Genesis has a winter retreat this weekend. We're going to Blue Mountain for the weekend, for some skiing and winter sports. It's very informal, no program. Of course this just means lots of sharing time (oh, goodie!). dL emailed all of us going to pick a passage to focus on and then share our thoughts on it (oh, goodie!). My devotion time has dwindled off for about 6 months now, so I didn't have any passages I could think of. I mentioned this in a conversation with KL and he was able to share with me one of his favorite verses, Phil 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

I went to gospelcom.net to check out this verse, and upon reading it I went ahead and read up the whole chapter. I've decided that the passage I will be focusing on this weekend will be Philipians 4:5-13. May God enlighten me with His words during this weekend (so that I'll have something to share!!).

I just raided the inventory cabinets at work today. Got a new binder, a new mechanical pencil, lead, and a pen. I also organized my desk last week, adding file folders and paper trays. It's too bad I'll be moving upstairs soon, probably in 2-3 weeks. My cubicle is really big here, whereas upstairs it'll be more lab-environment. Here, my cubicle is almost twice the size of the one Mitel gave me. It has its own reception area too. The City handles garbage a little weird here at Metro Hall. It's like a trolley, with 3 drawers, labelled White Paper, Non-Recyclables and Mixed Paper. There is also a label for Reusable Paper, but my thing is missing that particular tray. Each tray is only around 7cm deep, so they fill up pretty quickly. Especially when I have McDonald's. I have to carry each tray over to the larger bins in the kitchen area. The Mixed Paper one fills up really fast!

Yesterday the poker match continued on television, in a live broadcast on just about every station. Doesn't look like either guy will win, so they'll probably end up playing a game of war to resolve everything.

Yesterday my mom went to check out some open houses (condos). She's looking for a 3 bedroom condo, around our area. The plan is to sell the house and buy a condo, then move down to the states. That way they'll have a place to live if ever they come back to visit me, or if my grandparents need to come back to: a) renew their citizenship status b) buy medicine (US healthcare sucks). For the time being though, I'd be living at the new condo, so I'll have lots of room, which is pretty cool, plus I'm sure my parents will furnish the place so I won't have to buy furniture (which is sad in a way, since I was hoping to give my condo a little of my own design taste). Haha..Who am I kidding..?

Another thought on yesterday's party is how God works in one's life, bringing certain people into your lives. It's really quite amazing when I think about the times in which I or my family made certain choices and yet the end result was still the same. We moved from Unionville to North York just after grade 8. I was going to MillikenCCC back then. During my highschool years, most of the teens at church were either from Earl Haig (which I attended), or Unionville High, or Sir John A McDonald. Had I stayed in Unionville, I would have still known the same people, although I guess I would have been closed to the Unionvillers.

My own choice was picking McMaster over Waterloo. I could've been in 'Loo's co-op CS programme. What a loser, and what a bad, bad choice, but back to my point. By going to Mac, I ended up having less choices for internship placements, and thus was forced to work at Craptel, er, Mitel, in Crapsville, er, Ottawa (just kidding... or am i ?! haha). But by this, I had the fortune of meeting many many Waterloo people, which I would have met anyway at Waterloo CCF. However, had I gone to Waterloo, I guess I would not have met many of the Ottawans that I consider true friends in my life.

It's funny when I try to picture how it is in heaven. What was it like for God, when He flipped the page to Brian Yao. "What? They're moving? Alright, let's erase this and put this person here, and this.. ok.. done." Then, "What? He picked McMaster? Dang, what an idiot! Ah well, no worries... Where's the white-out?"

Sunday, yet another eventful day. Rev. Harding Ng spoke on the same passage as our bible study, but he talked about different stuff -- I think. I find that I rarely get much out of morning sermons anymore, ever since I started working. Maybe too tired or just not fully awakeness has claimed my concentration on Sunday mornings, but whatever it is, I have just been out of it lately on Sunday mornings. The worst is when you're talking with someone, and try as I might to get a conversation going, I just can't, because my mind is totally blank. Then I'm just standing there staring at them, wracking my brains to come up with something intelligent to say, and "um.. so anyway.. I'm going to go talk to so-and-so, see you later Brian!".

