whirl.and.rewind

Nostalgia

2009-01-13T23:24:00.003-05:00

Wow. I just read over this short blog after 3.5 years. Quite entertaining. So much has changed, and some things have stayed the same.

to: A friend

2005-09-14T21:07:00.001-04:00

...a.k.a. first commenter for my last entry: my email is whirlandrewind[at]gmail.com

grrrrr

2005-07-19T22:54:00.000-04:00

did anyone manage to save that retreat 1998 photo i put up in one of my aug 2004 entries?!! first rogers overhauls its webspaces without telling me...then my hard drive dies last month..and now i don't have the pic anymore and i don't know who i got it from...so if anyone somehow saved that pic when it was up then pleeeeez send it backkkk...precious memories...>.<

almost there

2005-04-16T12:43:00.000-04:00

two exams to go..and then i'm done. anyway, the purpose of this post is actually to refer you to my xanga page...www.xanga.com/whirlandrewind

why xanga? it's much more convenient i find..it loads much faster when you post an entry, and the comments load a lot faster..and it's much easier to link other people's pages (as long as they're on xanga...that's the one knock), and you get your profile pic beside your comments..and just..a much tighter-knit structure in the system..i guess it's a matter of preference and i prefer the that over the excess amount of flexibility on blogspot..which isn't very well used by a non-artsy and non-design-y and lazy person like me. and then there's the protected and private settings..hehe, pretty cool.

reminiscing...

2005-03-12T11:45:00.000-05:00

came across my "bush - swallowed" mp3 and decided to give it a listen after many years...and wow, it's much better than I remembered...cuz now it has the memories/impressions of '97 with it (I know I'm really dating myself now)...that song had the fastest rise to number 1 on the MUCHMUSIC countdown that I know of (I followed religiously around 96-01)..it went to number 1 in just its fourth week. I guess that was partly why I didn't like the song too much..its reputation was too well ahead of its actual quality. It debuted at 19, which is also the highest debut I know of (or did U2's discotheque debut at 18..). On its second week it was at 11, third week 7, and fourth week #1..which also broke the record (as far as I know) for the biggest jump to 1 (second was alanis morissette's ironic, which went to #1 from the sixth spot...if my memory serves me well..she went on to stay at 1 for four weeks...the longest stretch at number 1 by any song in my books). anyway, those were the golden years of the muchmusic countdown...things changed around the turn of the century and the countdown started getting watered down by all this hype-driven hiphop stuff. or I dunno. at least recently there's been a decent rock/alt resurge by the likes of billy talent, sum41 and green day. but nothing can ever replace the five year stretch for the ages of the mm top30 countdown...filled with record-setting chart trends, quality videos, memorable songs, and now intertwined inextricably with my wistful recollections of adolescence..

..just as I thought:

2005-02-13T01:16:00.000-05:00

You Are 19 Years Old

19

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

another term, another blog

2004-12-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

finished my last exam on monday. my first one was okay, second one good, third one bad, last one good. but I'm not sure if my goods were enough to offset the bad...and I won't know till marks come out second week of january....what suspense...

these holidays will be my busiest since gr12?...I don't know what I was doing in gr12 holidays..haha I just remember oac I had to do one movie review but that just took a couple of days. but this year I have to really catch up / get ahead for my design project cuz it's now or never.. next term is gonna be busy again so I won't have time to deal with all that design project stuff. and I've also been looking into applying for grad school but I'm having trouble finding referees..all of that should be known over the next two weeks. if I find a second referee, then my holidays would get two times busier cuz I'd be writing applications. and the thing is even if I apply I probably won't get in, but I don't wanna not apply if I had the chance and then always wonder what if I had..

if I don't get in, that means I'd need to find a job...but I don't really wanna work right after I finish school...I want another summer! ='( but if I'm waiting for universities to get back to me, I wouldn't really be actively job searching anyway...so if I find that second referee, I'm not working straight after school either way...it would take a while for me to find a job...last year the school helped a little in getting companies to hire 3rd year interns, and I still couldn't get one...how much harder would it be for me to find a job on my own! job searching is no fun..especially if that becomes your main thing to do...

