Nevertheless, this is an exciting day today, for it is my very first American Thanksgiving… spent in the US of A. It’s quit exciting, we are apparently having a huge feast tonight, and then the cousins and I are going to line up for some black Friday deals, imagine, I can finally experience the joy of elbowing crazed shoppers as we race for the door crasher deals, and the pain of getting trampled over by hundreds of people. Don’t worry, I’ve got my helmet, gloves, and knee pads ready.

Will update more later, probably when I return home from my trip. Seattle and LA are amazing cities that has very different things to offer (I’ll write about them in depth later!). I definitely recommend a visit. San Diego tomorrow, followed by Vegas, then home for the Holiday blitz. Not counting the jobless-ness, life is pretty good right now.

Time for more adventures.

The past week was quite the eventful one indeed. First, as said last post, I was invited by my friend Dan to go up to Montreal to attend EA’s release of their new game “Boogie Superstar”. The event was pretty cool, with lots of food, EA staff, and enough Boogie Superstar running for everyone to give it a try. The whole evening I was speaking to programmers, designers, project managers, and marketers, making me feel like I should’ve gone into Computer Science or Business, since being a Bio-Med guy there seemed pretty out of place.

Boogie was actually quite a fun game, but it was clearly targeted to the teeny-bopper crowd. I won’t lie though, I did enjoy the game when I was playing it, and I can see kids getting excited over this game. There were plenty of food to go around at the event, and we event got a tour of the studios (no photography allowed, obviously), as well as some great swag — a free t-shirt and a copy of NHL ‘09! Sweet!

The next day we explored downtown Montreal for a bit, then went to Science Centre Montreal where I felt right at home. I was especially ecstatic when I got to try out an interactive game where they translate your alpha and beta brain waves into kinetic energy to move a little ball. The objective of the game is to win by moving the ball to your opponent’s side by thinking really hard. That said, I had a disastrous lost my friend Dan since I found the whole thing very amusing and could not concentrate hard enough to win this battle of the minds.

On Friday, some of the East-coast ex-Disney cast members came up to Toronto to see High School Musical 3 (what else?). I was intrigued as to how the movie will do on a theatrical level. The last two was acceptable for a Disney Channel movie, but way too cheesy for it to make it in the theaters. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie. Granted, there was obviously some very cheesy moment that almost made me spew the coke I was drinking through my nose, but over all it was a pretty well enjoyable movie and a fitting end to the High School Musical series if you’re willing to look past some awkward dialogue and cheese. The gang then hung out after for some desserts, a great time, as always.

The next morning I crawled out of bed to go to the gym at 7:30 in the morning. Both my trainer and I gave each other the “This is way too early” face. You know it was too early when the gym hasn’t even officially opened. That said, I found the silent atmosphere a pretty good place to work-out. In the afternoon, I went to watch the Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales, it was shorter than I thought it would be, but it was delightfully done, and every moment was filled with fun. Props to the actors and actresses playing the Von Trappe children, way too cute. In the evening, I went to Heather’s place along with my sister Tina and friend Raymond to chill in Heather’s hot-tub. Makes me want to get one in the backyard, hmmm, hot tub.

And that was that, a great way to end October, I’m looking forward to what November will bring.

To celebrate the launch of Electronic Arts’ new game Boogie SuperStar, EA has invited my good friend Dan K. to the event in Montreal, and he was nice enough to invite me to tag along!

So, off to Montreal early in the morning! See you when I get back!

I’ve finally updated photos from George’s “See-ya-later” gathering from the beginning of August, I’m a bit behind in terms of photo uploads (didn’t even know they were sitting there!). Check out the slide show after the jump, or head here for the entire set.

So I’m sitting here, trying to bathe in the warm swathes of air spitting out of my central heater. It’s a crazy nice day outside, at least, it appears so. The sky is clear with just streaks of cloud here and there, it’s almost like a cute painting, but temperature wise, a cool ten degrees Celsius. My gym trainer has canceled on me for the first time ever, and it’s only been the first week! I miss my university gym, where everything isn’t so monetary and filled with contracts and fine prints. Talk about the real world.

It seems these days there’s not much to write about. It happens, sometime, you just don’t know what to write. I know, there’s the politics — both in Canada and the United States, and the crazy economic free-fall, but I feel like there’s enough opinions and in-depth coverage on the interweb and televisions these days that covers said topic. Besides, I’m simply burnt out from all these election and economic discussions in person with friends and family, I don’t think I need to spew more here.