At night, I got a ride with a friend to go to Fu's house. He's going away, to Connecticut, for at LEAST 6 months. It's sad to see a friend go away. But it's an exciting time, it is, going off on his own, for his job.. that's pretty cool. It's so "grown up". Brian was the one of the few guys who talked to me when I first moved to T3C, since I knew him from before, way back, though not sure when. Anyway, we were at his house, and it was a farewell thing, for him. Everyone who knew him and could make it out was there. There were quite a few people there, and quite a few that I knew, even the non-t3c people. Anyway, it was a good time, we had appetizers, and watched LOTR2. Some people put together a cool gift, a booklet, full of memories, devotionals, encouraging letters to him.

Saturday night I headed out to a software engineering reunion, at my friend Nitish's house, out in Brampton. 75% of my 4th year house was there, plus a few others, but basically our 'gang' was there. We had a ping-pong tournament. I placed dead last, which is funny since I have a ping-pong table at home. My excuse is that I haven't played ping-pong for 7 years, since it got stuffed into a corner when we got our pool table. (btw, if anyone wants a pool table, $1000 + moving expenses -- and it's yours).

I get kind of shell-shocked whenever I hang out with these guys because it's "F this" and "F that". I don't get exposed to this much cussing normally, so yeah it's a bit of a shock every time I hang out with these people. They all drink too. (Mind you it is my fault for drinking too much on more than one occasion during the school year.) But it's good though, seeing how everyone is doing. It's also nice to know that all them have realized that our SE degree was a complete waste of time, as all of us are working at IT positions (well, those of us who have found work, that is). That we all think we'd still be in the same position had we all taken programming courses at Seneca kinda scares me, because I keep running into kids at church who are taking SE at Mac, and all I can tell them is "good luck". Well, I'm sure that the market will turnaround some day..

Anyway, as I was saying, these people have such a different lifestyle. They look at me like there's something wrong with me if I don't drink. "Brian, you're not even driving, why aren't you drinking?", they'd tell me. "Brian, it's only 1am, are you going home already?" Yes.. i have to wake up early on Sundays. Sheesh.

It's been a while since my last post. A lot's happened since Thursday.

Friday, had small group, where we had a bible study on learning the .. Actually I don't quite remember what it was =P
But it was on Phil. 3:1-11. Something about the contrast between worldly success and success according to the bible. Oh yeah, that's what it was, we were asked to give our definition for success. I had a pretty good one: "Success is knowing that you are living God's plan for you." A textbook answer, I'd say. I thought a lot about what success meant to me personally, but I can honestly say I don't think about success in the way most of my male friends would (ie: get degree, get job, get car, get girl), and thus I decided to just put down a general definition of what I thought would be the 'right' answer. In the end we pooled our answers and surprisingly everyone put down more of a definition than a personal meaning. We ended up putting together sort of a success mission statement for our small group, and it was pure textbook as well.

Why do Hershey Kisses always taste so funky? It's like they take the poorest of quality chocolate that they can find, or the oldest. It's always so disappointing when you unwrap one and bite down. You always expect a different taste (because you know what chocolate is supposed to taste like).

I found a bag of goodies in my jacket pocket. I'd forgotten about it. It's a Christmas loot bag from a small group meeting that I had missed. Someone must've given it to me later on. Anyway, this loot bag is pretty neat, it had a bunch of different candies, and other stuff, with the following note *! watch out for falling cheese !* :

FRIENDSHIP
Contained in this bag are a few reminders of friendship
Lifesaver - to remind you of the many times others need your help and you need theirs
Cotton Ball - a cushioned supprt for the rough times
Rubber Band - a reminder to stay flexible
Paper Clip - to help you hold it all together
Happy Face - not only does smiling increase your face value, it's contagious
Candle - a reminder to share your light
Sweet and Sour Candy - to help you accept and apprectiate the differences in others
Band-Aid - for the hurt feelings - yours and others
Hersheys Hugs and Kisses - we all need hugs and kisses
Eraser - to remind you that you start each day with a clean slate

Yesterday I was invited by a friend to play CS at an internet cafe. It was pretty fun.. I've always heard things about CS but never played it myself until last night. It reminded me a lot like SoF2-MP, but of course the graphics weren't as good. SoF2 is based off the Quake3 engine, while CS I believe is based off the HL engine, which was modded from the Quake2 engine. And besides SoF2 came after and probably just copied their mission objectives from CS anyway. Still, the fact that CS is still so popular is pretty amazing, considering all the other games that have spawned since CS first came out. One thing great (or not so great) about CS is there's no weapon that can help you completely dominate the game. Almost every other game I have played has a weapon that can basically allow you to dominate.