======

on a lighter note, how about that steve nash and those phoenix suns?? add them to my list of fav teams..
for some reason people are picking vince carter and tracy mcgrady to be starters for their respective positions/conferences http://www.nba.com/news/allstar_041216.html . but look at their numbers...vince is scoring a dismal 15.9 points per game, and tmac is shooting a dismal 41% from the field and not really leading his team to realize their potential. actually, 15.9ppg for an all-star starter...would that not be the lowest scoring avg for a voted starter in the all-star game? and why isn't steve nash a starter thus far? the suns got him in the offseason and now they're 19-3. and he's averaging a double double in points and assists, and shooting above 50%. and lebron..I don't know...still not impressed though his numbers are surprisingly good....I'd take dwyane wade over lebron any day...wade is just so much more fun to watch, and that's what an all-star game is about. the same goes for nowitzki vs. duncan...their numbers and importance to their respective teams are comparable and dirk is a blond russian guy who can shoot the lights out, and has an entertaining name. and how about that grant hill? he deserves an award for his perseverance! without further ado, here are my picks for the 2005 nba all-stars after a month of voting:

EAST
C Shaquille O'Neal
F Grant Hill
F Antawn Jamison
G Steve Francis
G Dwyane Wade

WEST
C Yao Ming
F Kevin Garnett
F Dirk Nowitzki
G Steve Nash
G Kobe Bryant

Oh, Kobe? He's putting up 27-7-7...can't ignore that (where there are other legit choices for east forwards besides lebron, no guard in the west can touch kobe)..but I'm not voting for him anymore cuz we need to get Nash in there! though it doesn't look likely...oh well, nash will definitely make the team as a reserve. anyway, west has a better team cuz of their advantage at the forward positions. even if they bring in jermaine, the west would still boast duncan and stoudemire off the bench (assuming the lineups above). unless shaq decides he wants to take over...then we might have a ball game...and shaq-yao, all-star edition would probably be a landslide..

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!

2004-11-04T01:51:00.000-05:00

....and school take a back seat! uh oh...anyway, the raptors opened their season with a win! hm, houston not as good as I thought...two losses already...but man did the big Z filling up the stat sheet tonight...so did KG...my fav teams to follow right now (no order except 1) are:

raptors
magic
rockets
mavs
wolves

...man, the mavs are stacked!!! it's a stack(ed)house!! terry and jerry off the bench?? marquis daniels getting healthy? dirk with 33 and 10 last night? it's gonna be fun season tracking the mavs...same goes for the wolves...hudson is healthy again...and szcsczsccscszerbiak...that team is also stacked!! and magic...grant hill looks to be back...and franchise on the rise again...dwight howard good for a double-double every game...rockets, I dunno...jimmy jackson and juwan howard isn't stepping up enough...tmac and yao ming can't do it alone...and nuggets look good on paper, but they sorta stunk last night...lost by11 to a lakers team that lost by 24 to the jazz..and they just lost streaky voshon lenard for the season..

anyway, we need to all have a moment of silence to honour alvin williams, who looks to be out for a loooooong time. poor alvin.

it has begun

2004-09-21T22:36:00.000-04:00

wow this year looks to be even worse than last year! blogs will be few and far between..

crossroads

2004-09-03T02:16:00.000-04:00

or more like...a fork in the road. still don't have a design project topic, and school is about to start!!

I have two projects to choose from...one is in the systems control area...and the other is in multimedia encoding...but if I take the controls one, I might have to give up a hardware or database course, and not taking either of those might cut off an area where I could find a job after graduation. at the same time, the systems one sounds more interesting and it might give me exposure to more areas than the multimedia project. anyway, this is all so hard to sort out and the worse part is I don't even know what I want...so it's not even something one can rationally deduce..cuz in the end I guess it boils down to...what do I want? and then there's that minor (but soon to be central) issue of getting a partner...someone emailed me about it on monday but he hasn't replied me yet! (I replied him an hour after I received his email..)

in the meantime, summer is almost over, and the last big event is the RHCBC Fellowship Cup. Should be a fun time.. Oh, Wednesday night was the CCSA banquet and my team (the Apostles) won the Outstanding Umpiring Team award!! First award given to an RHCBC team (by about an hour). Dunamis followed that up later in the evening with a Most Appreciated Team award, tied with ETCBC Lumas. The Apostles was also the runner up for Most Appreciated Team in its division.

summer is winding down............