I’m doing more resume hacking at the moment, I can feel a job offer coming up soon, which is pretty good after two months of hiatus. I’ve recruited my friend Howard to help me out with some of my Halloween projects, which, will look fantastic if everything is to go as planned (I’ll definitely blog about this one!). And finally, I’m taking a week-long trip to The West Coast in the States in November, and from the itinerary I’ve built up, it looks like there’s plenty of excitement to go around.

Oh yea, below is the slide show from George’s goodbye gathering, enjoy!

Wow, it’s really been a while since I updated. The summer was officially over a few days ago (or was it last week?), which seems particularly crap-tastic when you look back on days like this one. This photo is from the end of August on the Grand I Yacht at the Seven Seas Lagoon of Disney World in Florida. As you can clearly see, I was a very happy man, and so was everyone else on that yacht.

What was going through my mind at the time, you ask?

Nothing, except that “warm and fuzzy” feeling. It was the summer. I was on an 1.2 million dollars yacht. My friends Dan K. and Amanda just got engaged, and I was surrounded by some of the best and finest friends I could ever ask for, and thinking at such times — is highly overrated.

The photos are finally ready. As I mentioned last entry, I took no part in taking photos at Disney World, too busy leading Tim’s Eleven around! (Har-har, Get it? We had 11 people, lead by me, Ocean’s Eleven? Hello? Anyone?) The photo above is taken and retouched by Dan Truong, and you can find them lovely photos here.

More photos and commentaries to come!

I’ve just returned from my week long Disney World trip two days ago. The night I returned I unpacked, packed again and drove right back to Guelph early in the morning (like, 1:00am early) to get ready for work the very next day. It is currently Orientation week 2008 at Guelph, and well, work has been quite busy, and it is definitely different to look at the incoming first year now that I’m done my undergrad, it’s quite a change in perspective.

Surprisingly I’m not all that tired, although I do wish I had a few days to recover before jumping right back into work. That being said, I guess I should cherish my last week working here in Guelph, as I will be jobless in less than a week, or on my way to new adventures and new chapters of my life, depending on how you look at it.

Disney was amazing. It’s my 3rd year in a row and it’s still amazing, every time. It was a great end to my undergrad career. My friend Amanda and Dan K. got engaged while on this trip, I was honored to be a part of that. It was also very rewarding to watch my friend’s faces as they expressed their excitement, surprises and joy during shows and rides they’ve never experienced before. Not to mention the crazy yacht and many VIP treatment we’ve received. I think it’ll be quite hard to top this trip the next time I visit, whenever that will be.

Those of you looking for photos, I have bad news — I took non! Not even one! I was too busy being the leader and figuring stuff out to stop and take photos. The entire time my camera rested in my resort room. I kind of regret bringing it all the way with me to Florida, going through security and all. That being said, I will update my blog and tell you about all the shenanigans and adventures while we were down there for 7 days, there’s lots to be told, so stay tuned.

Back to work!

I arrived home Friday to find a very exciting package waiting for me in my room. It was the Disney trip pre-package, which I had fun “unboxing”, in a sense. The package consists of the Disney Magic Express tickets, luggage tags, some vouchers, a short itinerary, and “welcome guides”.

The most exciting thing was perhaps the luggage tags, as this marks the first physical evidence that we’re really going to “the world”! The vouchers was pretty exciting too, as I did not know they were included. They’re not crazy savings, but it’s still nice to be surprised by some fun vouchers — $15 meal voucher for Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney Westside, as well as a free souvenir merchandise, as well as two free mini golf voucher, and two 90 minutes for the price of 60 minutes sea raycer voucher. A closer look at the items can be found at my flickr, which will also act as the future home of this year’s Disney trip photos.

I caught myself writing nonsense again, so I’ve decided to self censor myself before I blab on for another three paragraphs, I’ll spare you my thoughts on life in this current moment for now.

Not a lot of things are slated next, I’m simply taking it easy for now — Catch up on movies, video games, Disney in late August, and yes, prepping for resume and interviews… alas, responsibilities.

Since the end of my defense on Tuesday, I’ve had two songs recently released into the Mando-pop scene stuck in my head. One’s called “下雨天” (”Rainy Day”) by the pop / hip-hop group 南拳媽媽. The other one is called “開天窗” (”Open the Sunroof”) by my favorite Mando-rock group: 五月天 (May Day). Weirdly enough, both tracks are nothing groundbreaking, in fact, I think they’re just mediocre pop songs, but I figure there’s nothing wrong with sharing whatever song that is stuck in my head at the moment, so enjoy, and hopefully it’ll get stuck in your head too, in a good way.