UT/2k3, Quake 1/2/3, SoF, Doom/2 had the rocket launcher. SoF2 had the grenade launcher. NOLF2 also has a mini-rocket launcher, but I haven't played the MP so I wouldn't know. JK2 has the lightsabre (by far the coolest weapon in any FPS i've ever played). I can't even remember what RTCW had anymore.

I guess the closest game to CS I can think of is Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Both are very realistic in that you will die from 2-3 shots. Both have "fire in the hole" grenade warnings. MoHAA was a *really* hard game though, I remember the d-day beach assault took me 2 days to complete. Two days for one mission!

As far as addiction goes I can see where it comes from, but I think all multiplayer fps's have the same affect on me. When you get killed, you just want to get back up and avenge your death. Especially if you were picked off by a sniper/camper.. in CS a third of the weapons were made for camping. In all the games I've played that has a shotgun, that has been my favourite weapon. Even in quake3 where everyone wields the rocket launcher, i still go with the 'boomstick'. It's quick, and it packs a punch. My love for the shotgun started from doom and doom2, especially doom2, when they introduced the double barrel shotgun. The sound of it reloading and shooting -- ah, good times indeed.

Well all in all, CS is a prety cool game. The only two beefs I have for CS are: The jumping. When you run and jump, it slows you down once you land. Perhaps it's more realistic, but I'm used to jumping being something that speeds up your running rather than slowing it down. The second beef is how when you get shot, you almost cannot move. It basically stops you, once you've been shot, you're going to die, for some reason your guy can move, like he's stuck. That's annoying because basically if you're caught in a crossfire, you can run away and hide. But, I like the concept of buying your weapons prior to each spawn so you can try different weapons/combinations that work best for you. And I like the fact you can play this game on a sub-par machine and still get pretty nice graphics and speedy gameplay. The bots aren't stupid either, they work together and only occasionally do they get stuck in loop!

Anyway.. back to work.

Quickly, I'll pick Raiders over TB, doesn't matter the score. I like big upsets and stuff like that, but when it comes down to the final game of the year, it has to be the best team winning. Last year when the Pats won, that was annoying, because they were a mediocre team. Luckily (i use this loosely) because of the 9/11 stuff, americans were happy they won because they were the "Patriots".

The last few days have been really cold. I started wearing long johns, which I haven't worn since my days in ottawa. It's cold, really cold. Today, I heard on the radio that it dipped down to -31C windchill. That is bad.. I only have to walk for 10 minutes to get to the subway, and that is 9 minutes more than I want. By the time I reach the subway my eyes are glazed over from tears, which form because my eyelids are so cold. Ha.

This might be really old to some people, but i recently came upon a pretty useful site, http://www.makeashorterlink.com/

I think it's pretty useful, especially in emails sometimes your urls get cut off and the links don't work properly, if they're too long. Like, a link like http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/timelines/0,14209,561527,00.html is really long to fit in an email, whereas using that site gives you a nice and short: http://makeashorterlink.com/?V19E21823

Sometimes, when I've been running or was scared from something, my heart beats really fast and loud, like I can hear it. Then, it seems as though my vision, or the image I am getting through my eyes sort of pulsates according to my heart beat. It's pretty weird.

Last night I dreamed that my two hardest profs teamed up and gave us a 2 question exam. We got a cheat sheet, but for somer reason I lost mine, and so I had to figure out these two questions without the use of any formulas. I was so scared because these two questions could have come from anywhere. It was impossible to study, but I studied one section of the text, and both questions were on that section of the text book! But then, I blanked out and couldn't answer either one, even though they were really easy! Finally I remembered that I had already finished school and that it was just a dream, and forced myself awake!