2004-08-23T18:05:00.000-04:00

The past month has gone by in a flash because of how busy I've been. I've been doing stuff for retreat, softball and work, and also trying to figure out my courses for next year. But I still have no idea how that stuff managed to keep me that busy..I guess I just take a long time to do things.

I'm still totally unprepared for the school year ahead. I still haven't finished signing up for courses yet...today, I managed to get into one of the two courses I couldn't get into..and to get in the other one, I just need to get into one of three full courses. I really hope I can get in.. And I still haven't started looking for a design project topic and group yet..I have never been so unprepared for school. In the last few years, I would've been figuring out how to get all my textbooks by now, if I haven't already bought a few of them. I guess I'm just waiting until I get the rest of this summer stuff out of the way first...work, fellowship cup, and just doing the things I wanna do this summer but haven't had the chance to. It's likely I'll be graduating next year, so this might be my last summer ever...unless I somehow wind up doing grad school, which is rather unlikely.

softball...rough times...for the last three games of the season, we could've given elton john a run for his money with our rendition of "Candle in the Wind"...cuz man were we blown out. Never before have I heard of a score of 44 nor a losing margin of 39...
but I still think there were some people on the team who enjoyed the season, because it's not all about winning. there were people on the team who felt they had improved, and hard work paying off is always a reward. I also got a chance to bear more leadership responsibilities in aaron's absence the past couple of weeks, though I must admit it was not easy, and I don't know if I did such a good job...but then I don't know what else I coulda done..

days of yore..

2004-08-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

summer retreat...but six years ago. you might not find waldo, but you might find....
me, anthea, kelly, car, bi, karen, pat, vinci, gabe, calvin, iris, kim, rach, leonard, bernard (?), gigi, angela, laura, lunny, scott, leo, susie, edison, cynthia, rebekah, helen, sam, mike, bing, glen, lily, eeds (?), jen, manda, olive, joyce, miranda, ardyce, richard, dennis, kezia, tiff, auggie, lawrence, johnny, kim, steph, ava, joseph, will, caleb, garry, anita (?), colin mccartney, plus a bunch of people I can't see clearly, don't recognize or remember the names of.

another day, another blog

2004-08-13T01:03:00.000-04:00

hm..haven't blogged in a while. no time...don't even remember what I've been too busy doing. nothing much to blog about though. I went to a wedding last saturday...second wedding banquet I've been to...but I had the worst seat. kept having to rush to a closer table whenever an interesting speech was being made. our table was also behind something like a wall, relative to the stage. boo. and what was with all the kissing games??? I don't even know where to begin with that. how de-meaning...

been sick all week..and most of last week...coughing like a...(what coughs?)...whatever. a LOT, and HARD. kept me up most nights this week...I'm surprised I've still got so much energy. maybe it's cuz I'm looking forward to retreat...leaving tomorrow at 1:15, back...around 4 or 5 on sunday?

erm..had softball practice this evening...last sunday we were pummeled 35-2 by last year's runner-up and previous champs..

course selections...are going terrible. I can't get into two of the courses I want...I really shouldn't have slept at 5am on monday...apparently, if I stayed up for another 50 minutes I would've been able to pick up all the courses I needed...but no...I went to sleep for some reason. and the thing is, I don't even really regret it, cuz at the time it totally made sense to me to sleep...I was finally getting really tired, after spending four hours trying to figure out courses...only to realize they posted the course timetables two weeks before, and I still have yet to check if all my courses fit together, let alone picking all of them...at the time I still wasn't sure of two or three of them. so I felt like even if I stayed up till 6 to choose courses, I'd just be choosing relatively blindly because for all I know most of them may not fit...so it seemed like I was actually much further behind than I thought, so staying up that hour would make no difference since I'd have to figure out whether all my courses fit together anyway. all that, and I was actually falling asleep in my seat...which usually means I'm really really really tired cuz I don't usually fall asleep without my own permission when I'm staring at a computer doing something..anyway, they're gonna review the enrolment capacities on monday so I really hope they open more space for those two courses, or I'm gonna be stuck with taking other courses that I'm not really interseted in and moreover, they wouldn't really have anything to do with the other courses I'm taking, and taking those courses alone wouldn't help me in those areas much.

