmail is only available for text formats. No HTML available yet. Also, you can't change the color/font of your email either. 2) After I have archived an email from my inbox to the All Mail folder, it will automatically jumps back to the inbox but not to my next message. I find that a little annoying. I have other messages to go through, and it seems a waste of time for me to click on the next message again instead of automatically linking to it. 3) The Contact List. Personally, I would like to see Google add more fields to the contact list available. So far, you can only put in a name and an email address. Additional fields like alternate email addresses, birthday, or phone numbers will be very nice. One note though, I like how you can just type a name, and the email will list a contact from your list so it'll fill into your To column. I haven't noticed this feature from Yahoo before, but maybe I'm wrong.
As I have said, there are other bad things too, but good news is that they're in Beta testing right now, so maybe they'll get some of these bugs fixed by the final product. There are also features that I haven't tried yet, namely the spam filter. Hopefully I won't get too many of those to bother!
Friday, June 04, 2004
#
Wow, I noticed I haven't been blogging for almost 3 weeks now. It seems like every time I blog now I get splogged! I do like my inbox clean.
As suggested by my blog title, I think I'm one of the few people in Canada that wants Tampa Bay to win. Not that I like Tampa Bay, but just that I dislike Calgary. Main reason: they beat my favorite team Detroit. They can be Canadian and small market, but in the end, any team that beat mine will not get my support. Even though I have to admit Calgary has played very good hockey in the first 3 rounds, I have to say so far their performance in this final round is disappointing me. I know when the playoffs get this far, the games tend to be more physical than before. But there's a line between playing physical and just bullying the other team around. For example, the Nimmenin hit on Lecavilier. I can't believe Calgary actually complained about that hit. Especially Iginla's behaviour afterwards!
Another thing, I never knew the Flames are a bunch of whiners. This is essentially what they have become. Every time a call doesn't go their way, they whine and bitch about it to the media. Enough is enough. Bitching about it isn't going to get the call back, and it isn't improving your game. This is giving the public a very poor image of Canadian hockey. If we pride ourselves as a hockey nation, then we should concentrate on the game but not on the officiating.
I know Tampa can take games 6 and 7! So, go Lightning!
Saturday, May 15, 2004
#
Last night, I went to go see Troy. I have to admit, no female could deny the appeal of seeing Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and Orlando Bloom in the same movie. However, after watching it, I have to say I am disappointed.
I think overall, I am mostly disappointed in how little they have adhered to the Iliad in the major events. I'm not saying that the whole movie did not follow it (like some other movies I've seen), but for some of the major events that were described in the Iliad, they were portrayed differently in the movie. I understand the need for changing the story to adapt to modern audiences, but in this case, I don't see the reason for most the changes. It distorts the story as it was told by Homer.
Also, as for the central theme of the movie, I thought it was over emphazied. I don't think I need to be reminded every other minute that the reason Achilles fight for the Greeks is for glory, and that this battle would be remembered over the centuries. A couple of times is enough. As for character development, too much effort has been used on Achilles, while other deserving characters did not get the attention (like Aggamenon and Priam). However, I was surprised to how well they developed Hector. I liked the one review where I've read the choice of actors to play Hector and Achilles, where the critic praised for the use for golden-hair Brad Pitt and dark hair Eric Bana to emphasized the difference between their characters' values.
Okay, I know I have criticized this movie quite a bit. There are so good things. The action scenes were very well done, especially the one between Achilles and Hector. If you're looking for a typical action movie, then definitely go for it. But if you're looking for a movie that tells the story from the Iliad, then it's somewhat of a disappointment. Also, I noticed some things they have set up as possible sequels, I wonder if they're going to make them?
Monday, April 26, 2004
#
Wow, I haven't blogged for such a long time, as Andrea has noticed. And splogging is not fun. Imagine getting 70+ emails at once! It's especially bad on Outlook too! I hope they can turn this stupid feature off.
In other news, it's my birthday today. Quite sad really, I wish I can just stay 21 forever. I don't think my parents have made a notice that today is my birthday at all! Oh well, I don't need anymore reminders. On the other hand, I can now legally gamble in Las Vegas.
I've been so excited lately. Fido recently introduced their MMS service. And until mid June, it's free to send and receive! I can now send pictures or sounds to other people! And then I was cruelly reminded on how little people I know uses Fido and has a color phone. I can't send stupid pictures to anyone! Come on people, color phones are the future!
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
#
Hey people, quick question: do any of you know of a good utility program for my computer? I don't need something fancy or anything like that, just using it to clean up my registry, useless files, a good uninstall wizard, and fix problems. I have used Norton System Works before but didn't quite like it. Keep in mind that I'm not exactly a computer genius so something with a friendly and easy to use user interface. So can anyone recommend one for me to use?
Sunday, April 11, 2004
#
Well, today I watched the back nine of the Masters. It was one of the most exciting rounds of golf that I've watched. Who said golf is boring??? Watching Mickelson chases Els, then sinking that last birdie to win his first major is one of the best moments in golf that I've seen. Kuods to Els too, even though he lost, for getting two eagles today. He played good enough to win. And those two hole-in-ones in the 16th hole, amazing! Glad to see Mickelson win a major, after coming in so close so many times. I'm happy I took time out of my weekend to watch this!
Thursday, April 01, 2004
#
Just watched The Apprentice. All throughout the show I thought Bill was quite good looking, but after tonight's episode, my liking him has just turned out another degree. The guy is not only good looking, but he has good fashion sense too! When I was watching the show today, whenever Bill's talking, the only thing I noticed besides his face was his Burberry scarf! It looks just like mine, excpet mine is fake. I just wanted to rip it from him and keep it. Though I have to say it looked good on him too! So, still team challenge today, I can't wait for them to roll out the individual ones. Who do you think will win this thing? I say Bill, not just because of his looks. I think the final 2 is going to be Amy and Bill. But between them, I'll pick Bill. Now, if only he'll give me his scarf!
Apparently, the British had considered using live chicken a heat source for nuclear weapons. April Fools' joke? I can't tell. People have in the past thought of very stupid things, so this might be true afterall!
Sunday, March 28, 2004
#
Just finished watching Alias, for those of you who cares, Jack is so onto Lauren! I'm so glad he's the one who caught her though. I think Jack is the only one out of the whole show who has enough intelligence and capability to get her. No wonders Annie likes him so much. After Jack kicks her ass, Vaungh and Sidney can finally get back together!
After going through 3 months with no homework or school, I find myself having to do my co-op assignment that's due on Wednesday. I guess I shouldn't complain. I have no desire to start this or even look at it. This is turning bad. I have no idea what will happen when I go back to school.
I decided today that starting tomorrow I'm going to quit drinking pop. I wonder how long I'll last. Notice I said I'm starting tomorrow, but that's cuz I had a coke today. I saw it in the fridge and just couldn't resist.