This past friday was another sharing/testimony night at fellowship, but since I'd been away so long I forced myself to go. Plus my mom insisted I go too, so I didn't have much of a choice anyway. They had us sit in a circle and pass a pen around, and if you didn't want to say anything, then you just pass the pen along. Kind of like at CC a couple years ago, they passed around a bag of gummi bears, and if you wanted one you had to say something (or other people would see it, if you wanted to speak, you had to take a gummi bear).

You could also ask to sing a song, but I didn't have any in my mind at the time. I passed the pen along twice. I almost, almost did consider sharing, but I heard one other testimony that was exactly the same as mine, like exactly, so I decided to pass. Unlike my old church, the majority of this group's testimonies started out as "I grew in a Christian famil, so...", rather than "I didn't really believe in anything until highschool, when I was invited to play softball (or teen's conference)..."

It's been really cold these last few days. I've needed a haircut for over a week now. You know how after you get a haircut, there's bits of hair left on your neck and ears and face, so you (I) can't wear a toque or scarf on the way (walk) home. So because of this recent cold weather I've had to hold off on a much need haircut.

"Even when I looked down, I couldn't see him. He almost stole the ball from me. At the time, I thought it was someone from the audience." -- 7'5" Yao Ming, on the Warriors' 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins

poker -- not just a game
So recently there's this poker match on tv that they've been covering on almost all the news reports. It's a pretty important game, involving 2 of the best players in the world; this game will determine who's #1. Anyway, there's 3 players in this game, an american, a brit, and some guy from the middle east in this grudge match. It's fun to watch, because you get to see bluffing tactics and players provoking eachother. In this particular game, the american and middle east guy are ranked almost the same, while the brit is like a wannabe, he got in by fluking a win in the semi's.

The brit guy sort of just rides the american's coat-tails. He never raises or folds, he just keeps calling. The game goes like forever, when the dealer tells asks them how many cards they want, they can sit there and decide all day, there's no time limit.

The middle east guy has been known to cheat, like hiding cards up his sleeve, that sort of thing. But he played it straight for the past few seasons because he was eager to beat the american guy, who took over #1 during the middle east guy's hiatus from the "sport". Also, everyone hates the middle east guy because his poker face is one of a smirk. He just looks at the american smugly, and sometimes he flashes the identity of his cards, but so quickly that no one is able to make out what they were. He's cocky.

Well anyway, in this one game, which is currently in progress, they caught the middle east guy cheating, but the american decided to let him continue because he just wanted to beat him once and for all. It's like they hate eachother so much, it's not enough to just win on a technicality!

What's going to happen? I don't know yet since it's still going. It's on the web too actually. I'll try to find the link for everyone to view it.

I like poker because it's not just a simple game of cards, it's a game of wits and strategy. It's like everything's on the line, your pride, your intelligence, your money, and your name. You could have a full house, but if the other guy bluffs hard enough, you could get scared and think he has something even better, causing you to fold. On the other hand, you could have 4 aces in your hand, think the other guy is bluffing -- bet everything you've got, only to discover your opponent has a straight flush. Then it's ALL over!


Actually here's a status articles about this game, here and here. Also, this site covers it almost on a daily basis, it's usually the first story mentioned.

Your love
Is extravagant
Your friendship
Intimate

I find I'm moving
To the rhythms of Your Grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating
In our secret place

Your love
Is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ
Is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known
You considered me a friend

Capture my heart again

by Darrell Evans, 1998

If a bank account balance falls to zero, how long before the account closes up automatically, or does it? And can one close an account over the telephone or does one have to go in person? It would be really funny, if I couldn't close my Scotia account just because they were always closed.

Did I mention that I really hated Scotia bank?

Just a quick nfl update. I went 3-1 this weekend. McNabb played, and beat the Falcons. The Raiders rolled on. I didn't watch the TB-SF game, but from the looks of the score and the headlines, it appears SF got beaten pretty badly. I really do not like the Bucs though. They're an extremely boring team to watch. Picture the New Jersey Devils of the football. Pure defense, not much -- or pathetic -- offense. Defenses win championships though. Next Sunday, it'll be the Eagles against the Bucs, and I am picking the Eagles to take this one. Both teams have great defense, but the Eagles have an offense and they will use it. This should probably be a very low scoring game and special teams will play a big part.