catchy songs nowadays:
killers - somebody told me
billy talent - river below
franz ferdinand - take me out

and the best alt-rock station we can pick up in toronto: 103.3 the edge. not that I suggest you only stick to one station...because no station is perfect..you need a mix, even if it's mostly with similar stations like edge102 and 97.7hitsfm, heh.

another day, another blog

2004-08-02T02:29:00.000-04:00

had a loooong day today.

went to church...today I was a helper in the preschool room...first dayhahahhaha I just realized I kept asking kids whether they were in jk or sk today...I'm glad the kids weren't smart enough to pick up on that...one of the reasons I love kids...I'll get to that in a bit...but yeah, this is the first day of my shift..I'm doing it for the month of august, except for the weekend that I'm away at summer retreat, 13-15th.

one of the best feelings I get from doing daycamp or helping out in the preschool room or interacting with kids in general is when a shy kid opens up to you....it makes you feel sooo special. it feels like you just brightened up a kid's life. and it's so much easier just to talk to kids cuz you don't have to worry about them judging you or catching on to your stupidity..hahaha...but there's such a level of comfort when talking to kids that you can't get when talking to adolescents or older. today there was this girl that was sitting apart from everyone else...I only noticed her towards the end...not sure if she was sitting there the whole time (except for story time, snack and crafts when everyone had to sit together), but I started talking to her in english (that's another thing...there is no such thing as awkward small talk with kids...the term 'small talk' has no significance in that context...talking with a kid is talking with a kid)...I asked her why she's just sitting there...and after she was silent and I repeated myself a few times...she finally replied in cantonese "because I have to wait for my mom to pick me up." (she was actually sitting near the door)...so I was like "ohh..." (or something) and then started to talk to her in cantonese..forgot what I said cuz I was interrupted by some other kid...actually it was this really young kid (3 yrs old?) that was looking dazed and confused but quiet and gentle the whole day and shook a big teddy bear in front of his face and he started smiling! awwwwww so cute. so I gave him the teddy bear and turned back to the girl, Crystal. by then she had stopped talking cuz she saw my attention diverted..but when I turned back she said something to me in cantonese again...and that just felt so good cuz a moment ago she wasn't talking to anyone and not doing anything and now she's voluntarily telling me something....she said "last night my mom wanted korean bbq (??...I forgot...some other food place/thing) but I told my mom I wanted mcdonalds" so I asked her back in cantonese "so where did you guys end up going for dinner?" she paused so I added "did you end up going to mcdonalds?" and she nodded (?..or said yes...just something affirmative). anyway, I think that sealed her position as number 1 fav kid in the class, after week 1 anyway...hahaha. sigh...I really wish I was better at cantonese...such a cool language. and that way I could also talk to kids! I'm okay now, because these are just kids...but even then, I often can't find the words to say what I want or fulfill the intended purpose...and the weird thing is this time around, the teacher is much more hardcore...as in, she actually gave me a briefing before she started the program (during recess, when I came in for my shift) and told me exactly what I would need to do...and when she started talking to the kids...well, she was teaching mostly in cantonese and she told me to translate...okay, even though I'm not so happy that my cantonese isn't so good, I'd still love a chance to try it out given the right opportunity, and I hate to disappoint people or not be able to do what they ask for, so I gave it a shot...and fortunately it wasn't too hard, so I was able to translate more or less what she said throughout the lesson. not everything, but the main stuff. especially like the bible story. good thing her story was already written out in english..she just taught it in cantonese. well the class is all cantonese..just that a small number of the children may not understand...one of them is mixed. aaanyway, I'm still baffled as to why she didn't get the other helper to do anything specific...she got no briefing (that I saw...but I did come in a bit late), she didn't end up doing much (I had to carry out all those briefing instructions plus translate) and all she did was help hand stuff out during crafts..weird. oh so there is one teacher and three helpers, one of which is an adult..well..."adult"...parent? yeah, that's probably a good way of describing...and the others are teens...well, "teens"...youth? yeah, youth is a better way of describing it...hahaha...it's annoying how out of nowhere you're now in your 20s...what is going on, seriously. the least of the problems with that is now all of those "adults" and "teens" generalizations get messed up >.<