Side note, the two songs are quite the polar opposite in terms of the mood. “Rainy Day”, as the title suggest, is really a sad song about the persona’s longing and heartache for her boyfriend to care about her more — Quite the typical Mando-pop these days. “Open the Sunroof” is a track about throwing away your sorrow and becoming a very happy person! Whichever mood you decide to summon, enjoy it!

下雨天

下雨天了怎麼辦 我好想你
我不敢打給你 我找不到原因
為什麼失眠的聲音 變得好熟悉
沈默的場景 做你的代替
陪我等雨停

期待讓人越來越沉溺
誰和我一樣 等不到他的誰
愛上你我總在學會 寂寞的滋味
一個人撐傘 一個人擦淚
一個人好累

怎樣的雨 怎樣的夜
怎樣的我能讓你更想念
雨要多大 天要多黑
才能夠有你的體貼

其實 沒有我你分不出那些
差別 結局還能多明顯
別說你會難過
別說你想改變
被愛的人不用道歉

期待讓人越來越疲憊
誰和我一樣 等不到他的誰
愛上你我總在學會 寂寞的滋味
一個人撐傘 一個人擦淚
一個人好累

怎樣的雨 怎樣的夜
怎樣的我能讓你更想念
雨要多大 天要多黑
才能夠有你的體貼

其實 沒有我你分不出那些
差別 結局還能多明顯
別說你會難過 別說你想改變
被愛的人不用道歉

怎樣的雨 怎樣的夜
怎樣的我能讓你更想念
雨要多大 天要多黑
才能夠有你的體貼

其實 沒有我你分不出那些
差別 結局還能多明顯
別說你會難過 別說你想改變
被愛的人不用道歉

開天窗

一隻鯨魚 要怎麼放進冰箱 打開門 然後用力關冰箱
然後呢 如果你還想要 放一隻大象
一份希望 要怎麼放進心臟 如果你 活的有一點悲傷
答案是 用力丟掉鯨魚 用力甩悲傷

是誰說半夜不能吃便當 是誰說彩虹不能長頭上
是誰說藍色就等於憂傷 你看看天空和海洋
順風時就展開雙翅飛翔 逆風時 就當成 在衝浪
沒有風的時候那就讓我 開開天窗

一句歌詞 怎麼讓你很難忘 方文山 林夕和我都在想
想破頭 也鑽不進一個 緊閉的心房
一個難題 要用多少的智商 多少淚 還有多少的盼望
多少人 變成緊閉門窗 孤獨的國王

是誰說半夜不能吃便當 是誰說彩虹不能長頭上
是誰說藍色就等於憂傷 你看看天空和海洋
順風時就展開雙翅飛翔 逆風時 就當成 在衝浪
沒有風的時候那就讓我 開開天窗

是誰說半夜不能吃便當 是誰說彩虹不能長頭上
是誰說藍色就等於憂傷 你看看天空和海洋
順風時就展開雙翅飛翔 逆風時 就當成 在衝浪
沒有風的時候那就讓我 開開天窗

是誰說半夜不能吃便當 是誰說彩虹不能長頭上
是誰說藍色就等於憂傷 你看看天空和海洋
順風時就展開雙翅飛翔 逆風時 就當成 在衝浪
沒有風的時候那就讓我 開開天窗

So the other day I decided to make some instant noodle… only to find that my water filter has frozen under the harsh conditions of a residence fridge. This thing is so old, that one half an increment makes a difference between “Mr. Freeze” and “Let’s spoil everything”.

Today I once again became a lab rat, no, not someone who spend too much time in a lab (I’m getting there though), but rather, someone who has decided to become part of the experiment… all in the name of science. It was a 4th year thesis project for my friend Jon. He was testing to see if a strapped ankle has better balancing technique than non-strapped ankle by using EMG measurements, as well as a freaken cool looking, pre-programmed moving platform in which I get to stand on with one leg and attempt to balance. Pretty cool stuff.

Speaking of science projects, my friends Alex, Dan, Adrian and Sherman have made some significant progress with their FYDP Laser Project. They’ve recently integrated several components of their projects to finally put together a working gesture-based presentation system. Some pretty incredible stuff, check it out.

And so it was, that time of the year again. A time where awkward and funny questions like “Do you do meth?” are asked (And for the record, the answer is no), a time where we all just strip down into our boxers while trying to make casual conversation with the other person, a time for the weird and awkward rituals where my crown-jewels are cupped by a pair of hands while I’m being asked to cough. Yup, the yearly physical exam — after 21 years, it still gets awkward.