It was disappointing to see the Jets only manage 2 field goals in the entire game, but I guess that is testament to how great a team the Raiders are. They have the total package, offense, and defense. This is why I envision a Raiders vs. Eagles Superbowl. These are the two best teams in the league right now and they deserve to be in the finals. I think many (including myself) thought Pennington might be the next Tom Brady. But the Raiders were simply too good.. I think Pennington has a very bright future though, better than Brady I think, because of the team that surrounds each of these two players. The Jets are still fairly young. You take away CuMar and there's a very ripe, young receiving core of Moss/Coles/Becht, plus there's that kid Lamont Jordan basically waiting for his turn to shine, much like Shaun Alexander in Seattle, or Ahman Green in Green Bay. Great, talented kids who are/were buried on the bench where many forgot about them. On top of all that the Jets defense is finally playing well. I personally would prefer these teammates over what Tom Brady has in Brown/Patten/Smith.

Finally I wanted to address the close game between the Steelers and Titans. What happened to the Steelers' defense? Gone! IMO, this was a game of a couple of really bad teams that battled it out in a game that featured a lot of fumbles, miscues, and bad calls. The officiating was so bad (and funny) I was surprised to see that "The Scowl" did not surface until the 3rd quarter. You can see The Scowl, here, here, and here. Of these two bad teams, I guess Tennessee deserved the win.

So it'll be Raiders vs. Eagles, and my early prediction (as can change as i watch more games + injuries) is Raiders over Eagles in San Diego.

I was asked to do some sharing this past friday for my small group. I actually ended up turning down this invitation because I just didn't feel like it. I don't know what it is with me and sharing but I just don't like it, or the idea of it. Even when someone else is sharing, it's interesting to hear and all, and it's a reminder for me to pray for that person, but rarely has it been an inspiration or insight for me. Maybe i'm just ultra-insensitive or maybe just so apathetic that i just don't care for it. Or maybe I'm just not listening to the right things. I dunno.

Anyway, I ended up not even going to fellowship this week because one of my old housemate/classmates was in town and had organized a dinner with other classmates so I went to that instead. He's in consulting so he travels a lot and we rarely get a chance to sit down together and chat. So we hooked up at Milestones at Yorkdale mall. Friday nights are crazy busy there and even though we got there at 7:15 to get on the waiting list, we didn't actually sit down and order until after 9pm! Well, the food was good and all. I had to treat one of the guys there as we had a pact that whoever found a job first had to buy the other a dinner. He recently found a job as well though, so praise God for that. In fact, praise God that everyone who came that night are employed now. I think just over half of my graduating SE class are employed now!

Something I did notice about the dinner was the conversation. Well aside from the fact that these guys cuss and drink a lot, I just found that the conversation never really got very serious. It was like old times again, like we were back in school and all we did was crack jokes and laugh at eachother because no one wanted to talk about anything serious. We were in engineering, and it was rough.. We went out because we needed a high or a raiser to remind us life could still be fun. But now, we were all adults, with full time jobs, but it was still the same thing. Ah well, I guess it's a lot to ask to have a decent conversation in larger groups. I think I'm more of a one-on-one type of person, or one-on-two, but once it gets to more than that, I can't handle it anymore.

I was talking to a friend at church today about online gaming.. I've been on and off playing Diablo2, most recently I stopped playing again, but only because I've been side-tracked with other games like No One Lives Forever 2, and Mafia, two pretty long games with involved storylines. I still have a long way to go in both games.

Diablo II has been a really special game because I have been playing it since it came out way back when I was on internship in Ottawa, in 2000. It's crazy to me that a game could have such lasting power. The reason this is such an addictive game is because it's an item driven game, meaning that you keep playing because you want to find everything. There are items that even I have still never found, that I want to find, and that's what keeps me going. Blizzard has promised a patch, 1.10 that has been delayed for months now and that's another reason that I keep going back. To maintain my existing characters so they don't get deleted and so that I can play them when the new patch comes out. The latest reports say it'll be out later this month.