aaanyway...(how long are blogs supposed to be?)...after church I had softball practice...pretty good turnout...10 people came..though one of them just dropped by to say hi cuz she had three teeth taken out yesterday...(ow!!)..her face was still swollen...I was only expecting around 5 to show. practice was okay...but man, my throwing was so off!! kept missing people...arg.

after practice, went to the Lights game...(how long are blogs supposed to take?.....)...they are playing a lot better now...and dennis is back from vacation...being pro at short...and eeds stepped it up on the day before her bday...everyone was hitting well...it was a good game to see..good job lights!! but I heard they prolly won't make playoffs...even if they win their next and last game, a 5-5 record is prolly not good enough to be top 8 in their 19-team division...too bad! they just needed a few more games under their belt...

afterwards went to eeds' bday dinner...at mongolian grill....cool stuff! it's like teppenyaki (sp?) but with mongolian food...you pick what you want and they cook it right there for you! mmmm wok hay is so heung...haha. I'm still kinda full from it...5.5 hrs later...

afterwards we went to...play softball. no joke. these people are just softball fanatics. we found a park and played...juniors vs. seniors...but we weren't keeping score. I was soooo full. felt even fatter than usual..

okay, after that it was home time. I've been home for 3 hrs...no idea where the time went. this blog "only" took 40mins...I guess I'm just so tired everything is done slooooowly. had all these emails to sort out and just other miscellaneous stuff. anyway, if you've made it this far, congratulations.

another day, another blog

2004-07-30T01:10:00.000-04:00

ahhhhhh swamped with work now..!! my "supervisor" (not official, but pretty much the case) just dumped a huge task on me today...right before I had to leave to go see harry potter 3, which I've been trying to get together with my friend to see for like 1.5 months!! and now I'm too tired to do it...just enough time to squeeze in a blog =P

harry potter 3 was pretty good, some parts bothered me, partly cuz I knew what happened in the book and it didn't happen in the movie. daniel radcliffe (sp?) isn't so great at acting. the kids seemed a bit too old in general?..with the exception of hermione. but somehow the idea of time travel a la back to the future will always delight.

my friend that I saw the movie with also got another friend to come, someone I didn't know. both of the teach highschool credit courses in independent institutions! that's three people I know now who's doing that this summer. my friend's friend was also saying how much he enjoyed teaching. makes me consider (not for the first time) the possibility of me teaching. if not as a career, maybe I could try out what they're doing. I don't know. seems like too much work...all that prepping during your off hours. and I really don't think I could speak knowledgeably on a topic for how long...half an hour?...several times a day and every day. I think back on my best subjects in highschool...and realize that I only understood/memorized enough to get by. there is very little that I can actually teach, and have the understanding behind it to explain it. say for math...the teacher would just do a proof before teaching the applicable parts...well, I'd do the applicable parts fine, and all the proof does is convince to me what I'm doing to solve the problems is bone fide. but I would definitely not be able to explain the proof cuz I never really understood it totally in the first place. and for more lingual stuff, it was definitely all memorizing. I keep considering teaching because afterall I did spend 6 summers doing daycamp, and I've somehow managed to teach many a class. I guess at daycamp you just talk for like 10 minutes and hand out stuff for them to do. and running games or whatever is even easier. but to speak knowledgeably and continuously on an academic subject? totally different story... and yeah, if I graduate with an engineering degree, and for whatever reason decide not to do engineering related work...then what would I do? I've seen engineering graduates become teachers...so that might be a possible contingency plan? but again, all those reasons above. wow..that was somewhat long and blabbery. hope you enjoyed your first ride on my train of thought.

mission accomplished...