Nevertheless, it has to be done, just to make sure that you’re in good health and everything checks out. And so I got the process rolling by calling the Health Center at the University of Guelph, I figure, why not get it done here? I’m only in Toronto during the weekends anyways, and the doctors get so busy that bookings are probably back-logged for another three good weeks, so I’ll just get it done on campus during the summer when it’s all nice and empty.

So I called, and unwisely asked for a “Check-Up” — The term didn’t bother me at the time, no, not until I called the next week to confirm my booking. This time, I used the term “Physical”, thinking they were interchangeable, that is, until I was shut-down by the receptionist taking my call.

“You didn’t book a physical, you booked for a check-up!” she said in an almost classic Hollywood movie receptionist monotone. I was so caught off guard by the sudden refusal that “ummm, okay.” was all I managed to say before I hung up the phone. I then looked towards my co-worker, and I asked out loud: “What is the difference between a Physical and a Check-Up?”

And so one of the eternal mystery of the universe has been riddled. My co-worker scratched his head, thinking with all his might without avail — what could the answer be? Even the God known as Google didn’t turn up anything, in fact, most of the website found simply said: “It’s always good to have your yearly physical check-up”. Yup, that’s right, both term in the same sentence, we were completely baffled. I asked around a few other times as I moved across the campus, and no one could tell me the answer. And before you ask, I was too afraid to call back receptionist to ask her the question, simply put, I think she probably have better things to do than answering a call questioning the definition of a physical and a check-up. I did have a theory though, a physical must have been a more through, and therefore more time consuming, check, whereas a check-up is simply a quick check - height and weight, but then again, do you really need a doctor to do a “quick check”?

Nevertheless, I decided to go in anyways, I figure I could ask the receptionist face to face, that will give her zero chance of hanging up on me thinking I was a prank caller. I couldn’t wait to find the answer. I entered the clinic, lathered my hand with alcohol disinfectant, and approached the desk proudly, checked-in, and went for the kill — “S’cuse me, but what is a difference between a check-up and a physical?”

The receptionist seemed to be quite taken back by my question, but regained her composure in time, suspicious, I thought. She asked if I really wanted a physical, and I replied yes. She said she normally don’t book physicals at this time, before I could say anything else, she told me to have a seat and ask the doctor for a physical anyways — “Maybe he will do one for you anyways.” Content with the answer, I went to have a seat, only to realize that the receptionist did not answer my question. I was fooled! I couldn’t believe I fell for it. Nevertheless, I decided that I was going to ask the man himself, my doctor, to see what is the difference between a check-up and a physical.

And so I was greeted by a nurse to wait in the waiting room. I picked up a random health magazine and started to read. A door opened and closed in the nearby room down the hall-way, followed by the sound of footsteps nearing my room. The door-handle moved and crackled as if someone has just opened an ancient trapdoor in the temple of doom, I could feel the awkwardness already. I was determine to find out the answer to my question, and nothing is going to stop me now. I opened my mouth and commenced to phrase my question.

“Now Tim, since you’re here for a check-up, I assume you’re actually here for an STD check?” — My doctor fired this sentence out while walking into the room as I was just about to ask my question.

You should’ve seen my face. My mouth was half way open, and half way through the word “What” in “What is the difference between a physical and a check-up?”. His sentence had to do a triple loop through my brain before I actually comprehended what he was saying. I mean, he actually had time to walk in the room, sat down, made himself comfortable and then look at me straight in the eyes before I even synthesized an answer to his question. I decided I’d just finish the word I was trying to say instead of the entire sentence: “WHAT!?!?!?!?!”.

“Because usually when boys your age comes in asking for a check-up, they usually have an agenda, they usually want to get an STD check”. My doctor said to me, still questioning my reason for being here. I had to explain to him that I unfortunately uses the term physical and check-up interchangeably, and that this was a big mix-up, and that really, what I wanted to do was a yearly physical, and not a so-called “check-up”. After he made sure, three times, that I wasn’t too embarrassed to say “STD check, please!”, he finally proceeded to do what I wanted to get done, cupped balls with coughs and all.

And so there you have it, one of the eternal questions of the universe answered. — The difference between a physical and a Check-up, is that a check-up is really another term to see if you have contracted the nasty from driving the car without using seat-belts. And it looks like I didn’t even have to ask the doctor to get it answered! The puzzle pieces finally fell in place — That’s why I wasn’t booked in a “physical” time, and that’s why the receptionist so cleverly dodged my question.

Lesson learned? You bet, from now on, I think I’ll stick with the term “Physical”, anything to save me from unnecessary awkward conversations with the doc.