Diablo II has actually claimed lives because of it addictive nature. I have read twice that someone has died because of long exposures to this game, including one just recently in which actually an adult died because he played non-stop so long that he just died of exhaustion.

What's your favorite thing to hear from your boss when you're at work? Here's a few I've gotten..

"Good work!" or "Nice job"
"Merry Christmas, see you next week"
"Uh.. sorry but you're going to have to make the following changes..."
"I'm going home now, you're in charge"
"What is this??" or "I think we need to sit down and discuss this"
"Let's go for a beer"
"Wake up!" (just kidding, hehe)
"Brian, go home!" or "What are you still doing here??"
"You're finished already??"
"What's all this crap?" (as he looks through the cd's i brought to work to listen to)

For my next toy, I've been trying to decide between an X-Box and an electric guitar. For once, the 'right' thing is much more expensive than the fun thing. If I trade in all my psx games and psx, and all my brother's n64 games and his n64, it should come out to roughly a third of the price of a brand new xbox. I was recently over at my friend Keith's place, and played his xbox and must say the graphics on this console are very, very good. This is truly an amazing piece of hardware, the graphics are like what you'd get if you pumped up the settings on any game on your computer, only there's no lag or choppiness. It's a dedicated gaming machine, you wouldn't have ICQ or Trillian running in the background, or Explorer, etc. It's pure gaming.

On the flip side, I Really want an electric guitar. I've been playing around with the solo's on some songs I've heard on the radio and it's been pretty fun. But it doesn't sound the same on an acoustic as with a guitar, and my acoustic is pretty limited in the sense it only produces one kind of sound. I'd like to be able to play anything, and if i had both types, then I'd be able to. These things cost a bundle though, and plus you need an amp as well. It would cost my approximately twice the price of an xbox, even before i traded in my other systems.

So it's basically down to something that will be outdated in a year, or something that can last pretty much for forever, but will cost me 3 times as much.

So. The Giants were cheated of a win? I don't think so though.. that kicker would've still missed anyway. Mark Bryant has been inaccurate all year, he's missed a lot of crucial field goals already this year, including the earlier 42 yarder. Talk about two teams with really bad placekickers, the Giants with Bryant and the Niners with Cortez. Hoho, those two have to be some of the worst starting kickers in the NFL. That guy in Pittsburgh isn't much better either, what's his name, i can't remember.

My NFC predictions were all off..

This weekend, I'm throwing all reason and stats out the window and going purely on heart alone. I like Vick leading the Falcons over the Eagles in what expect a very low scoring and close game. I haven't checked but if McNabb is playing, the Eagles will win. I am also picking the 49ers to take the Bucs, sheerly on heart. Garcia played a hell of a game last week and I want to see more!

I'm also thinking of changing my pick of Steelers over Titans. Steelers' D proved to SUCK last week against Cleveland, and the Titans are a far better team than the Browns. After seeing that game, I think the Titans should have no problem disposing of the Steelers.

The game of the week is definitely Jets at Raiders. This is a HUGE game. The Jets defense in previous decades has sucked and they are playing great. Sure it was the Colts, but Manning to Harrison is no slouch. A healthy Edgerrin James may have changed the outcome but that was not the case.. If they could stop Mungro, wait til they face Garner. It won't be easy. Yeah, this is definitely the game of the week, no question. Could the MVP of the league lead his team to the SB? Could Jerry Rice win another??

Crazy, crazy game. But if I have to pick a team it has to be the Raiders. They're at home, they had a week off. It has to be them. It has to.

2-2 this weekend, but boy what a weekend it was! First my beloved Packers fell horribly. Favre is really starting to show his age. I think he knows it too, the zip is still there, but it's just not the same as it used to be. Looks it's out with the old and in with the new. I don't expect the Falcons to go much further though, they just caught a few good breaks and played a disciplined game.