2004-07-25T23:17:00.000-04:00

yay. apostles won today. first win of the season. now we're 1-6. yeah, we lost the first game of the doubleheader. oh well. one win is good. the other two teams from our church that were playing today were also 1-1 in their doubleheaders...nice...finally, not the blatantly suckier team..(win-wise, of course..)...for the day.

our head coach aaron won't be there for the last three games of the season. which means I'll have to step up and take over the technical aspect of the team (I'm the assistant coach). this will be quite a challenge...I have never been one for giving pep talks or pre/post inning/game critiques to the team...

"an'-imma-gon-miss-evrybady, an'-imma-gon-miss-evrybady"

2004-07-25T02:06:00.000-04:00

boys won, 36-5. not bad. clara the softball veteran brought two of her teammates to spice up the girls' team. had us nervous for a bit. and they had a couple of solid innings.

I ate soooo much for dinner. for me anyway. now I have to stay up till it digests considerably. might as well update this thing.

heard and was reminded of a song I haven't heard in a long time. bone thugs n' harmony - crossroads. oh how I miss the 90s music era...

another day, another blog

2004-07-24T13:58:00.000-04:00

softball game with church people this evening..should be interesting: girls vs. boys. I think the challenge for the guys would be: how to let the girls win without looking like we did it on purpose. =P dinner with everyone afterwards.

doubleheader tomorrow for my 0-5 team. if we win at all in this 10-game season, it'll be these games. our schedule gets rough again after that. ah well. it's like this every year.

my immediate future is still uncertain. but it's looking like I'll be going back to school in september. I'm not really ready to graduate in a year...university would have gone by too fast. I'm just getting used to it. although I could zoom in on all the memories, the last five years have been a blur...

mmm...

2004-07-23T10:06:00.000-04:00

hmmmm.. cousin, i don't know how i feel about letting you write random comments on my Blog pages.. u might make me look bad :p

another day, another blog

2004-07-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

hello. had softball practice today. so little people showed up...only 5. everyone's working and can't get to practice in time, even though practice is 6-8. we usually stay past 8:30. the time just passes by so fast, especially since everyone comes late. what else happened today? nothing much. I commented a couple more C# files for my volunteer, work from home job. exchanged my rogers cable modem for a new one. they're swapping all modems so they can control the speed of their internet service. what? where? who? sorry, I just fell asleep writing this blog. goodnight...to this blog. =P

wow.......

2004-07-20T01:04:00.000-04:00

...I just realized every other person has blogspot and/or xanga. and not one of them is older than me. haha. oh wait, there was one xanga guy older than me. whatever. blogging is so popular nowadays..where do people find the time? I just wasted 2+ hours blog surfing...at least they didn't take as long to load as AA pages used to...haha..same stuff, different packaging..but I do appreciate how blogs give non-artsy people like me a more level playing field...but then again, some blogspot pages don't even look like blogspot pages..it's quite versatile.

Official Launch...?

2004-07-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

maybe I'm going to update this more often now...
I wonder how many people would read this stuff...8 people have viewed my profile...but how many of them were the same person? haha. why don't they have a counter for our actual blog page? that's probably a lot more useful?...
and why don't they put the DATE of comments, but only the time? how useless is that?....or maybe I just haven't figured out how to find out the date of a comment....if anyone knows, do tell.

the weird thing to me about a blog has been...if total strangers or even people you don't know well could read it, and you start putting more personal stuff on it, then doesn't it turn into a distorted version of "friendship" where the other person knows way more about you than you know about them? it doesn't make sense at all....one day you could get a total stranger go up to you and start talking to you about personal stuff you've been writing on your blog..

and putting up superficial stuff...well, I guess that's okay...but kinda boring no? we'll see...

hello world

2004-06-29T20:12:00.000-04:00

ch-check this out