The real big game was a SF/Giants game. What a game that was, the 2nd biggest comeback in the history of the NFL. I watched most of the 2nd half, so I saw all the dramatics. Pretty amazing watching Garcia and Owens literally take over and do their thang. And talk about a team falling apart at the end there. If only Kerry Collins could play like that for a whole season, the Giants wouldn't have even been in this game! Luckily the Giants didn't proceed though, because Collins has never pieced together a string of great games like that in his career. Oh well, so I was 2-2, 0-2 for the NFC, while 2-0 in AFC, where everything happened just as I expected.

It's funny how Tony Dungy went from a team with superior defense and no offense to a team that needed a defense and already had a great offense. The result? A team with no offense or defense. Kinda makes you wonder how good a coach he really is, was it just all Warren Sapp in TB? Truly makes you wonder..

Up with my prediction, later in the week though.. I'm moving back to the Metro Hall this week, so I'll have to sleep VERY early now. Dang it.

Not much has been happening round here. As per usual, I didn't celebrate new years much at all. In fact, I went to bed before the New Year.

I heard recently from someone that the Bitchar-G cars aren't even good as their fake counterparts, the Bitchar-A's. That's a surprise to me, as the A's are actually a lot cheaper. Cheaper, and better? What is this, AMD? haha.

Oh, recently someone mentioned they wanted to buy a P4 over an AMD processor. Yes, AMD processors can be annoying in that they tend to overheat. I've had the worse problem with it, since I put it together myself, and I used their shoddy thermal 'pad', rather than applying actual thermal paste. Then I trouble seating the chip into the socket, which likely resulted in me ruining the thermal pad, which now results in my having to have a fan constantly blowing on it to keep it from over heating. But on average if you bought a system, or had the people there install it, it should run on average 45-50C, which means it would take quite a bit of processing for it to reach that maximum 70C. In comparison, mine runs at 65C constantly, peaking at 75C!! Well the reason I bring this up is because the P4 at the same clock speed as an Athlon is actually slower than the AMD, because Intel put in a double length cache pipeline, which results in certain instructions taking longer to complete than with a smaller pipeline. That said, AMD is also in most cases half the price of any equal clockspeeded Intel chip. So what I'm saying is, if you can get over the hump of of having a fan blow on your computer, you're much better off with an athlon than a p4.

I am sad to admit that I've recently jumped back onto the d2x (Diablo II Expansion)bandwagon. I am looking for accounts to salvage, so if you know anyone who has accounts and knows they won't play ever again, please contact me. I no longer play the game legitimately though, using pretty much ever hack there is available. The game has really gone to heck because it has taken them so long to add the new 1.10 patch that every hack program, duping program and bugging program known to man is being used on battle.net. Stuff that was once the most valuable in the game can now be bought for cheap, and people have manufactured 'bugged' and 'hacked' items that have made those previously powerful items looks like newbie equipment. Bah, I doubt any of my readers even play or have played before. Oh well.. hopefully you may know of someone who has.

I am happy to say that I got paid yesterday. And I am also happy to say that I'll be moving back to Metro Hall starting next week. I've felt so unproductive in these last couple weeks. I got paid yesterday.. but for what? That saddens me.. Oh, I started applying for jobs again. I like my situation now, and I see that there are some opportunities of advancement, but I'm also a believer that if I stay with gov't too long, no one from the private sector will ever think twice about hiring me. That's the problem though, the City is a great place to start, and 30 years from now I could be pretty high up.. but it limits my options. If I ever did want to make a career change, I wouldn't be able to. I'd be restricted to gov't, and, there's no municipal gov't in canada that's bigger than Toronto's, so where would I go if I wanted to improve?

My uncle in maryland suggested I could move in with him and look for work there. That is certainly a possibility. I've got a few friends in MD, cousins and more than a few fantasy football acquaintances. MD's got a bunch of churches that I already have heard about. It would be a good move for me.

My mom and bro came back from their visit to NV. My parents already put a down payment on a new home there. It's bigger than the one we have now, and actually a lot cheaper too. Housing there is really cheap, even in US $$. My dad says some people work 4 days a week there, 10 hours a day. That's pretty crazy. I only work 35 hours a week, and these people are working 40, and cramming it in 4 days. That's a lot of hours in one day!!

Well anyway break time is over.